We flew to Southern California November 7th 2013. As soon as they opened the door of the airplane I could smell that wonderful ocean air that I missed from living here. SoCal was our home for about two years. We rented a car and luckily they upgraded us to a car with a big hatchback trunk because I needed to rent a wheelchair for the events. Eric still had an idea how to get around. He should, he drove an hour and a half to work everyday. Almost 3 hours of driving, can you imagine? When the GPS said to turn on to the 22 we sat in silence, then suddenly, and at the exact same time, started singing Sublime's Garden Grove, just like we used to. Just like I'm sure a LOT of people do. We stayed at The Holiday Inn, it looked closer to Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center on the map. Close, but not walking distance.
We head to the convention center to pickup our tickets and I can barely make it from the parking lot to the line. My legs are wobbly and the ground feels like its filled with sharp rocks and snake fangs. Luckily the staff sees my cane, points us to the elevators and we get to bypass EVERYONE! SUCK IT WALKERS! No not zombies. We get our badges, and our goody bags and head to the hotel. The sticker means I get to bypass the lines and go straight in.
We were on the lookout for where to rent a wheelchair. I had ankle surgery about a month ago and am still recovering, among other things. If they run out of chairs I will be out of luck. The only problem is they cost $80 a day. 4 days of this will run us $320. EEP! We head to the hotel front desk and they are kind enough to give us a spare they have for free! It's old, beat up, sticky, the left wheel doesn't turn well and the armrest is broken in half and held on my duct tape, but we'll take it!
We go to Denny's and everywhere inside is nerds. I see Horde shirts, colored hair and long beards everywhere. We sit down and every subject of discussion is about Warcraft or Hearthstone. It's only building the excitement in us at this point.
Blizzcon Day 1
Poor poor Eric. This wheelchair is awful. His hands are hurting and the day has just begun. We go to the main stage for the Opening Ceremony and OH MY GOODNESS! This is only section 1 of 4 and there are so many seats and people! We later learned that there were over 20,000 people. This photo does not do justice, and neither does the map really.
We stay for the next show which was WoW related. I'm always most excited for the expansions. It's a good one this year. I can't wait for release! Eric takes me and we look around a bit. There's a Steelseries booth, Jinx, Intel, New Egg. I'm having a total nerd-attack. I want to see all the things! We decide to get in this massive line at the blizzard store to get a souvenir or two. We get a couple shirts and this awesome Diablo 3 backpack. The details are insane and when I open the zippers it's much cooler than I thought. Mine is twice as big and doesn't fit on my lap well, so I'll bring this one tomorrow. I really wanted the Trivial Pursuit game but it's too much for our blood. That would be cool to quiz guildies over Skype though.
We get in line to play the Alpha version of the new WoW expansion. It's pretty neat! Level 100 talents, and a new (or old technically) Outlands. I mean dude, it's time travel. This story is gonna rock. If I hear one more person say they're dumbing it down for the casuals, I'm going to poke them in their bandwagon jumping eyes.
There's this huge wall every year they let us "tag" and they keep it. Eric let me do the writing. I sent a txt of it to our Guild Leader and he just loved it :D
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| Teh Fail - Zul'jin |
We went back to the main stage. Eric's hands are killing him! We stop here for the rest of the night. We watch highlights for the new game Heroes of the Storm. It's like LoL but Eric thinks the community will be better. I bet it will too. It looks awesome!
The contests are next! People are so crafty. No dance contest this year because some guy broke his leg doing the undead dance 2 years ago. The costumes are great as always. I feel bad for the normal people who compete. There's a lot of professionals up there, some I'm not convinced play. But that's ok, they look awesome!
Blizzcon Day 2
We went straight to the Main Stage again to see the live raid. It was pretty cool to see Lore up there. He's a guy we used to watch on YouTube who knows everything about WoW lore. He got hired by Blizzard. Lucky guy huh? Except he probably makes less money and now has to pay SoCal's expensive rent lol.
The next show is more WoW stuff. I'm just so excited about the Garrisons. Finally I can show off my achievement points. They say it will have trophies and such. If you kill a rare mob you can mount his head somewhere. Woo!
We also saw the panel on the Warcraft movie. Any skepticism we had about this thing is gone. It's going to be awesome, I have no doubts.
I wanted to get my face painted like a Pandaren but the line was so long! Next time for sure.
There's a big gap between now and the closing show so we explored a little more. We played the demo for the new Diablo 3 class and the new adventure mode. It's pretty nice. The changed to the game make it worth playing again. Eric's very happy about this.
You know what Eric's not happy about? Blink 182. You know who is? ME! Or I was. To be honest I was a little disappointed in their show. They're good live, it's just their behavior I found a little gross.
It was an awesome Blizzcon! It was well worth it, we really needed it after a stressful couple years. Poor Eric though... he has a blood blister from this awful wheelchair. We're returning it tonight. They saved us $240 so one day rental at Disneyland won't be bad.
Disneyland
So as soon as we found out we got Blizzcon tickets Eric booked the hotel and got plane tickets. We had an extra day for Disneyland so he said to call my parents and see if they wanted to meet us. I figured they'd have to think a while about it but nope! They were like YES!
This vacation turned into an awesome family visit as well. It was fun. We had to get handicap fast passes for the rides we wanted to go on, but it worked out. My parents really wanted to see this Thor thing. We thought it was a ride. The line was short, but it was the longest wait the whole day. We finally get in the doors and enter this cool throne room where they let you take photos with this actor who looks like Thor. Ok... what's in the next room? NOTHING! It's an exit! HAHA oh man that sucked. Poor mom and dad lol.
Disneyland is filled with nerds from Blizzcon. You can walk by a group of people and hear conversations of the new orc skins. I even got my mom to say "For the Horde" at some people sitting down. They must've been Alliance because they were kinda rude. :)
We hit all the rides we wanted to, except for my favorite because it was shut down. More incentive to go back I say.
We were all super exhausted before dinner time. It was great to see each other, no doubt about that. But I think we all were having a hard time. My dad's ex-wife passed a couple days prior, so he had to explain the situation to his daughter. My mom's got a bad knee. My legs were pudding, and Eric's hands were sucking from Blizzcon. But... everyone was smiley. My parents left and we stayed an extra half hour to get some night-time shots of the Christmas stuff. Eric loves the Haunted Mansion at Christmas time because they set it up like The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's one of his favorite movies.
My parents left in the morning and hit Pismo. Eventually I want Eric to try the clam chowder. It's not my thing so I don't know if it's good. He doesn't think it'll be as good as it was at this place we went to in Maine. But everyone I know digs it. Besides, I want to see if the one legged seagull is still alive. Anyway, it was nice to see my parents. I don't see them enough.
Eric and I had a great time. We want to do this again. I'm determined to! Next time we will see more things. I will paint my face like a panda. We will buy trivial pursuit. I will go to the voice acting booth and become a cartoon character! And we'll see a band that we both can appreciate. :)
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