2008 August 7
Actually, our journey began the night of August 6th about 6:00pm as we headed for the airport. Becca (daughter #2) drove us to the airport with a car full of siblings who all wanted to see Eleanor and I off. We checked our one shared suitcase, passed through security, and enjoyed the artwork as we moseyed our way down to the south concourse. We had a couple hours to wait and SeaTac airport is quite pretty, so we took the time to look at it.
Aside from the fact that Eleanor and I ended up with separated seating, the first leg of our journey went without a hitch. We were stopping over in Detroit. I never really quite realized quite how big the Great Lakes were until we flew over Lake Michigan! It was huge! In the darkness, the lake was a sea of blackness rimmed by grids of light. The gentleman sitting next to me was a Detroit native, and it was interesting listening to him explain about the lakes and the city. He said that Michigan touched four of the five lakes and that the city streets were literally grids with main streets marking each mile. The plane arrived on time and we had a couple hour wait, so we walked in search of breakfast.
The Detroit airport was nice, clean and well appointed. If it had been later, we would have had a plethora of choices for breakfast. However, at 6:00am, our choices were limited - but we did manage to find a place just opening up that served a decent omelet. ^^b
My only complaint about the Detroit airport: no recycling bins. I asked some of the cleaning crew where the closest bin was and was met with blank stares. That's why I was glad when we arrived at Baltimore's BWI airport and found...
Recycling bins! That's more
like it!
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Historic Baltimore Our flight arrived in Baltimore on time (yeah!) and after a half hour train ride, we were at the door of the hostel around 11:00am. Check-in time wasn't until after 2:00pm, so we stowed our bags and went for a walk. We were quite impressed with what we found (click photos for larger images) |
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At about 3:00pm, we checked into the hostel, took much needed showers, then headed towards the convention center. |
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Showered and rested, we set off towards the convention center to pick up our badges. On the way there, we found Starbucks. I'm not a coffee drinker, but Starbucks has one thing that makes it a favorite hang-out: WiFi. (And, they do make a decent hot cocoa too.) ^^b Today, there was a rather charming gentleman out front, named Matthew, who was serving up samples of Starbucks' new smoothies. On a hot day like this, they just hit the spot! So we went in and killed a good hour over smoothies and internet - the first of several stops there. After, we continued our walk to the convention center. Since we were going as press, we made our way up to the special needs desk for our badges, then down to check in with the press office. We hung around until the 6:30pm press orientation was over, then set out to find a place to catch the light rail back to the airport. As we walked around the building looking for the stop, we passed the line of people waiting to pick up their "pre-reg" badges for the convention. We passed the line... and passed the line... and passed the line all the way around two and a half sides of the convention center! That's nearly 5 city blocks long! The line was moving fairly quickly, but new people were adding on as it moved. The preliminary attendance total for the weekend was 26, 324. It wouldn't surprise me if half of them were there on that Thursday night. Wow! |
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I have a friend in Puerto Rico, named Pedro (check out his site), who is also a Yoshiki Fukuyama/JAM Project fan. Like myself, when he heard JAM Project was going to be in Baltimore, he started planning his trip. This was a great opportunity! Not only were we both going to see JAM Project for the first time, but we were also going to finally meet each other face to face! Pedro and his friends were coming in on a 9:00pm flight, so we went to the airport to meet them. I really should travel more. It's one of the few times in my life that I am actually on time or early to any degree. We got to the airport early enough to stop by a place called Bill Bateman's Bistro for a quick dinner. Neither Eleanor or I are heavy eaters, so we split an order of Buffalo Bites and an order of Southwestern Chipotle Chicken Egg Rolls off the appetizer menu. Nice food. Not bad prices for airport food. ^-^b Then it was off to baggage claim where we were to meet everyone. To the right is a picture I took from the encounter. Left to right: Joel, Angel, Dorilly, and Pedro. Yea, I know the picture is blurry. Eleanor informed me that my photography was horrible ... so, from that point on, she became the official photographer. Any crappy photos from this point on in the report, you can blame on her. ^-^
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<<====================== While we were waiting for the shuttle to their hotel, Pedro gave me a birthday present a week early. He told me to unwrap it so I could see it, but I wasn't allowed to actually open it before my birthday. Given that Nekki Basara shares my birthday, I didn't think it that strange request to wait until then... However, Pedro let me know later that he was just teasing me . ^-^ |
