Wednesday, Apr 15
Dropped the boys off at school/daycare, then left for the airport. Flight was a little over four hours and quite smooth (despite the fact that they kept coming on the intercom and warning us about upcoming turbulence -- it never happened).
Arrived in Los Angeles around 1:40pm (their time), caught our shuttle, got a ride to the hotel.
Hotel was "okay." Definitely not spectacular, but we weren't there much so I suppose it was worth what we paid.
We went to the convention center when we got there to pick up our VIP stuff. We were given quite the run-around. No one knew what was going on! It was crazy! We finally found where we were supposed to be and picked up our VIP stuff. Then we had early access to the Celebration Store, so we did a lot of shopping Wednesday night. Which turned out to be a very good thing because that Store was nothing short of a zoo the entire time, with lines as long as 4-5 hours to wait!!
After we shopped, we went back to our hotel and CRASHED! The clock said it was 8pm but our bodies were saying it was 11pm and we had traveled all day. We were spent!
Thur, Apr 16 -- SWCA Day 1
We got up early and went to breakfast at IHOP, which was relatively close to us. Then we went to the convention center to get in line to get in. As VIPs we were given 30 minutes early entry. The opening ceremony was lead by JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy, so people had actually camped out since 8:30am Wednesday morning to get into that! Dan & I -- while we wanted to see that panel -- we were more excited to get into the exhibition hall and see stuff, so we skipped the panel and went straight for the show floor. Turned out to be a very smart move since half the world was in that opening ceremony and we essentially had the show floor to ourselves, as well as the Celebration Store.
Dan made a beeline for the Funko booth while I made a beeline for Lego -- the two booths with high-demand exclusives that Dan absolutely had to have. Early entry made life so easy for that! Those were gone within minutes.
After we had done tons of shopping, we dropped our haul off in the VIP lounge and then wandered around the show floor the rest of the day. We went to a couple of panels. We drank Mt. Dew. We had pics taken with tons of cosplayers. It was SO. MUCH. FUN.
Thursday afternoon, we also had our pictures done with Ray Park and Ian McDiarmid (Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine). That was fun too! They are both such nice men and seem to be very appreciative of their fans.
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| Ray Park, me, Dan, and Ian McDiarmid |
Friday, Apr 17 -- SWCA Day 2
IHOP for breakfast again because it was so dang good Thursday! Then on to the convention center to the VIP line.
Friday was much crazier then Thursday (not surprisingly). But still tolerable for the most part.
Dan and I spent a little bit of time getting some autographs from Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett in Episode II), Dickey Beer (a Biker Scout in Return of the Jedi), Jeremy Bulloch (older Boba Fett in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), and Anthony Forrest (a Sand Trooper in A New Hope). All the actors were incredibly nice and spent time chatting with us and telling stories.... they are genuinely happy to be part of the Star Wars world.
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| Daniel Logan |
I also got to see Kit! I'm 2000 miles away from home and I run into a high school friend! How often does that happen? He was there for Friday only with his step-son and a couple of friends.
I also got to meet my online friend, Melissa! She picked me up around 12:45pm and we went to lunch at Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney. Then she dropped me back off around 2:15ish. It was SO nice to meet her in real life!!
Friday evening, Dan & I got into the queue line to see Revenge of the Sith in 3D. We were pretty excited to see it. We waited for about two hours. There were about 400 people in the room when someone came in and told us the theater was full, and they didn't know how that happened because they had counted and if you were in one of two rooms, you were getting a seat in the theater. We were BUMMED! And a bit pissed off, to be honest. There was apparently no line security so when they opened the theater doors to let us in, people rushed the line and got in anyway. So 400 of us were out of luck. UGH!
So with that, Dan & I left the convention center, picked up a pizza from California Pizza Kitchen (YUM!!) and went back to the room. Ate and crashed.
(more tomorrow -- I'm exhausted)
