cons and traveling

[celticdragonfly]

I'm reading about various people having gone to Balticon, and having had a friend talk about how she wanted to go but didn't, it's making me think about cons and traveling. I've gone to various cons - started with filk cons, ConChords back in the early 90's in the LA area, then eventually went to several LosCons and a WesterCon. And last February we went to ConDFW. But I've never traveled to a con. I've stayed at the hotel sometimes, but always because it was more convenient, and I wanted to stay late, have a place for my stuff, etc. I've gone to LA area cons when I lived in the LA area, and now one DFW area con now that I live in Fort Worth.

I find myself a little amazed at the thought of long-distance traveling for cons. Which is odd, since I've been surrounded by people at these cons who did do such travel. I suppose at my early cons all the people I actually *knew* at the cons were locals, or were pros of some sort - yeah, I knew Leslie Fish was traveling for these, obviously, but that's what she does. Anybody else I knew at the con I knew locally. Nowadays, with the Bujold list, that's changed quite a bit.

I suppose some of it is amazement at having the income available for that kind of travel. Yet another reason for us to get out of debt, yes. But in general I haven't pulled off a lot of travel. Hm, lemme think, travel out of metropolitan area I lived in, as an adult that hasn't involved going to either my parents' house or my in-laws house, that would be... hm. Well, we went to Las Vegas to work the RenFaire there once. We had the drive to Texas to move here. And I think that's IT. (selenite, am I forgetting something?)

We're starting to think about traveling to some cons, I don't know yet whether we can pull it off or not. The logistics of dealing with the kids may be the toughest part.

Comments

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Well, not counting cons in LA, which is close enough to day trip if I really want to, the only two cons I've ever traveled to get to has been ConJose in 2002 and this years ConDFW. Plans are to travel to LinuCon in Austin in October though, and possibly Gathering III next year.

That being said, traveling to cons is a relative new thing to me, and so far has only been to cons where there's a significant number of people I already know. I can't much see putting up with the massive PITA that modern travel can be if I don't know people at the other end

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Clearly we'd want to know people that were going to be there. To some extent "Lois as guest" would cover that, partially for herself, partially in that I *know* that would bring other people I know.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

It's fun, particularly when you know people at the con far away. Or meeting old friends that you have never met in person before. Even before the Internet, that was cool; now it's practically an every-con occurrance.

It is no harder to travel to a SF convention with kids than it is to travel anywhere else with kids, particularly with the rise of kids' activities at cons [unlike 30 years ago when I started going to SF conventions]. Hotels often have babysitting services, get to know them before you decide to go.

DO take an extra day to enjoy what the city has to offer. I have known 'way to many "get a lifers" who only saw as much as they could from inside the con hotel.
Go with a group of sympatico local fans if possible; I used to travel to Worldcons and Westercons with the LASFS mob and we tended to take over whole planes. The skies were much friendlier that way.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda scratching my head and going "Huh?" to the comments about the *PITA factor of the travel*.

I mean, yes, traveling with kids is more of a pain than traveling without them. But really, to my mind the hassles (we're talking about too-small, uncomfortable seats, standing in line at security, the possibilty that you or your luggage will be searched, the fact that getting from home to aircraft and from aircraft to hotel can take longer than the actual flight time itself, etc., right?) are trivial compared to the basic fact that you can in fact get from home in Texas to a hotel in Baltimore (forex) in considerably less than a full day.

To my mind, the issues are much more the *expense* of travelling with children. (Single and childless people don't seem to realize that a $300 airplane ticket costs $1500 for a family with three children--and that cost is borne by people who typically have NO excess income. One paying job supporting five people--you do the math.)

Not to mention the hassle of dealing with the kids *at the con itself*. Which I grant is a lot easier now than it was a decade or two ago, but it's still way more of a pain than one might think. It *certainly* affects a parent's con experience WAY more than the travel issues do.

But. I'm sounding all pessimistic here. Which I shouldn't be. Because I want to *encourage* celticdragonfly and selenite to go to cons, not *discourage* them.

I just want the helpful advice to be pointed at the correct issues, is all.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd say con travel is harder than other travel with a kid. For example, I remember wandering New Orleans with kids, taking them through the Aquarium, watching an Imax movie, getting something to eat, sitting at the plaza there where Jackson Square meets the river while the kid ran and climbed on the monuments - not too bad. As opposed to "Mama wants to sit still here and listen quietly to what these people are saying, sit here and don't move". HARD.

And I'd be REALLY nervous with the idea of a babysitter I'd never met before and knew nothing about. I suppose that's exacerbated because I have a special needs kid.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

One of the big reasons I was okay with doing ConDFW was that you and meerkat1 were going to be there, and she'd talked about helping me with the kids - and both of you did SO much to make that con possible for me. And since it was close to home, I was able to arrange for the babysitter to come for most of Saturday.

As far as travel - I do NOT travel by air anymore. I suppose there might be something that could make that happen, but in general, no. I do not FIT in economy class seats, I have hips, darn it. And my ochlophobia cannot handle what the post-9/11 airport misery has turned into. I am just not going to do it.

This is why the trip from California to my parents in Baton Rouge back at Xmas 02 (remember, when we took the side trip to Houston?) was done by train. People gave me a hard time, saying it was going to take Two Full Days! Yes, and they were relaxed, pleasant days. Airline would have, by the time you deal with getting from the house to airport, luggage, security, plane trip, changing planes, getting off and getting luggage again, a full day. And it would have taken me MORE than a 2nd day to recover from the stress.

We're thinking about a Georgia con in January - IF all the pieces come together. A big one will be the kids. IF the ex wants to take Brendan for Xmas, maybe we could just extend things - and IF that happens, we could visit my parents, and my parents are then willing to keep Maggie for a long weekend when we're out of town, so we'd just have the one-year-old (by then), as I doubt he'd have weaned. But this would be all driving or train.

Dealing with kids at a con REALLY detracts from how much fun you can have. I think ALL of the time I was having fun at ConDFW *somebody* else was taking care of at LEAST one of my kids. (Sometimes that somebody was Karl, and we were doing things separately.)

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I like going to cons. But flying to them just isn't an option these days. Too expensive, too much of a gear bottleneck, and we wind up having to rent a car at the other end so we can transport the gear and make grocery runs.

A lot of this goes away when the kids will A. walk in the direction they're told while B. carrying their own suitcase. Brendan's got B, Maggie may soon reach A. But Jamie's getting carried for quite a while. But until then the hassles of going through an airport are enough that we're just plain not going to do unless it's a pretty serious emergency.

On the flip side, having the van makes con trips viable if we can take a full day for the drive. So that makes my vacation hours the constraint. But if I can take a couple of days off we can go to cons anywhere this side of Atlanta, Omaha, and Santa Fe.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

It seems to me there are three main ways to travel:
plane
train
automobile

Given you've ruled out flying, the other two remain options.

I have to admit my view of the practicality of each has been formed by my family's history of driving from Texas to Maine every summer. That tradition ended up breaking down once I reached high school, because my sister and I started having summer activities that required being in Texas more, my father didn't get the same vacation time once he moved into administrative positions, and we wanted the extra time saved. But that was a really formative time to me, and I'd expect your kids will be up to it in a few years.

As for childcare, just see how baby-mad the other people there will be.