The family trip to the 2004 Worldcon was memorable for some good reasons but also for a handful of lousy ones.

Worldcon was in Boston, a city I dearly love visiting, having spent a lot of time there when I was in high school in Vermont. Prior to going to Worldcon we stopped in Vermont and saw family, which was great.

In between there was a trip to Montreal, which was fine right up until the moment when we came back to our rental car, found the windows smashed out and my briefcase and our luggage gone, and had to deal with the French-Canadian authorities and rental car folks to get a replacement car. Not the greatest first impression with the family for Montreal. (For what it’s worth, Worldcon was in Montreal five years later, in 2009, and we were back and had a great time.)

This bridge, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, familiar to anyone who’s driven through Boston, is infamous in our family. We’ve driven across it over, and over, and over, and over, back and forth, trying to get from downtown to Logan International Airport. “But Paul, I’m very familiar with Boston and you don’t go over that bridge when going from downtown to Logan,” you’re saying.

I know!

Thus, the problem.

Favorite author John Scalzi had a nice post on his website today about his first science fiction convention, twenty years ago today.

As I was recollecting yesterday, Labor Day weekend has quite often been our family vacation weekend at Worldcon, and it turns out we were at that convention in Toronto as well.

In addition to just traveling for the convention, we also go for ballgames, amusement parks, and other touristy activities. If you go to Toronto and get down by the ballpark, look up!

You never can tell who might be heckling you.

While Mr. Scalzi was reminscing on twenty years, I started thinking about my first convention. It was fifteen years earlier than… No, wait, it was twenty-five years earlier?

That can’t be right! I’m not THAT freakin’ old! That would be forty-five years ago. 2023 minus 1978 is … forty-five years.

Shazzbott!

At least three years later I had a better camera.

Baycon is much smaller this year than it has been in past years. I don’t have any official numbers, but I would be surprised if there are 30% of the normal, pre-COVID attendees.

Ah, COVID! There’s a big chunk of the problem. No Baycon in 2020 or 2021, and this year we’re on a different holiday weekend than normal. No wonder.

But I’m having a great time anyway. Good panels every day. Masquerade tonight. Some filk concerts. Got to meet and chat with the artist Guest of Honor. And so on.

And I can wander the convention space looking for odd or interesting things to take pictures of!

What’s not to love?

On only the second trip in three years, at a con for the first time in three years, comfort and convenience are key. I knew that my usual routines for healthy eating might have to take a sabbatical for a couple of days. But the first day and a half was just BRUTAL on my dietary control.

So today I wanted to do better. Let’s start with a healthier breakfast. Forget about the hotel breakfast buffet, which not only cost $40 but also seduced me into eating enough food to feed a small battalion. Today, let’s go to that great little mom & pop family place a couple blocks down for just an omelette…

Holy guacamole, Batman!

I couldn’t do it, couldn’t finish. Even with that whole “Catholic, family of eight kids, clean your plate at all costs, starving children in China” condition from birth, I was going to explode and/or die if I had tried.

But it cost less than half of what that hotel buffet did, so, winner winner!!

First science fiction convention in three years!

Well, this isn’t at the con, it’s where we had dinner. But it’s very photogenic.

Hit my critical deadline (by the skin of my teeth), got to go out in public for a business lunch for the first time in YEARS (what was that all about?!), and I passed this test, so now I get to go to my first science fiction convention in about three years.

Ending June strong!