Los Angeles Convention
Posted by Pavan Chander | Filed under Events
Well I got back from LA on Sunday, and man what a trip!
View the Flickr Set for pictures of the trip.
The trip started out normally, drove to Hamilton and met everyone else, we all got into our mini van and off to Buffalo!
The flight was supposed to leave at 7:30 PM, but because of a huge ice storm, the flight was canceled. So in order for us to arrive in LA in time for the start of the Convention we had to drive down to Rochester and catch the 5:40 AM flight, because we had our own car it wasn’t too big of an issue to drive down, and we actually drove another stranded passenger, Gary Hohler, there as well. Gary introduced himself as “working for a small company called Adobe“, and so we hit it off pretty well.
After getting around 2 hours of sleep in an airport that was getting renovated Gary and us parted ways, we caught our flight to Chicago, and our connection to LA.
Upon arriving at LAX we had very limited time to pickup our rental car, check into the hotel, and have quick showers and change into something presentable. Which we managed to do in reasonable time, but unfortunately we forgot about the line to pick up our registration packages. Which was so long that it went all the way down the length of the centre, and around the side, we decided to go grab something to eat because it had been quite a few hours since our last real meal. By the time we came back the line had diminished a little and we got in relatively quickly.
We had quite a few entertaining drives, from finding Indian restaurants that only served Chinese food, to getting lost in downtown looking for a 7/11 that we had been to only the night before, and having people walk into an airport terminal carrying car tires.
The flight back was as eventful as we expected of course, the flight leaving from LAX was listed as delayed 15 min, but by the time we actually took off, we were an hour behind schedule. And not only that, because we had to reroute our itinerary to arrive back in Rochester instead of Buffalo where it was original planned, our tickets were given to us without seat assignments.Which meant that 5 of us were sitting relatively close in the front of the plane, and yours truly was stuck at the total back of the plane.
It wasn’t too bad, I just ended up sleeping for most of the flight.
The moment the plane landed in Chicago, all six of us ran for the shuttle bus and through our collective Canadian luck managed to bypass all the not-so-lucky others who had been standing in the wrong area. The shuttle dropped us off at our connection’s terminal and we managed to get on the plane because they had delayed it leaving 10 min for just us.
Phew.
But then we ended up sitting there for another 45min, waiting for our luggage to arrive from our first flight. Which meant we really had all the time in the world to get there instead of looking like a scene from Home Alone where the whole group is running through the airport in a mad frenzy.
In the aftermath of our trip I decided to create a list of reminders for us, for next years convention. In no particular order, except for bringing along an extra battery for the camera, here they are:
- LA has lots of “no left turn” intersections, particularly on one way streets, bring a good GPS.
- There are HIV+ homosexuals who just wander the street at night, always walk in groups.
- Make sure you’re very comfortable working your GPS before hand, or better yet bring someone with a very good sense of direction.
- Bring an extra rechargeable battery for the camera.
- Bring a sweater and/or jacket along even though it is March in LA.
- Book flights that leave early in the day instead of late evening, to prevent having to wait for the next day in the event of a delay.
Never get a Kia Sedona, the back bench is too low for anyone but a kid to sit in comfortably.- Find a way to make Starbucks at the hotel to prevent having to wait 45min in a line.
- Better yet, stop wasting money on Starbucks.
- Plan touristy trips well in advance, and in great detail to prevent driving aimlessly around, wasting time.
- Get a satellite internet card for waiting in airports, and in the car access.
- Get a car charger for my camera.
- Take more pictures of scenery
- Plan a list in advance of local restaurants and buffets.
While in LA I was in charge of the camera, which led to trigger-finger-itis, which I guess is normal for me with a camera in hand. In total I took just under 200 pictures, and as a group about 225 or so.
Only problem is I end up being the one taking the pictures so I end up not being in most of them. Ah well, seeing a picture of someone else but knowing you took it is as good as being in that picture for me.
All in all, this trip was a firm reminder that your “trip” starts the moment you enter the airport, whether for good or bad.
PS. I had the worst encounter with a Canadian border agent upon driving into Canada, the worst. She sounded as if she had got her training with the American agents.
Tags: convention, Flickr, Los Angeles, Photos, trips
