After an hour delay at Newark (what else is new) and a 5 hour flight, we made it to San Diego safe and sound. We were lucky to have the hotel booked through the BMS travel company, as it's on the free shuttle route and just six blocks from the Convention Center, meaning it probably sold out at the Con site in seconds.
Badge pick-up was a breeze. Took 5 minutes.
The line for Preview Night - now that was something else! We had nothing better to do (no car, tired) so we waited in line 4 hours to get into the doors opening at 6 PM. It actually wasn't too bad. There were freebies to read and free WiFi at the Center. It was also cool to see people from all over the country (your home city is printed on your badge).
Around the bigger vendors (NBC, WB, SciFi, Gentle Giant) it was a complete zoo. I don't know the official counts, but the crowd was completely suffocating and downright rude at times.
But outside the big names, towards the small press, artists, and exhibitors, it was pretty neat. Row after row of nerd heaven. Coming early did have its advantages. We were first to snag 1 of 10 personal commissions by Rebecca Guay. I actually love exploring the independents, as you often see beautiful art for very low prices. We grabbed a couple books and prints. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery and Vic forget to change his settings from RAW to JPG. So no pics to show yet, except for the funniest catch of the evening. We walked by this guy's booth and he had a sign claiming "free crappy drawings" so naturally we were intrigued. He said "think of a word" and I said "unicorn" and poof! there was the masterpiece you see.
Preview night didn't have people in costume - there should definitely be more today and a ton over the weekend. We will get our cameras all straightened out in time, promise!
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