After NerdStrong I headed over to my buddy Kevin's house as we were both carpooling to comic con with fellow NerdStronger Meg. After picking up Kevin we went back to my place so I could shower and finish packing up. Around 10am Kevin and I walked around the corner and a few blocks down to Meg's place. We packed up her car and were off. As we drove through Los Angeles we came upon some heavy traffic and it hit me that we were on the 5 and late last night there was a fire in a underpass that compromised the freeway above and they shut down all but one lane of the freeway. This traffic is the after effect of that shut down. We quickly turned on Wazes and made our way across the city to the 605 and finally the 405 which lead us back to the 5.
The drive was pretty uneventful, Meg, Kevin and I are all new friends. We all met because of NerdStrong. So we learned about each other a bit more on the drive down. We stopped about 30 minutes out from San Diego to grab a snack and a stretch. While picking up the snacks Meg came in the get the bathroom key and when she left the older gentleman behind the counter, turned to me and said, "Is she your daughter". He had a fairly thick accent so I heard "Is she your doctor", confused I said excuse me? He repeated "Is she your daughter". I just said said no, she's a friend and he just smiled. I don't know why he asked me that. Meg does have tattoos and piercings so maybe he was thinking she must be a handful. At first I was kind of offended that he would think I was old enough to have a daughter Meg's age but then realized that I could have a 30 year old kid if I had them when I was 15, but it's strange to think that.
Anyways we jumped back in the car and made our way to Meg's hotel, which was a few blocks from mine. Kevin was crashing at my place this evening before my brother arrived tomorrow morning. We said goodbye to Meg and made our way to the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I have this hotel room thanks to my buddy Steve who was lucky enough to get two rooms at this hotel. This will be the closest that I have ever stayed for comic con, just three short blocks away.
I checked in and we went up to our room on the 25th floor. It was a nice large room with two double beds. It had some amazing views.. My friends Chris and Hayley were also in this hotel as well and already checked in, so we met up with them and headed to the con to get our badges. Since I was there early the line for the professionals wasn't that bad and I had my badge within a matter of minutes.
I meet back up with Kevin, Chris and Hayley and we walked around the Gaslamp district to grab a bite to eat. After a late lunch Chris and Hayley headed out to do a few more things while Kevin headed back to the hotel. I had to meet up with my buddy Jared to grab my brother's badge. I'm so happy that I got my badge earlier as the professional line was crazy long. Luckily when I caught up with my buddies they were pretty close to the entrance. I chatted with Ari and Jared as we made our way into the convention center. While I was hanging with Ari, Jared and Elliot, Grant Imahara showed up and said hello and a few minutes after that Lee Meriwether (one of the many Catwomen) walked by with a friend of Jareds so I got to meet her as well. Those guys were heading out to drink so I went back to the hotel to wait for the con floor to open at 6pm.
A side note.. My WB bag adventure: when you get your badge they also give you this very large WB related show bag with a comic con guide inside. I started with a Gotham "good guys" bag, while eating lunch Hayley traded to get a "bad guys" Gotham bag and traded it with me, then when I got in line with Ari and Jared, Ari got a Supernatural bag and I told him that I'm sure someone will ask to trade with him as Supernatural bags were a hot item. Two seconds later a women asked to trade with him, she had a Batman v Superman, Ari knew I wanted one as we talked about that bag while standing in line... so he traded with the woman and then I traded my Gothan "bad guys" for his Superman. So now I have the bag that I really wanted... but then One Eye Jedi (Elliot) came over and had a Supergirl (the other one I really wanted) and he didn't want any bag so he gave it to me. So I got the two bags that I wanted most. What a great way to start con!!
Back to Day 0 aka Preview night for San Diego Comic Con. The doors opened at 6pm and I headed in with Chris and Hayley. We quickly separated as soon as we entered as we all wanted to try and get separate exclusives. I really wanted some things from Funko but they are located in one of the worst spots on the floor and can only manage a very short line which is always closed when I walk by. The floor was packed... but as I was walking by the WB booth I noticed that they were giving out some sort of hoodie so I jumped in line. It was fairly long but it moved quickly. In a matter of a few minutes I got several magazines and a Supernatural hoodie. I met back up with Hayley and Chris who were in line for Entertainment Earth, this line was crazy long and also crazy slow and we were in it for at least an hour or more. I also wanted to pick up some exclusive from them as well so I grabbed Star Trek The Captain Bobble Heads set and The Flash Unmasked Pop figure.
Spent the rest of the time walking around the floor until it closed at 9pm. Headed back to the hotel while we figured out dinner plans. We opted to go to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner with a large group of friends. Had a great time though the service was slow. Once dinner was over I headed next door to the Syfy Cafe as some of my NerdStrong friends were having dinner there.. so I say hello and hung out for a few before heading back to the hotel room and calling it a night around midnight.
Overall a good start to 2015 San Diego Comic Con. I didn't get all the exclusives that I wanted but I did get some as well as a free Supernatural hoodie and my 2 WB bags.
You can check out all my 2015 San Diego Comic Con pictures
HERE.
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