DC | I Dream In Travel

Back in March, Mark and I went to Anaheim, CA for an extended weekend away with two of our closest friends. It was our first trip that we had ever taken with just one other couple and no one else. Mark and I are pretty giant nerds, and many of the blog posts in the future will be related to our love of fantasy and fandom.

I mean, this is just the first post in the category “Conventions.” Expect another series on this topic in July when we head off to San Diego, Comic-Con. I’ll probably even wrap up last year’s Con for you as well!

But, I want to share the WonderCon story with you first. It was, after all, the best weekend of my life, and the most important trip that I have ever taken (yes, you understand…when this trip began, Mark was still my boyfriend).

WonderCon: Day 1

We left the house at around 9:30 am on Friday morning. The convention hall didn’t open until noon, but we still had to obtain our badges. I wanted to be among the first inside when everything opened.

WonderCon was very organized in the initial process. I never had to ask once where to go or what to do in terms of badge pickup. And I was impressed to find a very neat line to get into the exhibition hall.

At Comic-Con, it was more of a cluster of people shoving and pushing and getting crushed.

The doors opened up right at noon, and everyone filed neat and orderly into the hall.

It was awesome. Vintage posters, towers of t-shirts, toys, stuffed animals…Marvel had a cool station set up by the front doors and main entrance.

I shop Stylin Online occasionally anyway. They have a HUGE selection of comfy nerdy tees for any occasion (see above). Can’t wait to go on-line and redeem my WonderCon coupon.

I was very impressed with an Pendragon Costumes who made brilliant period pieces, as well as a few more unique options. I totally fell for the Doctor Who corset.

And Nate really fancied the dress.

But the real winner of that booth was the purse I found, inspired by the tenth doctor (my Doctor).

After browsing a few more racks of t-shirts (love this one)….

…we found the star of WonderCon Day One…

Artoo (or R2 if you prefer).

Gosh, he was so adorable. I would ask him questions, and he would respond in various ways. I ran to find mark (we had wondered away from each other) to bring him to the amazing robot.

“Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” I had to.

It only got cuter when he found a friend,

After parting ways with the droid, we headed out to a food truck by the Hotel next door. On the way out, I found the BSG display.

I loved that show. I was late catching onto the fandom, but once I did, I plowed through every single episode mere months before catching up to the final season. I still owe that fraking show a Halloween costume. Pure genius. So say we all.

We thought the food truck was selling something or other, but it turned out it was free teriyaki to promote an anime series, “Ultimate Ninja Storm: Generations.”

Score.

I love free food. Also it was yummy.

We ended up going back into the convention hall and settling for nachos and pizza. The nachos were great and extra cheesy, though the pizza was just okay.

Have I mentioned yet, the extreme amount of swag we collected on the first day. I mean we got comics, buttons, bags…fake tattoos. It was all very fun and I collected more than enough. Look for an epic give away at the end of my day three wrap up: The bag of fun nerdy awesomeness I am giving away from all three days is spilling over. So keep reading to have a shot at that.

Some other stand out booths from Day One:

The NASA booth – Check out more info on the first Human to go into Space at www.yurisnight.net, and learn about the upcoming Venus Transit

Tomboy Teez was another great smaller t-shirt shop I found on day one. I got a sticker for joining their mailing list, and once again, a coupon. Check out their shirts. Especially for fangirls.

We spent a bit more time on the expo floor, but after a terrifying run in with the sand people

we decided to head up to the ball room for a world premiere screening of Superman VS the Elite, along with a panel.

First of all, can I just take a minute to say how awesome this cartoon was? The story was wonderful, the voice acting was inspired and the artistic direction was beautiful. I really enjoyed watching this story unfold.

The panel was also really interesting. Its so cool to hear about the process from comic to screen, as well as listen to actors explain their process. Everyone seemed genuine and excited.

After the panel we all got a sneak peak of the newest batman cartoon as well.

Its gonna rock.

But at this point, it was late and we were all dead tired.