September 25, 2024
Our travel cost breakdown
1. Food and lodgings, $300
2. Gas, $150
3. Trolley for four of us: $42
4. Gifts and stuff (both for us and others): $500
5. Badges for 2 adults, four days plus Preview Night: $730. 2 children were free (vs $623 in 2023)
6. Dogsitting, $0 😔
7. Stupid tax, $0? I don’t remember anything that falls into this category. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, just that I forgot to record it if it did.
8. We added an extra entertainment this year and split ticket costs: $150 for our share of entry fees and locker rental.
Total: $1872
As always, this endeavor starts many months in advance. Badges are sold through a lottery system so it’s never certain that we’ll get in. I’m always grateful when we do.
A bit of history: A Saturday pass for 2024 cost $79. They also now charge a handling fee of $15 so it’s $94 to attend that one specific day. In 2005, that Saturday pass was $10. TEN DOLLARS.
Spending: We were freer with our spending than usual and there were fewer deals than usual. Normally those two things wouldn’t appear in the same sentence together! But I’m very happy with the things I bought for myself. I finally indulged in a piece of jewelry from Adorable Mayhem – her stuff is all handmade and really cute. I couldn’t justify spending much on myself in the past, and especially not with two grabby hands kids in a row, but they’re finally old enough to know better and she happened to be selling a line of tiny animals bearing weapons. I couldn’t resist. My little hamster wielding a flail makes me very happy. As does my (very cute) wallet that is finally the right size ($30). I’d been using a $20 wallet from Target that was simply too big for my hands for the past 2 years. It’s too big and too heavy, but I made do. Now I have one that’s comfortable for me to hold, not so heavy, and doesn’t hurt my hands after a bit.
Favorite moments: JB boldly made a beeline for the adults sitting at the table at the bookstore booth to ask if they had specific books. Unfortunately the adult in question was a special guest author, Adam Nimoy, who was thoroughly confused by the customer service question. I was laughing as I steered them to the actual bookseller on his right and then we got out of there. (On reflection, he could have been just a little bit gracious about it. He pulled a face and asked the bookseller person “Do i have a WHAT??” You’re sitting at a bookstore booth at Comic Con and a kid is looking for a book, is it really that outrageous they’d just ask the first adult human looking like they’re available for help? I still think it’s funny but I also don’t think much of the guy.)
Walking into the restroom, a little girl behind me yelled “I like your skirt!” When I turned to say thank you, she yelled “I like your mask too!” (We weren’t the only maskers but we were in the minority so it was a nice callout.)
Smol Acrobat yelled Wolverine! (the kids mostly know the Avengers, but Wolvie is my old time favorite) and the cosplayer waved to them with a grin and popped claws for them.
JB had taken a picture with a giant Pudgy Penguin cosplayer. I showed it to Smol Acrobat who was fascinated and wanted one of their own. We wheeled (in their stroller)
Clever cosplays we loved: Kobe-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi master costume in Laker colors.
The Indiana Jones cosplayer in a wheelchair with a rolling ball behind their head above.
The Avatar cosplayers who brought awesome props to mimic bending.
The Remy (Ratatouille) rat riding on the human’s head.
That moment when we were driving home when I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my body. It felt funny. I keep prodding mentally, what’s this? What’s going on with me? And then it finally sank in: I’m actually feeling relaxed. It’s been a year or more since I actually felt that way.
I’ve put in a calendar alert for the next returning registration battle. Fingers crossed.
May 28, 2024
Rescued from drafts, I didn’t realize I never finished this up.
Our travel cost breakdown
1. Food and lodgings: ice cream, Japanese $84+$88
2. Gas and parking: $oops I forgot to record this
3. $400 cash for shopping and cash only booth shopping (so this blends a bit with the other numbers)
4. Gifts for other people: 6+33+11+33+12=95
5. Gifts for us: 50+89+5+54+17+26+55+33+66 =$395
6. Badges for 2 adults and 2 children, $623
6. Dogsitting, $1100.
7. Stupid tax, $2.50. We had to pay cash tolls because we forgot to choose the “avoid tolls” feature on our maps and missed the Fasttrak lane. The last time I contended with toll problems was also in San Diego and also during Comic Con. Honestly, they’re so confusing!
Total: $2704+
As always, this endeavor starts many months in advance. Badges are sold through a lottery system so it’s never certain that we’ll get in. I’m always grateful when we do.
Best moments
JB wanted to look at the dumpster fire booth, so we pulled over to ogle the stickers at the cash register counter. We apologized for getting in the dude next in line’s way, saying we just wanted to look and weren’t cutting. JB was intensely interested in the stickers so I said we had to go to the back of the line to buy. We can’t cut. The guy offered to get it since he was up to buy his stuff. I waffled a bit and then asked how much the stickers were: $5. Said “ok, would you mind? I can give you cash for them.” He buys his pile of stuff, hands them the stickers, then offers them his free lanyard with $75 purchase. I start handing him the $5+ change and he waves it off.
!!!!
What?! You don’t know us, whaaat? He just grinned and said bye. He’s made himself a mini Con legend in the family for $5+tax.
On Saturday, JB was contemplating their budget very carefully and decided against a sticker because they were saving their daily budget for a big buy the next day. A kind lady called them back to the booth and bought them the sticker.
On Sunday, I pulled them over to watch a professional artist sketching some commissions. I couldn’t see his name tags and I’m the absolute worst at recognizing faces. I do recognize that his lines were beautiful. I thought it was good for JB to watch a pro at work, and shared that with the artist. He very kindly asked another interested party at the booth to bear with him a moment, he wanted to oblige JB’s interest by filling in some more of the portrait he was working on. As he did so, he explained what he was doing and offhandedly mentioned that this drawing is a character from a comic I drew, Fables. I was stunned. We were interrupting Mark Flipping Buckingham. JB of course hasn’t a clue what that means but I was a huge fan of the Fables series and here’s the man who created that beautiful art chatting to my young kid very kindly and seriously, letting them squish his eraser and explaining how it works. He gave them very kind advice about art, what’s important is practice and learning, and then to top it all off, dug out an unfinished sketch, beautiful still, and signed it for them. I couldn’t believe it. A Mark Buckingham original sketch from a friendly chat. Who would ever have seen that coming?
Unlooked for parenting commentary (this is usually a bad thing): the fellow across the table from us was probably in his 50s. He kept to himself for a while but the two ladies between him and us asked about our experiences with Preview Night and that question got the table talking about the convention’s history, the WGA and SAG strikes (which we all support!), how the film industry is abusive etc. Smol Acrobat was sitting in their seat gobbling a cup of snacks quietly, absorbed, and the man commented: I’ve never been that well behaved in my entire life. Whatever you’re doing as parents, it’s working.
Me: ohhhh that’s because they had a meltdown seven aisles that way!
Him: so did I! 😂
It was kind of him.
The two ladies left and their seats were taken by a young man and his father. We looked away from Smol Acrobat for a minute and BAM the cup of snacks hit the ground. We apologized to our table companions for the mess underfoot and the father laughed saying that’s normal. His son asked quietly: was I ever like that??
We all laughed. I hear young adults ask their parents that all the time.
I pointed out we were all there at one point.
He said I’ve been in this position (pointing at Smol) and that position (pointing at PiC).
We ran into a professional looking cosplay of Geoffrey the giraffe and Smol was enamored. We stopped to take a picture, me holding Smol on one side and JB on my other side. Geoffrey laid a hoof on my shoulder and Smol wouldn’t/couldn’t look at the camera, they were too busy cuddling the furry hoof.
August 9, 2022
This was not a good year for summer travel for so many reasons. COVID with little or no mass/public mitigation measures in place, the excruciating wait for under five vaccines, the rise of monkeypox, high demand impacts on the travel industry, just to name a few things off the top of my head.
We debated for months. We’ve been doing so much to mitigate risk personally: vaxxed, boosted, masking, limiting interactions and socializing. We’ve had to accept increased risk with in person school and will have to accept even more increased risk with childcare when the time comes. So mostly I wanted to cancel. But my heart ached. It’s been 2.5 years of being super extra cautious. It’s been 2.5 years of traditions on pause and loss of time with loved ones. How long could we, should we, keep waiting?
We had a family wedding (vax required, outdoors only, no tents, great air circulation, guests were told to test before and not to come if they had any symptoms) to attend. I hadn’t seen much of this family in ten+ years. We also had our SDCC badges from the last time we had an in person convention. I was deeply hesitant about that aspect of the summer. Superspreader event, anyone?
(more…)
August 26, 2019
Our travel cost breakdown
1. Food and lodgings, $125
2. Gas, $235
3. Trolley: $40
4. Gifts for other people: $117
5. Gifts for us: $127
6. Badges purchased last year, $501
6. Dogsitting, $200
7. Stupid tax, $0
Total: $1561
This year was the 50th Comic-Con! I’m pretty sure it was my 16th, PiC’s 13th, and JB’s 5th if you count the year ze was in the womb and couldn’t opt out of attending.
I very carefully packed the badges FIRST so as to avoid the stress of the stupid tax incurred last year.
Wednesday
Was a BUST. Everything that could go slightly wrong did. We didn’t get there early enough to pick up JB’s badge, they didn’t communicate that we needed to be there before Preview Night started, the lines for the off-site activations were capped early, we missed our trolley stop.
Even if we haven’t had Preview Night tickets for years, I’ve been deeply restored by the act of walking on Harbor Avenue soaking in the early sights and the feeling of being in San Diego, on vacation, and not working. Not so, this year. My feet hurt and I was a bit disgruntled.
Thursday
We rode the trolley in, this is usually pretty fun on SDCC days. Two ladies sitting in front of us thought I was a super on top of it mom for having tissues for JB’s boogers and lotion for random itchies. I’ll take the compliment! (more…)
July 30, 2018
Our travel cost breakdown
1. Food and lodgings, $100
2. Gas, $114
3. Trolley: $40
4. Gifts and stuff for us, $125
5. Badges, $572
6. Dogsitting, $250
7. Stupid tax, $10
Total: $1,261
1. We lodged with friends and they never let us pay for that. This year we weren’t able to pay for a meal out because of our timing but I have a thank you gift in mind if I can find it.
4. $125 of this was gifts, $50 was $100 worth of gift cards to the Out of Stock Clothing store. We’ll stack these with a $10 off coupon they may eventually send to us and probably use it to buy gifts.
5. Four days plus Preview for two adults. JB attends free up to age 12.
6. A dear friend dogsat for us because of some logistical complications. She protested that this was way too much but she treated Seamus and Sera to a doggy spa like experience for several days when I was most worried about Seamus post-op so I don’t agree with her. We did agree to disagree and that she could consider this a deposit for caring for them again in the future.
(more…)
August 9, 2017
Our travel cost breakdown
Food and lodgings, $125*
Gas, $143
Parking, trolley: $20
Car rental, $317
Books, $100
Badges, $240**
Total: $1,022
* We lodged with friends this year, and they never let us pay for that, so we paid for take out one night.
** This was for two days and two adults. SDCC has a great child badge policy – children are free up to age 11.
This year, the weather was so much better than last year when it was well over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit!
The lottery systems this year
Badges: success for us by the skin of our teeth. A good friend wasn’t able to get enough days to make it worth coming out so this was only sort of a win.
Hotels: not necessary this year.
Parking passes: one of the 7 of us got into the lottery! (It was me.) I bought passes for all four days but on consideration, passed that along to my friend because we decided to try the trolley this year. And also because he missed the lottery. Now that JuggerBaby is mobile, it was a really big place we could save, assuming we survived the experience. Every parent of a toddler knows that they go boneless, right? This kid has been practicing that since infancy. It’s awful.
Anyway, the passes were $191.80, versus the $20 we paid for two adults, so it’s a big price tag. That convenience can’t be overstated some days, if you’ve been trudging along for 8 hours logging mile after mile on the exhibit floor! But we were already paying for a rental car to reduce wear and tear on our two cars that are incidentally due for service, so we survived without it this year.
On making it happen.
I found myself dreading the week, rather than anticipating it. This is the second year I’ve felt this way, this time it had everything to do with all the work we had to complete before and after, with the reno. Too much stress!
It was also a bit weird because many of our friends couldn’t come this year, so it was an awfully quiet year but I’m so glad we went. That’s the most relaxed and at home I’ve felt all year, eating with and catching up with Mama S.
On food.
We thought we’d try our hand at cooking with Mama S this year, but it wasn’t a good time for it. We feasted, still: my annual pancit and lumpia, the original baked pasta and garlic bread.
We packed our PB&Js for lunch this year, avoiding the fancy deli meat and veggie sandwiches we used to be weighted down by, and snacks, as always, to avoid the atrocious and overpriced convention center food. I always think it might be better this year, but it never is.Â
On having fun.
This was a funny old year. Half of our now-usual crew were in attendance, and we picked up a handful of first timer friends to escort around the exhibit hall. We have a Marco! Polo! system by text – we clump together when we find a good booth, we expand and filter out to explore, then text our location to re-cluster the group. There isn’t planning or rhyme or reason, it just works organically.
This year’s exhibit hall was chock full of cute things and fantastic displays. I was hard pressed not to go on a buying spree – only the knowledge that I didn’t want to pack another 60 pounds of detritus saved me.
There was an astonishing Tamatoa cosplayer, a life size Lockjaw promoting the Inhumans show, fabulous (as always) new Lego creations.
We discovered awesome artists, we visited awesome favorites, we laughed til we cried at JuggerBaby.
Empowered by the fantastic superhero costume my unspeakably awesome friends had commissioned, ze spent the whole first day “flying” in spurts through the crowded exhibit hall. No sooner did one of us catch up to the slippery scamp, ze would throw zir “wings” out and race off again shouting “uncle, look at meeeeeeeee!”
Uncle was charmed, of course, and threw over all his plans to run along behind my stampeding bull toddler all day.
I tell zir often that ze’s lucky to be cute but cute won’t last forever.
The second day, ze kept chanting “where is Spider-Man?” No one knows where that came from – we haven’t introduced Spidey to zir lexicon yet! All day, where is Spider-Man?
Uncle spotted a particularly good one and shouted back to me, whereupon I turned and pointed to our right, look, JuggerBaby! Spider-Man is right there!
Spidey heard us and went into a web slinging crouch for zir. As Spideys do.
JuggerBaby, face frozen in a rictus of horror, scaled my leg trying jump right back into the womb. “NO NO NO!”
Poor confused Spidey. He crouched further down to make himself shorter, inoffensive, non-threatening. He did a stupid little jig to look like a clown. Finally he cowered, hiding his head a little, apologetically, because JuggerBaby was having NONE OF IT.
Sputtering, I tried to reassure zir that it was ok and Spider-Man wasn’t going to hurt zir but my sincerity may have been muffled by the choked back laughter.
For the next twenty minutes, ze declared vehemently: I don’t want Spider-Man.
Never meet your heroes, y’all.
On family time.
This is the only place I feel at home away from home. At peace. I forget sometimes that this is the home away from home to retreat to, then I arrive in July and find myself breathing serenely again.
Mama S is the mother of my heart. She’s the best. Period.
This isn’t to malign my irreplaceable mother who physically raised me, just filling my heart with people who are still here so it’s not so lonely. It’s a strange feeling to grow up with tons of family and then be separated from all of them whether by distance or by feud. I’m related to terrible people so I have chosen to distance myself from them and fill that space with good people.
That means being welcomed with open arms, seeing your pictures mingling with the family pictures, sitting around comfortably chatting about old times or random events that have meaning. That means knowing Grandma’s got your back when the toddler is trying to pull a fast one.
Books books and more books!
Highly recommended books are great.
For the adults:
For the whole family:
- Skottie Young and Eric Shanower’s Oz Omnibus Hardcover
- Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy is highly recommended, I might pick that up even though JuggerBaby’s not ready for it yet. For investigative purposes, you know.
For the kids:
Little Golden Books does Star Wars books! And DC books! I did not know this. JuggerBaby loves:
:: What would you have your eye on if you made this pilgrimage?
August 22, 2016
Our travel cost breakdown
Food and lodgings, $200
Gas, $150
Parking, trolley: $100
Gifts and things, $150
Total: $550
I normally love San Diego Comic Con. Perfect weather, all geek all the time, lots of fresh air and walking and being surrounded by people who are just there to enjoy the goodness.
These days, it’s so much more fraught to prepare for. The lottery system for the badges. The lottery system for the hotels. The lottery system for the parking passes. Everything depends on luck and that has my insides clenched with worry that we’ll miss something this time. This year I did miss something. We didn’t get a slot in the lottery and forgot to secure parking passes after the lottery was over. I panicked, then a friend saved me with her extra passes. (They were pricey but uber convenient for our JuggerBaby needs.)
I found myself dreading the week, rather than anticipating it. I wondered if it was a mistake to go. By the time we were a week out, already having spent far too much time working and hosting guests, a probable panic attack set in and if I could have, I’d have cancelled the whole thing.
Thankfully, by the time we reached San Diego, most of that feeling had dissipated.
On food.
We have a tradition of staying with family friends – friends who have become family, over the years – and San Diego just wouldn’t be the same without staying with them. They’re not just good company, Mama S is an amazing cook and does a fantastic family dinner every night. I could eat that baked pasta and garlic bread for a week straight. I could eat the pancit and lumpia for a month. It’s probably a good thing that it’s not an option…
We packed our lunches and snacks, as always, to avoid the atrocious and overpriced convention center food and enjoyed leftovers for breakfast. Best week of eating all year long.
On having fun.
SDCC is just too big. It overflows from the convention center out to all the nearby hotels and their ballrooms. The whole area out front is usually packed with promotional booths for tv shows, with prizes and treats. This year it was an enormous Superman statue, the Batmobile, and a Kristen Bell show, with an ice cream parlor theme. The crowds and the lines and the noise and all of it don’t bother me. It should. I normally hate all of that. But for this? It’s just right.
The downside is that I logged far more steps than is healthy for me. We had to walk three miles to get to the Marriott to get our badges on Wednesday whereupon they insisted that JuggerBaby had to physically be with me to pick up zir badge. So that was a wasted trip and then we had to go back with zir on a busy Thursday, wasting precious time between naps.
We took it almost as easy this year as we did when I was pregnant, but this time we shared the extra load. JuggerBaby rode piggyback in our Craigslist-purchased ErgoBaby ($50!) with me in the mornings when I was fresh, PiC backpacked zir in the afternoons. We walked the floor together discovering all kinds of new cute things, and visiting old favorites. It was a weird year, we bought more art then anything else and that’s never happened before.
I caught a couple of panels while PiC and JuggerBaby went exploring on their own. That always feels a bit luxurious because, though PiC is happy to give me a break, I always have a tinge of guilt that he’s doing all the heavy lifting whether I’m there or not so we tend to stick together more than not.
:: Do you have an annual vacation destination? What would it be if you didn’t?