More 2019 recap.
*Sigh* I've honestly been putting this off because I didn't know where
to start with it. SDCC was a full year+ ago now, and even at the time
the whole thing was a whirlwind and I kind of felt in a fog all weekend. I also didn't take many photos, so there's not much to show.
But it was a big event and I feel like it needs to be recapped. So I'll
do my best.
I used to go to SDCC every year, which I'm keenly aware was a privilege given how hard it can be to get badges and how expensive the whole trip can be. A few years I was just lucky enough to get badges, and a few years I had a pro badge which helped secure attendance and cut costs, and my friends and I always made the trip on a budget. Back in those days SDCC was also often the only con I went to and one of the only big trips I made all year, so it was more manageable to plan for without a bunch of other stuff to fit around it.
2015 was kind of a dud, with uncomfortably big crowds, problems with event organization, and I think just a general burnout on our part. For the first time I understood my friends in the comics industry who used to go every year and then got bored or fed up with it and stopped. So after that year I stopped going to SDCC and focused on smaller, more local events like WonderCon, L.A. Comic Con, and Labyrinth Masquerade. (In a lot of ways, Labyrinth became the Big Event replacement for SDCC.) Every once in a while there was the thought that maybe it would be worth going back to SDCC at some point, just to get a taste of it again. I did miss the annual trip to San Diego and the big to do over the whole thing. But nothing really came of it.
Then last year, a friend who was going to be on a panel at SDCC invited us to go along. We were able to get badges for just that day and planned to share an Airbnb with her, both of which made the usually difficult and expensive trip suddenly very doable, even on the comparatively short notice (we had a few months to prep, but this is a trip that's usually much longer in the making). Only being at the con itself one day, we only needed one costume compared to the full four-day lineup we'd done in the past. I brought both flight suit Carol Danvers (which I ended up wearing) and Civil War Sharon Carter (which I kind of wish I'd worn) as options, and my friend brought Civil War Natasha Romanoff.
On the drive down, we ended up going right past San Juan Capistrano. I did my elementary school mission report on Capistrano (I liked the sparrows that lived there) and I'd always wanted to go, but I'd never realized it was so close to where I live now. So we took advantage of the coincidence and made an unscheduled pit stop.
Our Airbnb was in the outskirts of San Diego proper, and as a first experience doing Airbnb it was pretty fun. I did miss the convenience of staying at a hotel with a con shuttle (also just the luxury of staying at a hotel) and being closer to the action. But it was also nice being in a private house in a quiet neighborhood, going grocery shopping for whatever we wanted and just generally tootling around in the suburbs. And it was a lot cheaper than a hotel downtown or even on Hotel Row.
We went to the con on Friday, and started the morning with the West Coast Avengers photoshoot. Weirdly, for being a bigger con it was a much smaller group that gathered compared to WonderCon.
Maybe just too much other stuff going on and dividing people's
schedules. But I loved being part of the Carol group again, and it was
fun to see some familiar faces.I used to go to SDCC every year, which I'm keenly aware was a privilege given how hard it can be to get badges and how expensive the whole trip can be. A few years I was just lucky enough to get badges, and a few years I had a pro badge which helped secure attendance and cut costs, and my friends and I always made the trip on a budget. Back in those days SDCC was also often the only con I went to and one of the only big trips I made all year, so it was more manageable to plan for without a bunch of other stuff to fit around it.
2015 was kind of a dud, with uncomfortably big crowds, problems with event organization, and I think just a general burnout on our part. For the first time I understood my friends in the comics industry who used to go every year and then got bored or fed up with it and stopped. So after that year I stopped going to SDCC and focused on smaller, more local events like WonderCon, L.A. Comic Con, and Labyrinth Masquerade. (In a lot of ways, Labyrinth became the Big Event replacement for SDCC.) Every once in a while there was the thought that maybe it would be worth going back to SDCC at some point, just to get a taste of it again. I did miss the annual trip to San Diego and the big to do over the whole thing. But nothing really came of it.
Then last year, a friend who was going to be on a panel at SDCC invited us to go along. We were able to get badges for just that day and planned to share an Airbnb with her, both of which made the usually difficult and expensive trip suddenly very doable, even on the comparatively short notice (we had a few months to prep, but this is a trip that's usually much longer in the making). Only being at the con itself one day, we only needed one costume compared to the full four-day lineup we'd done in the past. I brought both flight suit Carol Danvers (which I ended up wearing) and Civil War Sharon Carter (which I kind of wish I'd worn) as options, and my friend brought Civil War Natasha Romanoff.
On the drive down, we ended up going right past San Juan Capistrano. I did my elementary school mission report on Capistrano (I liked the sparrows that lived there) and I'd always wanted to go, but I'd never realized it was so close to where I live now. So we took advantage of the coincidence and made an unscheduled pit stop.
Our Airbnb was in the outskirts of San Diego proper, and as a first experience doing Airbnb it was pretty fun. I did miss the convenience of staying at a hotel with a con shuttle (also just the luxury of staying at a hotel) and being closer to the action. But it was also nice being in a private house in a quiet neighborhood, going grocery shopping for whatever we wanted and just generally tootling around in the suburbs. And it was a lot cheaper than a hotel downtown or even on Hotel Row.
 |
| We also met this amazing Civil War Sharon! I've never seen anyone do this costume in person, and it made me wish I'd worn mine. |
Saturday was devoted to tourist-y sightseeing. On our other trips we'd spend most of our time at the con and always hung around downtown, so we hadn't seen much of San Diego. So this time we spent the day in Old Town. We went ghost hunting at the Whaley House, had the absolute best drinks at Nibble Chocolate, window shopped, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere. (I also used all the walking to participate in a virtual 5k for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11!) We went back downtown to Little Italy for our traditional dinner at Filippi's.
Sunday we were back downtown again to see all the outdoor non-badge con stuff at the convention center and in Gaslamp. Some big highlights were the Apollo anniversary stuff, the "Starfleet Museum" (a gallery set up with Star Trek props as viral marketing for the new Picard series), and of course the cosplayers.
It was such a fun weekend, we seriously considered going back to SDCC
this year. Until this year happened and everything was cancelled. But
we're still looking ahead to next year and beyond.
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