FanExpo '09

This was a little dissappointing. Scotty and I arrived around 10am to stand in a line that started at the ticket booth in the South Building and wound all the way through the PATH's to the entrance of the North Building... that includes places where the line was doubled on itself 3, 4, even 6 times in areas where they could manuver people. We didn't actually step foot in the Main Hall until around 11:45 am. Scotty was already tired, hungry, ready to go home and needed to use the bathroom. Our favorite security guard was not on duty, and Spiderman was nowhere to be seen. Scotty really wanted to see Spiderman.

I was able to snap a few pics of celebs and cool costumes, but the floor area was SO PACKED, we made little headway. We didn't get to see much at all, I didn't see anyone I knew, or even any of the booths I hoped I could see.

Scotty ate everything in our lunch and was still hungry. He was the little Hulk throwing a fit on the floor of a crowded convention hall. Thank the gods, he didn't have a tenth of the real Hulks strength or we'd all be dead. As it was, I had to literally drag him with me by the handle of his backpack while he was playing dead, and refusing to walk anymore.

Traveling through the throngs for about an hour, I finally gave up trying to find cool costumed freaks to pose with Scotty and we began to head home. Wolverine was in the lower lobby trying to get into everyone's pictures, Scotty liked that. Wolverine didn't like hearing how the Hulk smashed the crap out of him in the Marvel animated short. Scotty was too scared to pose with Darth Vader, Master Chief or Hellboy. We saw Superman and Supergirl, but we were seperated with too many people and they were heading away from us too quickly.

Scotty recieved lots of Ooooh's and Awe's, everyone wanted his picture. Scotty was very fair and only gave every other person a pose, to everyone else he said "NO PICTURE!!" and covered his face.

On the trip home, I calculated that the whole trip wasted me $90 in food, gas, parking and the entrance fees for both of us (kids were normally free but they charged me $10 for him to come in). We had a nap near one of the 401 exits west of Port Hope. I bought some milk and got us Shakes at Reid's Dairy. Just when we were about 5 minutes from home, Scotty says "Daddy, we had a great time". Money didn't seem to matter anymore, and yeah, it was a great time.

Next year I think we'll go in the afternoon or on Sunday instead.

Friar Greg. and Son