Back Next Week

Just a quick update today to tell you about a great gaming convention our family went to. When I say gaming, I mean all types of gaming. Board games, video games, LARPing, role playing, collectible card games, miniatures, lots of special events and plenty of shopping.

The Main Hall

The main hall is where most of the tournaments, and open gaming are. They have a massive games library where you can check out any of several games. It’s perfect to try out a new game to see if you like it, or to just introduce a friend to one of your favorites.

Here's what in the game library, so you have a few options there . .

The second floor is where the LARPing and role-playing games were. Also a pretty cool Rock Band stage was set up there. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Rock Band Stage

Shopping is set up so that gaming stores can have a booth, or there are ‘flea market’ tables available that anyone can get to sell their new or used stuff.

Game Ogre, Ha! I just got that

Events and tournaments take place during the day, but open gaming is open all the time. Literally the whole time. You want to play Settler of Catan at 2:00 am, go ahead!

This was the main hall at 11PM

Gamex is one of 3 gaming conventions under the Strategicon name in Los Angeles; Orccon on Presidents Day weekend, Gamex is Memorial Day weekend, and Gateway over Labor Day weekend. It’s definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of any type of gaming. Check it out for anything from simulated naval battles . . .

To a simple board game like Wits and Wagers.

Here’s a few pics from the comics exhibit at the Skirball. It was mostly Golden Age stuff. The start of comics, how that adapted to rapidly changing world. As such, it mostly focused on DC comics.

click pic to see more

Sorry I don’t have more pictures, my camera battery died =(

There was another room that focused on Comic book movies, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures there. Odd since everything there had been seen before on the big screen.

THey also had a fun ongoing Noah’s Ark exhibit.

Click to see more pictures

All the animals from the Noah’s Ark Exhibit were made from recycled materials further promoting the fragile state our land is in. When you visit the exhibit you are placed in a room where the Noah’s ark story is told to you, they hand out rain makers to the children so they can reinact the noise of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. We then walked into the exhibit itself, as pictured above they made a large (not quite life size) model of the Ark which is amazing to think about all those animals in such a tight space. The had various stations where you can ‘make it rain’, float a boat, and even clean up animal droppings (why the kids had so much fun with that I’ll never know). We left before the concert in the ampitheatre but overall it was very fun and very educational. I highly recommend it, especially for those with young children.

We recently went to the Skirball to see the super heroes exhibit they had there. It reminded me of a very different exhibit we went to at the California Science Center a few years ago.

It was fun for adults, and educational for kids.

They had this room you had to get through in the dark too see what it’s like to be Daredevil. The had a Doc Oc area with prosthetic limbs. And Iron Man area where you could lift a car (a real car, not like the A-team van like Universal Studios used to have). There was a Magneto are where you learned about, . . well magnets, and if human mutations could actually be so extreme. They had a Storm area where you could lean about the weather. Some cool optical illusion and mind tricks at the Invisible Woman section, and much more.

Then for the growed up Marvel fans, there was a lot of great art and prints for sale.

There was a Marvel Comics time line, and a movie about Stan Lee. I don’t think it was a touring exhibit though, which is a shame because it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about super heroes.

and a little about my self, HA!

Where can you bump into Princess Ariel, meet Wonder Woman and clown around with the Teddy Bears? Where else but San Diego ComiCon, The largest pop culture, science fiction, movie, comic book spectacular around. I only spent one day at the Con and definitely wish I had taken time to experience more. I perused the schedule, and the panels alone are worth taking a day or two to experience. Eureka, Iron Man, & Alice in Wonderland were just a few of the sought after panels throughout the week. And for all you Twilight fans Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart left the twi-fans wanting more after their cast led panel. I went to the Cyanide and Happiness booth where the popular web comic was on site signing autographs and doing custom sketches and cartoons.

I was on sensory overload with all the costumes, convention displays and excitement at what’s coming out. The SciFi (Sorry ‘SyFy’) network had it’s own ‘Café Diem’ modeled after the restaurant in the show Eureka, complete with cardboard cut-outs of all the actors. The show Heroes was hosting a carnival with free games and rides. The only thing I would warn against is Convention ‘food’, there are so many fabulous places to eat around the convention center that I don’t see the point wasting more time in lines, way too much money and precious digestive properties on what passes for food in the convention center is just not worth it.

So, one day at the Con is highly recommended but if you can take it I would suggest at least a few days more. The Con has grown drastically since I last went in 2001, and though the focus on comic books specifically is waning, the toys, collectibles, and big budget movie marketing is quite a sight to see.

click on any of the pictures to go to the gallery

A few years ago we went to a wonderful Chalk Festival in Pasadena. I’m happy to see that it’s still going on.

http://www.pasadenachalkfestival.com

There were a lot of great drawings there, from simple  . . .

uno

To the very ambitious

Angel

You can click on those pictures to see a few more that we took.

The Pasadena Chalk Festival is every June, and is a great free local event for those of us in in Southern California. It takes place over two days (Saturday and Sunday), so if you get  on Saturday as we did, you will see a lot of unfinished, but still beautiful artwork.  If you want to see everything finished, you’ll have to go on Sunday.

After seeing the new Star Trek movie (which was awesome by the way) it reminded me of the Star Trek exhibit my Dad and I saw when it was at the Queen Mary last year. Really geeky fun, although I hear they changed it up a little since then. Plenty of props, costumes, pictures, quizzes, prosthetics, models, and sets.

http://www.startrek.com/custom/include/community/tour/

here are just a few of the pictures we took. (click on any of the images to go to the gallery)

The former home of the Spruce Goose

Ahh the famous red shirts, where will they die next?

One of the best Trek Episode ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever

LEGO Sea Life is the newest in amusements in Carlsbad, Ca. I for one was impressed at the overall cleanliness, and the LEGO company’s theming was great. The staff was very helpful and not once did I get an “I don’t know” or blank stare with my species specific inquiries. The movie theatre was a nice break- a small theater showing clips from some BBC specials, I only wish they showed more.

The breakdown from Ocean/fresh water fish and the information available was very helpful in determining exactly ‘where do these sharks live?’ and ‘are those Ray’s in CA?’ I also loved the selection of Sea Horses and the Atlantis tank was very impressive. I don’t know what I loved more the LEGO ship and divers or the majestic fish.

ray

I also thought the school of fish room gave a very good feel for how large a school of fish can be, there were a few spots that seemed a bit bare but the overall effect is awesome. Also the little bubbles where you too can be part of the tank is an adorable idea and a great photo op. Again I loved it but I couldn’t help but feel I wanted more. We were completely done with the whole aquarium including the movie, photos and perusing every tank within 2 hours, but at least it’s only $20 to get in. (LEGOLAND is $70ish)

Click on any of the pics to see the full gallery

We took a quick trip to Las Vegas, just to see Ka, and eat at the Paris
Hotel breakfast buffet. We tried to pack a lot into a couple days.

Ka was amazing. (sorry we weren't allowed to take pictures) Easily one
of the best Cirque du Soleil shows I've seen.

The Paris buffet is always great. an amazing variety of food. Although
I'm happy anytime there's all you can eat bacon. Not that I want to eat
two pounds of bacon, I just like knowing I have the option.

We stayed at a Marriot Courtyard, the rooms were spacious, and the
staff there is always great.

We stopped by the Bellagio to see their garden, and it was decorated
 with a Chinese theme.



The Bellagio also had the worlds largest chocolate fountain.



More pictures of our trip here

Oh yeah, two great, off the strip, places we stopped at to eat;

Sushi Fever
7895 W Sahara

Wonderful food, and they had some great rolls
I've never seen anywhere else.

Buffalo Wild Wings
4820 Hualapai #108

Good food, and you can play trivia while you eat, and compare your
scores to other people playing worldwide

View from the boat

Catalina makes a great day trip, I would suggest if you are coming from out of town for a short trip don’t go out of your way to go, but if you are a local, visit the Los Angeles area often or plan a longer visit, it’s definitely worth doing once. We took the Catalina Express over, it was a delightfully smooth ride. When we arrived at the island the only plan we had was to see the Catalina Hoedown, a fundraising endeavor they throw annually. With some time to kill before the howdown started we headed over to the tourism bureau and were weighing out our tour and transportation options. The staff was very helpful. With our limited time we were going to go on the glass bottom boat tour but decided with the rodeo starting soon we might not have enough time.  So we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. The Hoedown was fun, there was a great magician, a Native American dance, and my favorute part, Pistol Packin’ Paula.

Pistol Packin'

The gardens weren’t that interesting to me. But if you are into cactus and not flowers then this is the garden for you. I was assuming since it was a botanical garden that there would be orchids or something colorful and there were none. We headed home early evening so we did not dine in Catalina (aside from the BBQ at the hoedown). It was a lovely day and a great excursion for an otherwise uneventful weekend.

Our pictures and a few videos of Paula can be viewed here

I don’t have to tell you how much we love LEGO, but these are pictures from LEGOLand. Specifically from around Halloween time. One of the cooler things they do there is decorate Miniland for the holidays, and special events. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the stuff you’ll see if you go to the park in October. Click on any of the pictures to go to the gallery. (Keep you eyes peeled for great miniland costumes, kids teepeeing a tree, pumpkin patches, aliens attacking and more!)

"Trick or Treat!"

The only thing missing is an old LEGO man shaking his fist

Smashing!

This part in kind of sad, because the Space Center is no longer at LEGOLand. I guess the aliens won?

Aliens Attack? Martian Invasion?