William Chow's Personal Web Page

San Diego Comic Con 1994

Below I have some of the photos of great times that were had. Feel free to click on the thumbnail to enlarge it.

 

This year, we gathered a group of eager travellers to come down and see the chaos which will be known as the largest comic convention in Western North America.

This year, we decided to rent a large van from Budget Rent A Car and drive it down to the con.

Our passengers this year were: me, Lysle Martin, Bill Jang, Michael Eyben, Med Major, David Butler, Jude Kirkham, Pierre LeFarre , Matt Masanobu , and Edmund Yee.

The first stop on the big trip was down to Costco to load up on pop. Since in our previious trips to the United States has shown us two things, a) US pop is more expensive than ours and b) US pop uses different ingredients which in some cases makes it taste like crap.

So we loaded up the extra spaces in the van under the seats and along the sides and in the foot areas with 40 cases of 12 packs, ie 480 cans of pop. Thus between the 10 of us, that is 48 cans each, across the 12 days, that is 4 cans a day...

Jude at this time was a bit of a extremist. He bought a 2 for 1 pizza with him down to the meeting point in Abbottsford. However, after much arguing, we finally convinced him to ditch the pizza before we cross the border. That was a good idea, thank god. This unfortunately was not the last we will hear from Jude.

Going down the con, our first stop was Canada-US border. That was not too bad since we looked like we were a bunch of excited, unhygenic, unshaved, fan boys on vacation. After a few questions, we were on our way.

The trip was broken up into smaller chunks. Our first destination was San Jose. Even when Butler's pedal to the metal driving, it still took a good 18 hours to get the the bay area. We stayed at the Red Lion Hotel in the downtown core of SJ.

I remember when we were applying for the Budget van, it was recommended that we take the comprensive no fault insurance. It seemed kinda expensive at $24 a day but on the other hand, it was a piece of mind, so we took it. Good thing!! First thing we did was we took it into the underground parking lot of the hotel. Not too bad since we came up to the Clarion sign, clearance was 6.6 or something like that, and we did clear it. However, we forgot that when all 10 of us get out and take out all the pop and all our luggage, the shocks will rebound and raise the height of the van. So when we came back from a day driving around and tried to come in again, CRUNCH.... SCRAPE.....

Of course, that was not the last of our abuse to the rental van. Another day, Lylse, Me and Bill were driving around doing things. We were at an intersection with a KFC beside us. Hmmm. At the spur of the moment, we decided, that dinner tonight was chicken. So Lysle yells back to Bill, who was at the back of the van, "Hey is it ok to back up?!". Bill does a quick shoulder check... Unfortunately, it was too quick, as we started to back up and CRUNCH!! Lysle backed into a brand sort of new 1993 Volvo. What was worse, it was a 16 year kid who just borrowed the parents car. Yea, the kid was crapping his pants. Yup, it sure helps to have that insurance!

This year, we met up with some of our friends in San Francisco who graciously pointed us to a Costco, so we could load up on our supply of food. We also went to a great electronics warehouse geek store called "Fry's Electronics". Man talk about a Costco for high tech and computer geek stuff.

Our next destination after San Jose was San Diego. It is around 10 hours to Los Angeles and its another 2 from there to SD, so another 12 hourse of driving which isn't all that bad when you had a few days of rest and relaxation in SF.

San Deigo was rather exciting this year. This year, we stayed at the Westin Bayshore, which used to be a Clarion.

Jude at this time would qualify as one of those unhygenic fan boys. He wore a black overcoat even in the heat of summer. He also wore a rather styled hat which wasn't so bad, except for the fact that like his overcoat, he never washed it. His hat smelled so bad that Michael put it out on the balcony. To add to the smell of his overcoat, we later discovered he would go to MacDonald's and buy 10 hamburgers or cheeseburgers and store them in the many pockets inside the overcoat for later consumption.

When asked if he would like to join us to breakfast at Coco's, he responded he would rather stay with the consistancy of Macdonald's products.

I remember we were searching for one of the great stops of In&Out Hamburgers in Calfornia. Undoubtably, one of the best take out fast food burger joints around. While the rest of us were lining up at In&Out, Jude walks across the McDonalds to load up his pockets... Sigh.... Oh well, his loss at the 9th wonder of the world.

 

In San Jose it was Anime America where my favourite artist, Akemi Takeda was signing.