Got up this morning around 7am to get ready for the flight to LA. I decided to bring my video camera along (just in case I get the urge to take some video of the con), but I didn't have a firewire cable. Even though the cab was due to arrive at 9, I decided to take a trip in rush hour traffic to Target, which opens at 8am. I found the mini firewire cable that I needed right away, grabbed a bottle of multi-vitamins and of course.....checked the Star Wars aisle for new toys.
I was back home by 8:20, which was more than enough time to check email, copy a little music over to my laptop and double check that I packed everything I need for the trip. Taxi arrived 30 minutes later and we were off to the airport.
We arrived at the airport by 9:20am and the lines to check in weren't bad at all. The lady who checked us in moved our seats to an exit row, which I love. We made it through check in and security in less than 20 minutes, so there was time to walk over to the D terminal for some Burger King for breakfast. I had one of those crossaints, Heather maintainted her Burger King boycott and had some Seattle's Best Coffee instead.
We walked back to our terminal, where we saw a couple of girls waiting in the line to board, one of whom had a Rebel Pilot helmet. This was our plane.
Our seats were the aisle and the window with no one in between, so we got to spread out on the plane and enjoy the ride down to LA. I read part of my new Dean Koontz book (The Husband) until we got to the altitude where video games apparently can't crash the plane anymore. Whipped out the Nintendo DS and played Puzzle Quest for most of the rest of the flight.
When we landed, we proceeded to baggage claim to pick up the suitcases. We met up with Tom from Rebelscum on the way there, who was packing pretty light. The three of us made our way to the shuttle pick up area, where we were separated because Tom was going to another hotel.
We proceeded to drive around for about 90 minutes on the Super Shuttle "Express" that Gen Con had provided coupons for. The driver got lost more than once and even though we were the second ones on the van, we were the next to last off. Not what I would call "express" at all. It was 30 bucks for the two of us and I'll definitely take a cab next time.
We arrived at the Sheraton to find that they had no more rooms with King beds left. We begrudgingly took a room on the 17th floor with two twin beds. After dropping the bags, we walked down to the convention center (about 9 blocks). First person we saw that I knew was Ken, the Elvis trooper. Chatted with him a bit about his upcoming Gentle Giant bust and the 501st mixer on Thursday, then headed in to pick up the stuff we had waiting at Will Call. Met Jim and Tom in the will call line, then grabbed our tickets and a fan club lanyard for Heather.
After getting our gear, we went to the 501st booth to see if our volunteer applications were through. I didn't really want to do 20 hours, but I let Mark and Ed know that if they need me, I can work shifts. Decided not to grab a volunteer t-shirt though, as I'm on this one for vacation.
We walked into the screening room for the movies, where Episode 3 was playing. It was a nice screen and all, but we decided we could watch these whenever we wanted to at home and took off for some food. We walked around until we decided on the California Pizza Kitchen at a mall between the con and our hotel. The split pea soup I had was very good and the pizza was as well. We brought the leftovers back to the room for later.
Heather and I stopped at Rite Aid for some supplies (a case of water, some tea, gel insoles, etc) and then settled into our room for the evening. I paid 50 bucks for a week of internet connectivity (what a rip!) and began checking around Rebelscum to see what news there was on the convention.
We watched the season finale of Lost (GREAT!) and hit the sack shortly after it ended at 11pm.
Thursday is opening day!
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