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 š
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! š
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.
January 17, 2023
A compilation of thoughts about travel from 2021-2022
I was not at all in the mood to travel while COVID continues to mutate alongside the plethora of flus, RSV, colds, random upper respiratory things, and various other contagious diseases. Especially not after weeks and weeks of just keeping nose above water. Once upon a time I loved flying but these days? Home, thank you very much, I’m very happy at home. Alas, even I had to venture forth to fulfill obligations. Add masks and Lysol wipes, take away indoor dining, take away casual attitudes about what you touch and who you share your air with on the road, and add a whole lot of medication for the slew of germs the kids brought with them.
On the road: I thought it was overkill to bring our own seat protectors but we had to make some stops at REALLY gross rest stops and they were very much needed.
Flying with kids: take away sleep and watching movies mindlessly, and replace them with your child (or both) imitating an R.O.U.S.
Things I forgot: my airline specific credit card for a discount on in flight purchases. Drat. Our filter replacements for our flo masks. To pre-order fresh food trays before we flew (overpriced yes but a convenience because our carry-ons were already jammed full of other things and we couldn’t fit another food item).
Things I remembered: all the electronics cables and plugs. Most of the medications we needed. I wish I’d packed all of them; that was a conscious and wrong choice to leave some behind. Treats for our flight attendants for both flights. Activities for the kids for long confined sitting periods but not enough for many hours upon hours (I don’t think it’s humanly possible to carry enough to entertain small / younger kids for that long on a flight). Plastic reusable water bottles along with our heavy insulated bottles, those came in handy for the flight portion of our travel. Mini hand sanitizers that fit into pockets and small shoulder bags.
There are some people out there who are real jerks about families flying with upset children. Exhibit A: As if we enjoy flying with screaming children and we are in fact doing it AT you. Honestly. Some people really don’t know how to exist in society or a community with others. This is why I dread flights with other people. You never know which one is going to be a flagrant asshole about your small human being a small human. As if it’s not hard enough. 
We did get lucky a few times. I profusely thanked our seatmates for being such good sports about the kids. One of them let Smol Acrobat fall asleep holding their finger, unbeknownst to us at the time. They told us later with a laugh that it was cute. In an unwanted restaurant experience where Smol Acrobat was a screech owlet, our table neighbors were incredibly sweet about their ups and downs and joked with them. On a mini train ride, they met a dad with his three older kids who was goofier than Goofy and did little dances to entertain them, offered fistbumps, and even took a picture with them. It was almost like traveling with baby JB again who would play with EVERYONE they saw, whereas Smol Acrobat tends to be a frozen statue staring at the new person in confusion or horror. JB was too busy doing bigger kid things to interact with strangers.
Time zones. I had forgotten how horrible it is to have young kids cross time zones. Up at 11, up at 2, up at 4, up for good at 5 am local time. AUGH. Toilets and landlines and under-4 year olds. The constant “no, no, leave that alone!” battle. I remembered to unplug the hotel room phone just like we used to do with JB so they could walk around the room with a handset to their ear babbling away to their invisible friends.
JB at Smol’s current age was a good traveler in liking all the adventures, wanting to follow wherever we went although they of COURSE went on their own little side quests frequently and Smol is no different in that respect. But JB would eat everything, and be up for more. Sleep badly but was generally happy when they were up. They could more easily co-sleep. It wasn’t EASY traveling with JB, my memory isn’t THAT bad. I guess it’s also fair to say that it was simply easier because we only had the one kid to juggle, and not two. But please be honest, I cannot be the only parent who hates traveling with young kids, can I?
We were dragged to a formal dinner thing (long story) that we left as soon as we could because Smol Acrobat is an unruly squirrel and the dining option was totally age inappropriate. We weren’t paying the bill but we found our server and tipped her $30 cash personally just because she made a shitty situation for us manageable in lots of small ways that she didn’t have to do.
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…)
May 11, 2021
We don’t often get to spend any leisure time in San Diego, we’re usually 100% Comic Con, so for all the years I’ve spent coming to this city I didn’t know much about what there is to do here!
Sadly, since we didn’t attend this year, my first missed Con in 16 years (?) the replacement for this year’s recap is this write-up of the other fun we were able to squeeze in when we took a few extra days in an earlier year.
Central Library, 4 hours
- Free validated parking (had to repark once)
- Free lunch for kids
- New toys (fresh out of the box while we were playing!)
- New to us books
- A Where’s Waldo scavenger hunt
Cost: free!
Nine spacious floors – I’ve never seen a public library with more than three floors – packed with amazing resources and so we’ll designed. With two kids under five, we mainly stayed on the first floor but it was The Best. They have an amazing homage to Dr. Seuss, Things all over the place, with books and toys and computers and coloring and activities, all for children and delighting us adults as well. The kids did a bit of everything: we read, we looked for Waldo, we colored, we played with the old toys, they dove for the new ones the staff unboxed right in front of us, they rocked out on the rocking horses, they were fed a free hot lunch supplied by the school district (free for all under 18, no questions asked), then went to play some more. It was sheer heaven.
Upstairs had a teens only area, which I would have adored at that age, separate from potentially creepy adults.
Parking was validated free for two hours at a time, but we were able to refresh that by leaving at the two hour mark and coming back again since they weren’t busy that day. The validation was a really easy little barcode scanner kiosk so you didn’t have to wait on someone to be free to take care of it.
Hands down it’s the best library we’ve been to.
A library staff member later told us that Theodore Geisel’s widow donated millions to build the library and then it all made sense. No wonder it’s so fabulous.
The New Children’s Museum, 2.5 hours
- Parking was free with my disability placard but they also had limited parking for $10 for the day.
- They have a WHAMMOCK!!
- and a pillow fight room
- and a temporary blocks room
- and a two story high treehouse type of structure
- And a virtual aquarium where kids can color a shark or a jellyfish, scan it, then see it projected on the wall floating around like in a real aquarium.
We had a big group this day, all energetic kids between 2-8 years, and limited time for them to play so we chose a more expensive experience we hadn’t done before. I worried that this wouldn’t be worth the price of admission but after almost 3 hours, we were all tuckered out and satisfied we got our money’s worth. They climbed, they explored, they built with massive blocks, they had mega pillow fights.
Cost: $42 for three people
These particular things were very kid oriented, that’s our phase in life right now.
There are a lot of other places (and food) I’d really like to explore in San Diego but our time in the city is usually so limited. I recall Balboa Park was always lovely and the zoo was very cool.
:: Do you have any favorite spots to visit in San Diego?
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 29, 2019
This vacation was desperately needed but the timing was awful for me, for several reasons. I won’t get into all of them, just that the worst was that I was going through a terrible horrible no good very bad fibro flare up the entire time we were gone.
It sucked.
By the second day I decided to look at it this way: If I had to be in excruciating pain, at least it was in absolute luxury, where most of us had not much else to do but eat, drink, swim and be merry. I still had to work but it was minimal and that meant that I could take naps almost every day. That didn’t help my recovery, something was driving that flare up and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it did mean that I was able to survive and actually enjoy parts of it with my family. If I’d been home, I would have had to work long days, cook meals (or we’d do take out), get JB to bed, all the usual parenting things we share, as normal. PiC did all the parenting on this trip so that I could rest and survive and he didn’t mind one iota.
This trip was for PiC – it was a reunion for his side. When I agreed to go, I accepted that due to the tastes of our travel companions, we’d be treating this as a once in a LONG time luxury vacation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were ok about keeping down a variety of costs while over indulging in others. It balanced well enough that we didn’t go over the $3000 mental (!!) marker I had in mind for how high this could go. I did my absolute best to bring the flight costs down and we economized as much as we could without forcing everyone else to be cheap. It was definitely still both expensive and the priciest trip I’ve been on in a very long time but he was really happy that we took it and we had some amazing views. It was almost surreal – they were so gorgeous.
It was the level of activity I would have wanted for a vacation even if I wasn’t in pain – lots of poolside hanging out and lots of food, a little adventuring to paddle around beaches and to see a really weird tree, great weather. It is possible that the heat and humidity made the pain worse but it felt great otherwise. (more…)