1) Pack food.
Mrs. Adorkification is a sandwich goddess. She worked many a summer in her youth at sandwich places and to this day makes them for me whenever I have to work a long Sunday (like this upcoming weekend). She got up early and packed a small cooler with like six/seven small ones with ham/turkey/bacon/cheese/lettuce/etc... I laughed because I didn't think they'd stay cold enough to last, but they did. We ate those sandwiches all afternoon, whenever we were hungry, and it saved us quite a bit in food money. We did, however, buy lots of beverages and stopped somewhere for dinner on the way home.
2) Bring a good camera.
We have a digital camera, but it died halfway through the costume contest. Adorkette brought a disposable one...which lasted throughout the event.
3) Look at what I like.
There were essentially four areas at the con: Artist Alley, Vendor Alley, Creator Alley and Star Alley. There were several actors from The Hobbit there, an actress from True Blood, an actress from The Walking Dead and Billy West who were all in one separate section. Adorkette wasn't interested going there at all. After volunteering at Wizard New England two years ago, I've learned that while I support art and the comic medium in general, I can't afford to support either one, so I leave my curiosity of trying new comics to when I visit my local retailers. My main purpose for going to cons now is finding deals on stuff...trades, individual books I'm missing, figures that kind of stuff. So Vendor Alley was where I was drawn to. Adorkette, on the other hand, kept going up to creators selling their independent books and the artists tables. She wound up buying the first issue of M3 by Erica Carlson-Schultz and Vicente Alcazar, which Carlson-Schultz signed, and two signed works by Daxiong.
4) Pace myself.
At one point, roughly three hours in, I needed a break. The Seaport World Trade Center is a rather large building, and on the second floor there's an outside seating area overlooking the street. We stopped there, and I rested on a bench while the kid looked out over the city and smelled the ocean air. It was nice.
5) Get the free stuff.
Arthur Suydam was giving away free drawings to kids Sunday, and since Adorkette considers herself a "Zombie Geek" it was a no-brainer (ha!) to get her in line for one. He was very nice, and now my daughter has an original work signed by Suydam with her name on it.
6) Bring phones.
There were several times where she wanted to go in one direction while I wanted to go in another. We had our phones with us, and whenever we lost sight of each other, we called. I'm rather tall, and she was smart enough to put her hair in a ponytail with a distinctive green elastic, so we found each other in a matter of seconds, but having the ability to call each other eased both our minds...which brings me to the most important lesson:
7) Don't attend alone.
I've been to many conventions. Some lasting two or three days. Not one of them has been as much fun as going to this one-day thing with my daughter. Having someone to share the experience with was an eye-opener for me. Mrs. Adorkification would have been bored to tears, and I still would have gone to this if Adorkette didn't want to, but it wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much.
We plan on going back next year, as well as the Coast City Comic Con in South Portland this November, and PortConMaine next July.
...'Cause cons are cool!
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