Callie's First Road Trip Day 8 & 9

Comic Con Day 3
We opted out of panels today. I would've liked to have seen the Castle and Glee panels but because there was nothing in Hall H today, I knew the lines would be loco. So we decided to just walk around the exhibit hall.
View of the hall from above
It was definitely slow going with the stroller. I am hoping we can get the preview night membership for next year to make it easier to do the hall on wednesday. People were so funny in the hall. I was wearing this shirt:

So of course everyone kept yelling "Its a trap!" at me. It was hysterical! There were also the people who love to state the obvious: "That's a baby." Mmmhmmm. Genius. Callie actually ended up sleeping for most of our walk thru the hall which worked out quite well!

We stopped by our favorite stalls: Browncoats (where we ran into one of the winners from the masquerade)

She is a Dahlek showgirl! She had these incredibly long false gold eyelashes that Callie found totally irresistable!
, Gama Go and Tara McPherson.

We also stumbled up on this booth that makes this really cute book.

It is geared for kids going through potty training but it was just too cute to pass up. Check out their website here. They do lots of play on words: Pea standing up, Pea is for penguin, etc.
We even got it autographed by the writer and illustrator.

They just thought Callie was the cutest thing ever, cuz well, she is! We also found a husband and wife team that have made this book called Little Vampires and some stuffed animal versions. The book was really cute, it is all about little vampires and the only thing they can feed on is blood oranges. So we bought a stuffed vampire for Miss Callie.


After that we found a pretty funny tshirt spot. And I went a little nuts...
While we were there we saw this guy on the right. We had seen him at every single Comic Con. He was always at the panels dressed like some guy from the Beastie Boys' Sabotage Video. And he always asked the most awesome questions! We hadn't seen him and we were a little sad that we hadn't seen him. And apparently someone gave him a job as some kind of reporter. He decided to report on how exhausting on Comic Con is apparently!
And in the meantime, we caught up with Mario and Fiona. They had stumbled upon the extra True Blood bags and ended up with two VILF shirts so they were nice enough to give me one! Woohoo!
Our booty from the day

After we were done, we made one last stop to the breastfeeding station and stopped at the Marriot at their tiki bar for a drink

and headed back to the condo.
We relaxed back at the condo with some pizza and called it a night.

Day 9
Today we were driving back home. We decided to take I5 this time. We managed to avoid traffic through LA and Callie slept until we hit Laval Road. She was actually still a bit asleep but I wanted to make sure she was fed when she was a little groggy rather than her getting upset when we didn't have a good place to stop. She did wonderfully until we were on Pacheco Pass and the elevation really got to her. She was crying and pulling on her ear. Luckily I still had some pumped milk in a bottle and that seemed to help. Finally we got back to a comfortable level and she was fine. It was wonderful to get back home. Milo was verrry happy to see us! He even smelled and licked Callie a little.

All in all, an amazing trip and we were totally stunned at how well Callie dealt with the Comic Con craziness. Next time we might try flying to San Diego. That would be a new adventure!

Callie's First Road Trip Day 6 & 7

Day 2 of Comic Con

Most of today was spent waiting in line. We got in line for the Ballroom today not knowing just how long it would take. All in all, we were waiting in line for about 3 1/2 hours!

Just a smidgen of the line we were in...

Amazingly, Callie was a trooper in line! She slept for part of it, maybe 40 minutes. But she was just a doll! We made lots of friends:) Especially since she was in her oh so adorable D is for Dahlek onesie which of course inspired all kinds of discussions about who was your favorite doctor? David Tennant or Matt Smith. The correct answer, if you're curious, is the former. The schedule in ballroom was: Big Bang Theory, Bones, Joss Whedon Experience, Girls Who Kick Ass and True Blood. We completely missed BBT and Bones since we were in line and honestly, the way the line was moving I was going to be surprised if we made it for True Blood, which was what I really wanted to see.

We did see a completely motorized R2D2 zooming by while we were waiting...

Inside at last! And very sleepy after feeding:)

We made it inside just as Joss Whedon was coming on, so it was good timing!

He put on a great panel, as always. When it was time for Q & A this person came up and asked "It seems like you work with the same actors time after time. Do you have a favorite actor?" Joss of course played political and said "I can't possibly answer that!" To which the questioner said "I won't tell anyone!" Everyone laughed. Joss then said "Its Nathan Fillion." Everyone cheered, because, well, how could you not like Nathan Fillion...Then Joss, more insistently said, "No! Its Nathan Fillion!: As in the person who had asked the question was Nathan Fillion! The camera turned on him and he slowly took off his disguise which was basically an outfit that looked like the same outfit Samuel L. Jackson always wears, white backwards Kangol hat and he had on a fake handlebar mustache.



Excuse the shakiness, this is the first time we tried out our new flip vid:) Bill started filming just after we all realized it was Nathan.

It was awesome! then Joss says "That's right! Its Ant Man." Referring to the fact the previous day he had announced that he was directing The Avengers. Although, apparently Nathan won't be in the Avengers. Bummer. So ya, awesome panel! After the panel Bill took Callie so I could stay for the next two panels.
The next panel was called Girls Who Kick Ass. It was an interesting panel! The three that I was most interested in were Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from Lost), Anna Torv (Olivia from Fringe) and Jena Malone.

They touched on some interesting topics, the sexualization of female superheroes and the fun they have with their roles, what inspires them, etc. Several of them mentioned Ellen Ripley as an inspirational female role.
And then it was time for True Blood! It was a fabulous panel! Plus we got free stuff! We all got drawstring bags with some fun true blood items inside. I was really hoping for the VILF shirt, but ended up with Sam tshirt instead, but thats ok, since Sam is my favorite:)

My True Blood bounty: shirt, one of books by Charlaine Harris, a journal and some postcards in a drawstring bag

Part 1


Part2


part 3


part 4


part5


Anyway my favorite moments were in the beginning when they brought out a cardboard cutout of Saarsgard since he couldn't be there. Anna Paquin also got to do her Bill impression again. Fabulous! "Sookie..." And when someone asked what it was like to work with animals (wolves in particular) Vampire Pam says " Saarsgard isn't that bad!"


Day 7
Today we opted out of Comic Con. It was just so crazy to be waiting over 3 hours on a friday. Plus there really wasn't too much I was dying to see. I would have liked to have seen the Green Hornet, Harry Potter panel in Hall H, but that's ok. In the end it was a very good decision because apparently there was a fight inside Hall H, which has NEVER happened at comic con before.
So instead we relaxed. We hung out at the condo for a while and then went to check out Lucha Libre Taco Shop in Mission Hills.

We had tried the other night but the line was too crazy and Callie was pretty much done for the day.

Read the bottom of the sign very carefully:)


Cause you never know...

This place is awesome!! Really great burritos and a cool gimick. Mexican Wrestling everywhere!
I had to buy a tshirt:)

Callie learning to dance with Auntie Fi:)

Afterwards we headed to Balboa Park. We lived so close to the park when we lived in San Diego but really didn't go enough. It was a beautiful day!

We saw 8 brides getting photos done. That has to be a record! We stopped for some shaved ice before we left.

Callie slept most of the time in the park, so no real cute pictures there. Of course when we discovered this little cafe with wine and a bar and I sat down to enjoy a glass of Mark West pinot, she wakes up. Damn that girl is amazing. Everytime I get ready to eat or enjoy a drink she wakes up. I fed her and then got to drink my wine.

We finished our walk through the park and headed to Sushi Deli, our favorite sushi spot in san diego. They make the most amazing sushi and it is ridiculously cheap. Plus they have their "crazy special" which is a large sapporo and sake for $2. Danger Wil Robinson Danger. It was taking a bit too long and Callie was melting down so we got it to go and ate it back at the condo. And of course you guessed it, she was fine until Mama sat down to eat. So after a short break I got to eat my sushi. Since she had slept so much during the day she wasn't so into the idea of going to sleep so we stayed up and played Wii with Mario and Fiona while Bill and I traded off with her. She just loved watching all of us jump around like idiots with the wii remotes! Then she finally fell asleep on me and down she went.

Callie's First Road Trip Day 5

1st Day of Comic Con!

We started off at Bread and Cie again to get a couple loafs for us to have for the day, since we have learned by experience that the only food they sell at the Convention center are pretzels and nachos. No thanks.
One we got to the Con after the parking nightmare, we scoped out the child center. They start at 6 months so we weren't actually going to leave Callie there, but we thought we might be able to use the room to feed, but no luck. But we had brought along a couple of bottles of pumped milk anyway. We did find out later in the day that they do have services for nursing mothers. They will refrigerate pumped milk and have private rooms for you to nurse in. How did we discover this awesome little tidbit? By reading the program, duh!
We tried to map out our day which was tough because the line for Hall H was craaaaazy, so there was no way we were getting in to see the Tron panel. When we were about to get in line they were saying that not only would you not get into the Tron panel but you most likely wouldn't get into the next panel either. So we walked around a bit to get our bearings.

HBO has shelled out a ton of money for Comic Con, True Blood posters are everywhere! And quite clever....

This was going to be a very different Con experience for us. We were used to being able to jet around the building and jump into panels, but not this time! We were relegated to elevator travel for the most part. We decided to pass on the Burn Notice panel in the ballroom because the panel I reallllly wanted to see was The Visionaries Panel in Hall H with JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon. So we decided to get in line for Hall H early and told ourselves that if Callie really lost it we would leave no matter what.

In line for Hall H

Just a small sampling of the line...

We were in line for about an hour and got in the hall in time to see a pretty cool panel for the film Red by DC Comics and Summit Entertainment.

The cast is crazy: Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and on and on. Bruce Willis was there as was Helen Mirren and the guy who played Doc McCoy in Star Trek, can't remember his name but I was definitely surprised when he started speaking with a british accent! The movie looks awesome! Its basically about this group of retired CIA hitmen/women who are targeted for termination. Bruce Willis had never been to Comic Con before and was clearly in awe of the whole thing. Helen Mirren was awesome. I must admit it was weird to hear "The Queen" cussing and talking about how much fun she had shooting guns!

Callie slept through most of the panel, except to feed which we did on the sly during the trailer they were showing.
After that was the Visionaries Panel. It was great!!

So worth the wait for the hall. And we got to be the first to hear the news that Joss Whedon is indeed directing The Avengers. Joss was funny as always. Callie was still doing great, so we decided to keep going.
There was a Dexter panel back in the ballroom so we decided to shoot for that, but first I wanted to try to see Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica who was signing autographs. I had met him last year and he is just such an awesome, down to earth guy who loves connecting with fans. Callie and I were both in our BSG themed shirts today, so we went for it. Her onesie says "Little Frakker" on it. If you have seen either incarnation of the show you know how funny that is. If you haven't...well. you're totally missing out. Add the new BSG to your netflix right now! Go ahead...I 'll wait..
Anyhoo... We got to the autograph area and we got in line. He had an array of his books and glossy photos to sign. I didn't really want a glossy photo, because, well...what the heck was I gonna do with it? So I thought to myself, why not have him sign Callie's onesie? I figured it would be an odd request so I was a tad nervous. Bill was on the outside of the line ready with the camera. Soon I realized I didn't have anything to be nervous about!

There were still 3 people ahead of me in line when Mr. Hatch spotted us.

He stopped mid-sentence with the fan he was supposed to be signing for, got out from behind the table and came to check out Miss Callie. He was totally smitten! He just thought she was the cutest thing and that was before I pointed out her onesie! It was awesome...He started showing her to everyone in line: "Look at her shirt! Little Frakker!" Finally he got a hold of himself and got back to work.

Although you'll notice that he is still totally taken with my little girl:)
When it was my turn he did indeed sign her onesie for us.



She was all cooing and ticklish so he had a hard time signing it but it turned out great!

It says: Richard Hatch, Tom Zarek


After all that we headed over to the line for Dexter, but by that time it was about 6pm and Callie had pretty much hit her limit, so we took off to walk around the exhibit hall a bit, which she loved.


Even though we missed the Tron panel, at least we got to see the Tron cycle in the Hall


In line for dexter....

All day she was just so happy looking at everything. While we were in line for Dexter these awesome guys in Star Wars costumes walked by.

Bill snapped some pictures and we had a good laugh.



All of a sudden there was Darth Vader behind me touching Callie's head! It was hysterical even though I was a bit freaked at first!

So there you have it, our first day at the con and Callie did amazingly!!
On the way home we tried to stop by Lucha Libre Taco Shop (we saw it on Man v. Food) but the line was crazy and Callie was touch and go, so went to El Indio, one of our favorite standbys instead. She held it together long enough for us to wolf down our burritos and back to Del Mar we went. Until tomorrow! Luckily tomorrow's schedule should be a bit more manageable since all the panels we want to see are all in one room! Hooray!

Callie's First Road Trip Day 4

We got up with Miss Callie around 8am and hung out with the grandparents for a bit. It is opening day at Del Mar, which is just across the street so we had to go out to breakfast fairly early because traffic was gonna be nuts! We went down to one of our favorite places, The Beach Grass Cafe and got some good food.

Bill and Callie at Beach Grass Cafe


Callie playing peek a boo


As we were getting ready to leave a big group that was obviously heading to the races sat down next to us. They had clearly started the party early! We headed back to the condo and hung out to watch the races through the binoculars.

View from the condo
Grandma Annie and some of her friends walked over to watch the races but we watched it comfortably from across the street.

Callie and Bill getting ready to watch the horsies

Callie laughing at our ability to choose horses to come in dead last

Our losing bet:)