We had the hotel room an extra night, in order to fully enjoy the last day of the convention, allowing for a nice relaxed morning, an afternoon nap, and plenty of time to collect art, drop by the lounge, say copious goodbyes, etc. I napped through closing ceremonies, making this the first Worldcon in a while where I missed both opening and closing.
For dinner John and I took a bus over to Villains Brewing, which had pretty good food and beer. Although it was only lightly themed, they did have a pretty nerdy sports story playing on one of the screens. Because I am not serious about my beer, my favourite was probably Saca La Bolsita, a nice Mexican lager that comes with a little pack of Limón 7. After eating we walked around the corner to Strong Water, which had lavish decor and amazing drinks. One last night up on the Lanai Deck with the rest of the stragglers and diehards, and LAcon V was a wrap.
The next morning the lobby had fewer people and more suitcases, but I saw the ocassional familiar face, said some goodbyes, before dragging my giant suitcase to IHOP for breakfast, after which it was time for the long trip to Santa Monica via Union Station. Not a quick trip, but easy enough, and delicious Sidecar donuts as a reward while waiting for my sister to come meet me.
We stayed with them for just over a week and managed to fit quite a lot in! After a day of doing absolutely nothing except recovering from the convention we went up towards Santa Barbara for some wine tastings, spending the night at the Sideways Inn, famous from the movie, and returning the next day through Solvang, where John and I spotted the less upscale but fun and friendly Final Girl Wines.
John and I visited the new Academy Museum, which is very cool. We saw the current exibitions about Bong Joon Ho, Marilyn Monroe, and production design team Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, plus a combination of permanent and temporary ones on the history of Hollywood, the awards and ceremony, and some incredible costumes. On the way out we stopped by the gift shop, with relatively minimal damage to our wallets, and braved the heat for a brief look at the La Brea Tar Pits (the museum is closed for renovations but there are still some outside things to see) before hopping on the metro to downtown where we had pupusas and chilaquiles with Vietnamese iced tea in Grand Central Market and took a ride up Angel’s Flight. The only thing we didn’t manage was the Bradbury Building, which was already closed for the day.
We spent the next day at Disneyland with my brother-in-law, mostly in Galaxy’s Edge of course, Oga’s Cantina is definitely my favourite place there. Other side-trips involved beers at Santa Monica Brew Works and Firestone Walker, micheladas at the local dive bar, a trip to Scum and Villany, several delicious meals at Papi’s and one magnificent burger at Father’s Office, a trip to see a great recent movie (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma) at the Laemmle Santa Monica and another to see a great old movie (The Grapes of Wrath) at the Aero Theatre, a walk along the promenade and a solid hour in a Spirit Halloween Store.
It was a great trip, and we made the most of it despite the heat, but it was good to get back to cool weather and warm cats.
