Baltimore or bust!

This past Friday Mad Dog, Little Man and myself headed off for Baltimore for Baltimore Comic-Con 2007. We drove down Friday and settled into our hotel room before driving into Baltimore to find crab cakes or some kind of seafood to satisfy Mad Dog.

Let me say before continuing Little Man was a saint! We couldn't be been blessed with a better child and we love him for it. He was good all the way down, and through out all the events of the weekend - which would be rough for anyone even an adult.

Saturday morning after a slightly rough night with the Baptists that we staying on our floor - keeping all of us up at one point or another, we had breakfast at the hotel and headed into Baltimore for the Con. Little Man dressed in his Robin oneies and brought along Jimmy Olsen and Bats for the day. This was our first official Comic-Con, and we really didn't know what to expect. We were blessed with extra passes from our friend Benn, which allowed us to sell our Saturday tickets which we had previously purchased for a little extra cash. Since we had the baby stroller with all the books we were looking to get signed we were able to forgo the long line to get in once we got our wristbands, and take the elevator down to the convention floor. On Saturday we were lucky enough to slip in 20 minutes early (again thank you Little Man), and just get to get a lay of the land, before the show officially opened. Mad Dog, managed to get Frank Cho's autograph early due to this. Little Man was very good and he flirted with ever artist we met.

We only managed one panel, since Little Man sitting still for that long and being quiet for just as long was a lot to ask, bue we did manage to make that panel, the DC Nation panel. Where Mad Dog got to ask several questions and even gave Dan Didio cause to pause and think before answering his first question: Are there any series currently running that are set on another earth, unbeknownst to readers? Didio finally answered No. Later Didio called on Mad Dog again, and by this time a squirming Little Man had fallen asleep and had been sleeping for about 45 minutes, Didio made Mad Dog hold Little Man up, so that the whole DC Nation could see how cute he looked in his Robin oneies. This prompted Didio to make the "following the Ra’s Al Ghul storyline, Chuck Dixon would be returning to write the series. Look for a conversation with Dixon about his return coming later this afternoon." (Newsarama).
I even worked up the nerve to ask a question of Jann Jones regarding the recent release of the Black Canary Wedding Planner - asking to be funny "With the release of the Wedding planner this week, will we be seeing the release of a line of Women of DC Lingerie line?" It got a good laugh!

After a long day of meeting artists and walking around we went back to the hotel for a short bit for some food and a nap (for all), before going back into the city for a Baseball game at Camden Yard. This was Little Man's First Baseball game /Red Sox Game. Yes, the Sox were in Balitmore. We were nervous about him being okay at the park with all the noise and lights after a long day - we got the the park late, and grabbed food and ate before going to find our seats. Little Man loved it. He was giggling and FLIRTING with anyone who would talk to him, which was everyone. He even wore his Red Sox out fit that Uncle Sean & Aunt Tiffany gave him. We we found our seats way up in Left Field, he loved looking around and was laughing at Jimmy Olsen and I while we clapped our hands with the crowd. He was so silly! We didn't stay long for fear of tempting fate - so we stayed for about an hour (if that) in our seats and then made our way down to leave. Before leaving we stopped at Fan Assistance and they gave us a certificate for Little Man to celebrate his first ball game. He fell asleep on the way home after such a long and exciting day. That night the 3 of us snuggled in our King size bed and sleep dreaming of all tomorrow would bring.

Sunday as even longer than Saturday on call counts. We got up and packed up everything into the car, since we were checking out. Had breakfast and got on the road for the Con. This time we weren't so lucky about sneaking in, however we didn't have to wait in line. We just could get on to the floor early - was sat and talked with one for the security people for 10AM. Once in we picked up a few of the autographs we hadn't picked up the day before, like - Mike Mignola . After that we were free to wander until Jim Lee was signing at 2PM. Having said that At I want to say 11ish if we even made it that far, I was walking by the DC booth and noticed a line - I asked an the Fan's said it was the line for Jim Lee's 2pm signing. I found Mad Dog looking through 50 cent comics and told him I was getting in line with Little Man, he thought I was nuts. " You do know how lone that is? " I did, but this was the point of coming - at least one of them. I got in line and we switched off a bit. We were lucky -they cut the line (we were probably in the middle) and when we left Jim Lee had a panel at 3 PM to get to had he still had about 25 people to get through for where they cut it off (he had 5 minutes). Oh did I say he congratulated us on Little Man - who was so good in line - and if we had the stuff (which we weren't greedy) we could have had 15 pieces signed for the 3 of us (he was signing 5 a piece).

After Mr. Lee we headed out. Which we thought was pretty great since we had a 6 hour trip ahead of us. We grabbed food once out of the city, and took off for home. Sadly we weren't that lucky. We hit traffic on the Washington Bridge - Mad Dog's Dad, who he called since it was getting late and wanted us to call when we got home, jinxed us. We didn't make it home until 1AM. Lucky for us we could sleep Monday once we returned the rental car.

This was our first official Family Road Trip! We loved it and are ready planning next year!