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Monday, July 14, 2003 Today it is bright and early in the morning as I get ready to hit the train station. I pack all my usually things like camera and this laptop that I am now using to type this report in. Victor volunteered to help give me a ride to the station at 5:00am in the morning. I packed a lunch, and dropped by the 7-11 to pick up some Powerade for the trip. The drink was good because it still tastes good even warm. However, in restrospect, the sandwich was a bad idea since the border was rejecting all meat products so I had to eat it or throw it away. Paul met up with us at 5:00am at the train station. The bus rolled into the station on time at 5:45am and we were off. Victor and Warren were going to take Air Canada, so we will meet them when they get to San Deigo. |
The bus travels to the border where this year, they were being really picky about what foods we were bringing into the country. Not so much weapons or drugs. They usually feed our baggage through the X-ray machine but all they did was put a hand into my travel bag and asked if my lunch had any meat or fresh fruits. I said no, I threw it all away at trash can at the front door. She waved me through. I slept the rest of the way to Seattle Station, which is perfect since stayed up all night to make it easier for me to fall asleep on the bus and train. |
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I used my normal techniques for travelling the train to maximize my own comfort. 1) do the opposite of everyone else, and you will have more room for youself. So this means during the day, stay at your seat and bank hours of sleep. 2) at night time, stay in the lounge, as it is one of few places that has AC power outlets and has good tables to type on. Thus I am able to work on my pages on my lapop. When I run low on battery power, I have a place I can charge up. 3) If I want to curl up and sleep at night, the lounge car also has the longest seats to stretch out in. |
The train was late leaving Seattle. Apparently, a grain frieght train had derailed earlier. When the train that was coming into Seattle, a wheel on the dining car got screwed up by the warped tracks. So it was delayed about 3 hours out of Seattle. This gave me and Paul a good chance to walk about Seattle's international district. We found the Kinokynina bookstore area. The grocery store was closed and was changed to some weird furniture store. The bookstore was open and I went into have a look.
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I found two artbooks of interest by Aioshi and Fujimawa. I was hoping for breastman's new book "Love" but that is ok. I am sure I will find it at the con.
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I met some interesting people on the train. One woman who had a laptop was travelling from the East coast was in the need of power. I chatted a bit with her while both our machines were down. I also played a round of cribbage with a kid, who a real cute cousin. However, I was able to out peg him and won that game. I also met of couple who woman had just taught her companion the card game Crazy 8's. I played a few hours with them and all I can say was she was good...
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By the time we were coming into the Los Angeles, the train was almost 4 hours late. It was so bad, the employees had a pool going on how late it was going to pull in. Pretty sad... You could hear them on the intercom: "The official time is 1:12am.... , We are pulling into LAX at 1:12am...., Ohhh.. It is 1:13am... The train stopped at 1:13am!" Great.... It is not like, we were suppose to be here like 10pm but what do they care. Paul and I connected to the bus to San Deigo. A rather uneventful ride. I did try to bank some hours of sleep at the end of the train ride to make falling asleep easier on the bus. I came close to getting what I needed. |
It was 4:00am in the morning in San Deigo. What the hell do you do? Official check in time at the hotel is 4:00pm. But check out time was 12:00pm noon. So the trick is to kill sometime and hope to get something early as possible. First, we went to the hotel to check our baggage in at the hotel. That will give us the freedom to walk about. I showed Paul where the convention centre was, where Ralph's was, where Horton Plaza was. It was at Horton's we found the McDonald's opening up for breakfast. I know, we were waiting for the 6:00am breakfast back at the hotel, but so what, I think Paul needed a cup of java. I ordered not only coffee but also two of those new breakfast burrito and some two hashbrowns. It came to $4.70 USD which is a total rip off since it goes for about $4.30 CDN. Oh well, beggars can't be chosers and neither can tourists.... |
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Ok, I headed back to the hotel at 7:00am, and had a seat in the lounge. They were in the middle of the free complimentary all you can eat breakfast. I had an old room card from last year, which I kept so I used this to get some food and drink. I fortunately only showed them the back magnetic stripped version of the card because they did change their cards just slightly. I filled up on a nice plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausauge and bacon. I also had some watermelon to top it off. Paul of course, whimped out and only had a few slices of watermelon. Oh well, I guess the five packs of instant noodles on the train killed his stomach. |
At 10:00am, I knew I was still early but I checked all my information in. I needed to kill more time so I wandered off to the Seaport Village. They closed the arcade or maybe they relocated it but it certainly wasn't where it was suppose to be. Didn't matter much as it kinda sucked anyway. Paul found a Mexican restaurant were I think the Taco Bell was. He order Mexican rice, which in itself must be lame. I fortunately ate for free with breakfast so I just ordered a drink. After that, we wandered through some of the shops at Horton Plaza and the Office Depot. |
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At 12:00pm noon, I decided to try to check in. The room was not ready yet. Probably housekeeping hasn't finished cleaning the sperm off the bed sheets and the herpes off the towels. Anyway, I left to try again later. I came back at 1:00pm and still no luck. I went over to Office Depot to look at the new Pocket PCs and to check to see if Warren or Victor arrived yet. Paul decided to stick it out in the hotel lobby reading his new book he bought at Horton's Plaza. I came back at 2:00pm and still no luck. I finally asked them what is taking so long. They replied, the room isn't ready yet. I said, if it is just house keeping, I don't care, just give me a room that isn't housekept yet, I will just let the maid clean later in the afteroon. Finally some other person came and booked me a room on the floor the maids were in the process of cleaning. She finally got us our keys. Yes, it was a close call as the maids had only just cleaned this room and were only 3 rooms away.
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Paul, was going to shower and get our baggage. I flopped on the bed and passed out. I missed my 3:00pm rendezvous with Victor, but fortunately, he found Paul and they got in ok.. Dave called shortly after and we all came together fine.
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Here is an shot out off the balcony of our floor down to the lobby all the way down there, and remember this is all indoors. This is me in my Patlabour SV2 Uniform waiting for Buffy autographs.
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And in our hotel room, we have the every happy Dave. Paul and I are busy trying to figure out where to go to next.
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Here is Vic with Me talking about our digital cameras. Paul is sitting on the ard
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