Nikki's Comicon 2017 Top Ten

Every year, I tell you that I'm going to write you a Comicon post and then some how it's magically December and it's closer to next year's Comicon and it's just not going to happen. The problem is I think too big. You know I'm wordy and with an event like Comicon there's just too much to write about.

Well, I'll show you Comicon!!!!

This time I'm just doing a Top 10 list. Disclaimer - some of these will kind of blend and repeat. While there are 10 distinct experiences, the pictures overlap occasionally.

Nikki's Ultimate Comicon 2017 Top 10 Best Things Ever

10. Star Wars Booth

I'd be amiss to not mention the whole reason we go to Comicon. Dan and I are lucky to be friends with the guy who coordinated the Star Wars presence at conferences and we get to work the Star Wars booth which gets us our passes. Being Star Wars and all, their booth is generally a large attraction in the convention and this year was no different. Our booth featured a large scene from The Last Jedi as well as some X-Wing Pilot costumes that were used in the film. It was really cool.

The highlight of working the booth though, is interacting with the fans. For the most part, people were friendly and gratious. My job most of my shifts was to take pictures for the fans who came to the booth. I got a great angle and became really efficient with my role. I also really liked it. My favorite were the people with fancy DSLR cameras. I hadn't really used one before but by the end of the weekend, I wanted one.

I also got to see so many cool costumes come through and a few times I asked if I could take their photo for myself as well. I loved seeing the cosplayers have fun mixing their characters with our scene.

9. Cosplay

I didn't really get a lot of pictures of Cosplayers this year but that didn't make their outfits any less amazing. Dan and I normally put together some amateur cosplay as well, but weren't able to this year. Knowing how much work it is to make our mediocre outfits, I always applaud the people who have really good ones. While I don't have any stand alone pictures of them, you can look above for some of my favorites from our booth.

Oh wait, here's an awesome K2S0!

8. SyFy's Everything

SyFy had a huge presences at Comicon this year. They often marched through the streets with a band giving out prizes. They had a pedal cart where you could do trivia. If your team won, you would each get $20. They had a puzzle room for the Expanse (which we did not try out). Lastly, they had a huge party where they rented out the Children's museum, gave out free beers and shirts, had a 90s cover band, and was hosted by Zachary Levi. The last one was what I had the most experience with and it was amazing. I'm not a big party person but every now and then I'm into it and I had a great time at this one. It was a perfect mix of things I love - friends, costumes, beer, bands, and Zachary Levi. Very fun time.

7. Recoil

Sometimes at Comicon, you get to test out a new product. For us, this was Recoil. We thought we were just waiting in line for a silly laser tag game, but we actually really loved the product. Basically, you have some laser tag type of guns and your cell phone is your screen for your game. It plays more like a real life first person shooter where you have to reload, collect ammo, regenerate, and can command air strikes. You play on teams and you have headsets so you can coordinate. We played on a small parking lot course but you can create your own boundaries and play up to a football field sized area. Could you imagine playing in a big park or through a quiet neighborhood? With so much distance and many natural obstacles, you could really have an awesome game. Anyways, needless to say, we destroyed the other team like 40-6 or something.

Dan and I are definitely interested in buying a set. The starter pack with 2 guns and the home base is $130 with additional guns ranging from $50-70 (depending on size/quality). Our feeling was that we'd totally buy the starter set if our friends get their own add on guns. Our group plays in so many leagues that cost $50-70 every few weeks and I like the idea of starting our own Recoil league and playing weekly with our own things instead. Friends - if you're reading this, buy a Recoil gun. Thanks!!!!

6. The Kingsman Happy Hour

Comicon has a lot of opportunities for free food and drinks. This year, it seemed like there was more than ever. One of those opportunities, was a daily happy hour put on by Kingsman 2. My friends and I went two of the days and we loved it. For a short wait, you got 2 whiskey drinks, a burger, a chance to win prizes, and lots of challenge coins. What's a challenge coin? Well, it stems from a military tradition where everyone would have a special coin. While they were out drinking, soldiers would slam their coins on the table. The last one to slam their coin has to buy the next round. We had a fun time playing the whole weekend, and even more fun knowing that many of our drinks were free so no one had to pay up. 

All in all, the happy hour was a fun and silly event. The movie is kind of a spoof on spy movies and it seems like the sequel is going to be even more silly so it was cool that they took the idea and just had a lot of fun throwing some great parties.

Even Halle Berry took part in the Kingsman festivities! .... just not with us

5. New Trailers

Here's something everyone benefited from - even if they didn't make it to the convention. So many movies dropped new trailers from Thor Ragnarok to Ready Player One. I could list them all but I'm sure you've probably already watched them all. I love that people know to look to Comicon for info on new movies and it helps make the event such a major part of the film industry.

4. Photo Ops

The last 5 could probably be inter-changable. They are ALL my favorite things about Comicon but I was able to barely place them into an order.

The Photo Ops are something Dan and I have loved every year. It's probably the reason I had so much fun at our booth - it was a giant photo op. We've always loved finding places to take fun pictures around Comicon and this year was no different. With how many things have long lines, being able to just take a quick photo is such a nice instant gratification and leaves you with a lasting memory.

3. Bladerunner

Like the Kingsman happy hour, this was an outside event (meaning no pass was needed to go) and it also featured free whiskey and food (literally the theme of Comicon this year). That's where the similarities end. While Kingsman truly was a happy hour, Bladerunner was an experience. For a scant 5 hour wait in line (we must have gone at a peak time), you got to watch a VR video that landed you in Los Angeles 2049. You arrive at the scene of a crash with futuristic police officers grilling you about what you saw.

If you survive that room, you move onto the downtown scene. There's an Asian restaurant, transvestites, fog, and a lot of lights. Frankly, it felt a lot like the Castro in SF to me. I loved it. In the downtown area you could get scanned to test if you were a replicant, get a free shirt from a vending machine, eat some free noodles, and try Johnnie Walker scotch (not really related to the movie, but they were the event sponsor). It was a long wait but it was such a fun experience that it was worth it. I heard the line for the experience without VR was shorter and in the future, I would have done that. The best part was the interactive portion and everyone got to do that.

2. Sharing it with My Friends

You're probably thinking, "Damn Nikki, your friends are #2? That's cold!" NUMBER 1 IS REALLY GOOD, OK? Ok great!

Every year a few of my friends come into town for Comicon and it makes the whole thing so much more fun. There are also a lot of San Diego friends who reach out and try to meet up. Imagine how fun all of the past numbers were... now imagine it with either friends you don't see often but love or with friends you see all the time but have never seen the wonders of Comicon. It all adds up to a super amazing fun time.

While I didn't get to meet up with everyone I tried to connect with, I appreciated the time I spent with the people who met up with us. Every year I put together a really organized calendar so I can maximize my time at the con. I was happy to share it with anyone who asked and I'm glad it helped them find cool events and also find me.

Having so many friends meet up at some point took it from a very fun event to a super duper amazing fun time with some of my favorite people.

1. Panels

In my opinion, getting inside the Con has two major perks. You get to buy exclusive merchandise and you can go to panels. Dan and I try not to buy a lot of stuff so we try to maximize our panels. The holy grail of panels are in Hall H. That's about a 24 hour line though and we've never been up for the sacrifice. Luckily, many of our favorite shows are in Ballroom 20 and the line is just a few hours.

Those same shows all ended in crazy cliffhangers so getting a first look at the show's new footage was amazing. Hearing the actors' thoughts on the crazy things that happened over their seasons was also really cool. I mostly just love seeing all the banter and friendships amongst the cast.

Sometimes - you get a really amazing moment at the panels you attend. Last year, the amazing moment was the cast of Flash singing and tap dancing. That moment led to a musical episode. This year, the moment hit much closer to home. A young girl asked Stephen Amell (the star of Arrow) if he will sell anymore shirts to raise money for cancer... as she was a cancer survivor. The room went still. He proceeded to ask her some questions and the end result was him giving her a personal necklace, a hug, and a kiss. I cried then and I cry now thinking about it. Recently losing a parent to cancer as well as both god parents, I know it's a tough experience. I can't even imagine a kid going through it. That's just absolutely terrible. I'm happy she's a survivor and I hope she doesn't come across it again in her future.

That clip is here if you want to see it for yourself:

So that's it! It was hard to limit myself to 10 and I had to move things around a bit, but I did it! I wrote about Comicon! I had an absolutely fantastic time. It's impossible to do it all and I know I missed some experiences - from the friends I didn't meet up with to the Westworld experience (seriously, Google it) to my endless pursuit to meet Nikki Bella. Lucky for me, there's next year and you better believe I will keep coming back for more as long as San Diego has this fantastic event.

Week of July 18th 2011: Social Eatz

There was one more Top Chef restaurant that I had to check out and that was Angelo Sosa's Social Eatz. His food always looked so good on TV and on the show they had said he worked in a sandwich shop so that felt very accessible. However, just before going to New York, I found out that the sandwich shop closed. Luckily, worry turned to excitement when I found out that instead he had opened up his own wider menu (but still relatively affordable and accessible) Asian-fusion type shop.

I know Asian fusion sounds a little played out but Angelo really attacked it in a new way. Almost of all the dishes seemed like American comfort food on the surface (burgers, hot dogs, etc) but it was easy to see that they were layered with unique Asian flavors. I got tacos and chicken wings and they were very tasty. I can't remember what Elissa ordered or which drinks we got (they have an extensive, original cocktail menu) but I do remember that we were both raving about it. She was trying to find out if they delivered to her neighborhood or office. It turned out that both were just out of their delivery radius and yes, she considered a few wacky, Seinfeld-esque ways to work around that.

The most important thing you should know about Social Eatz though - neither of us mentioned that it was my first time in New York and guess how much free stuff we got? None.

I actually got to meet Angelo a few weeks ago when he was in SF for a book signing. I literally chased him about half a block down a busy SF touristy area before I caught up and was able to ask him for a picture. Even though I seemed like a crazy stalker, him and his wife were very nice and understanding. It's also really nice to be able to tell a chef to his face that you liked his food.

Week of July 18th 2011: New York City and Colicchio & Sons

If you are a constant reader of my blog, you know that I have a consistent New Year's Resolution to travel to a new place. The reason this one is so important to me is that even though I've don'e a good bit of international travel, I've been really terrible about going to places that are more domestic. Up until July of last year, I hadn't even been to New York (aside from changing planes at JFK). This was way at the top of my list of places to go but I knew that if I was going to go I'd want a companion or place to stay. Well, after my friend, Elissa, moved there earlier in the summer, I knew I had both.

Elissa had given me the directions to get to her apartment from the airport. After several transfers, I soon found myself stepping out of a subway and into the sweltering heat of New York in the summer. For someone who grew up in a city that frequently had over 100 degree summers, it's funny how quickly I've adapted to the mild seasons of San Francisco.

After Elissa got off work, she helped me settled into her lovely Upper East Side apartment and then we changed to go out to dinner. I had luckily showed up in New York during Restaurant Week (similar to dine about town with $35 prix fixe menu) so I was excited to try a lot of places that were otherwise out of my price range. As a big Top Chef fan, I was really happy to see that Tom Colicchio (long standing head judge of the show) had a restaurant on the list and I was able to snag a reservation!

We showed up at Colicchio and Sons which was located just by the meat packing district and the elevated park and were instantly impressed by the modern decor. I personally loved the wine bottle tree. I gave my name to the hostess, but she couldn't find my reservation so - I pulled up the Open Table email on my phone... and quickly realized that I had been off by a week. I was so sad about messing up the reservation and told the hostess that it was my first night ever in NYC and had really  looked forward to dining there. Luckily, the hostess team was very nice and said they'd find a way to squeeze us in if we wouldn't mind waiting a the bar for a bit. We were so happy that they were accommodating, that we didn't have any problem finding something off of the impressive drink menu.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of our dinner so it's a little harder to remember exactly what we got. However, I do remember getting an extra course of rabbit sausage pizza mysteriously delivered to our table. We quickly began to realize that mentioning that it was my first time in New York was a great way to have people give us really good service (aka freebies).

We also got a chance to meet up with my friends Anthony and Ian who were roadtripping across the country and happened to be in New York at the same time as me. We end up at several college-esque bars that felt quite appropriate as a meetup with some of my college friends. Anthony has a blog as well and he wrote about our adventures with only a week lag instead of 11 months. You can read that here.

It was definitely a great start to the first of many adventures that we were going to have that trip.

As an aside - the next few posts will be pretty picture free. I had dropped my camera in a creek while in Southern California and my phone had terrible battery life. I took what I could between my broken camera, phone and tablet (yes, I was that awkward person taking tablet pictures - I was desperate) but there will be a lot of barren posts. I know they are less interesting. I'm sorry.

Week of June 13th 2011: Osha Lounge

Around June last year, I was saddened to hear that my dear friend, Elissa, would be leaving me and San Francisco to become a New Yorker. While I was excited for her to start a new career and a new adventure, I knew it was going to be tough having such a good friend move away.

....But Elissa knew that too so she filled her last month in SF with lots of outings to her favorite places. As part of this, she asked if I wanted to get drinks with her at Osha Lounge. If there is one thing you need to know about Elissa, it's that she loves Thai food. One of her favorite places is the Osha Thai chain in San Francisco so when they opened a bar and appetizer cocktail lounge, she was on top of it.

Can't remember what these were...

Osha Lounge is a fun little bar. They have a great selection of fun cocktails. The two of us got mojitos and champagne cocktails. A big perk is that you can order anything from the restaurant menu. Both of us are huge fans of the Tuna Tower (a tuna tartar, mango, and avocado dish served with crispy wontons) so we had to get one to share.


I would really recommend Osha Lounge for a girls' happy hour or cocktail night. It is set up for people to easily sit around and chat while enjoying tasty food and beverages. As fate would have it, Elissa is visiting this weekend and we are going back to Osha Lounge tonight. Sure, the fact that this blog is 8 months behind is a little ridiculous but it does make for funny coincidences when things come full circle.

Week of May 2nd 2011: Kennedy's

I am already failing at my resolutions. An early January trip to Las Vegas is not helpful for reading, gyming, blogging, and not going out.... We all get one week off though, right? I promise I'll make it up to you. Anyways, here's your post!

At my last job, I had a coworker that loved Kennedy's. His weekend plans often included a trip there with his friends and his love for the place was so well known that whenever a deal came through Groupon or any other deal site, he would get tons of people forwarding it to him. Clearly, this was a place I had to check out. Since Kennedy's is a combination Indian restaurant and Irish pub located conveniently in the middle of North Beach, it seemed like an ideal place to start my birthday celebration.

Kennedy's was a fun environment. They allowed me to reserve a table big enough for all of my party guests and the food was reasonably priced. Food and beer had to be ordered at the counter, but for the price and space, it was worth the inconvenience. I think the only other qualm I had was that it only served beer. In most circumstances, this would be fine, but after a really filling meal, I didn't feel like a filling beverage either.

Kennedy's seems to constantly show up on deal websites though so keep your eyes peeled for one before you go!

Week of March 21st 2011: Euston Tap (London)

My last night in London, we decided to go check out a bar that Kevin’s roommate had recently read about in a magazine. With about 30 beers on tap and over 100 bottles, we knew we’d be able to find something for each of our pallets.

Euston Tap is located in a very small building near the Euston tube station. We actually walked past it a couple of times before we realized where it was. Kevin ran off to an ATM and told his roommate and I to order his first beer. Since neither of us had really seen Kevin too drunk, we decided to order him a pint of Brew Dog Hardcore IPA – the strongest beer they had. When he asked what it was, the roommate made up a genius story about how he just asked for three random beers… even though the two of us managed to get the same one.

Since Kevin loves a challenge, we spent the whole first drink saying that he should try the 9.2% beer to see if he could handle it (little did he know that’s what he already had…). Of course he took us up on it, but he accidentally ordered a half pint so it came in a different glass. He then started telling us how much better his second beer was. It got even better when he got his 3^rd beer, another full pint and then told us how he knew the whole time that it was the same beer all along.

Anyways, without going into a ton of detail, we succeeded in our mission of getting Kevin drunk and we definitely pulled one over on him. Even though I didn’t get to go to the ice bar and we just spent the night telling jokes in a local pub, I couldn’t think of a better way to round out my trip.

Week of March 7th 2011: Johnny Walker Whiskey Tasting

A few days before taking off for Europe, I got an email about a Johnny Walker Scotch tasting. I figured it would be a fun way to hang out with Shannon some more before taking off for a few weeks.

The tasting was held at Fort Mason and after checking in, we were escorted into a large lounge area. As part of our admission, we were given tickets for a free Johnny Walker drink. The choices were an Old Fashioned, some cocktail I don't remember, or just Johnny Walker black on the rocks. As an ode to my father, I got the Old Fashioned (he got it once when we were out to dinner and I remember liking it) and Shannon got the cocktail. Man, I'm kicking myself for not remembering what it was.... this is why I need to get caught up.
After we got our drinks, we hung around the lounge and nibbled on the array of finger food they had.

Once we'd had our fill, and finished our drinks, it was time for the real show. We were led into another room with seats making a U around a small table covered in a variety of Johnny Walker varieties. At each seat, there was a place mat that a circle for each whiskey we would try - two for black, and one for red, gold and even blue. We were excited.

As everyone got their seats, the emcee came out and showed us a really well made Johnny Walker video. Then they brought out the red and black. We learned that black actually came out first and was designed to be sipped on the rocks. Red on the other hand, is a cheaper, younger blend that is better for cocktails. We got to try the black by itself, with ice, and with water. The red we got to try on its own, and then with some mixers. It was cool to have the opportunity to try the options.

Next they brought everyone a frosted, chilled glass filled with Johnny Walker gold. This was easily our favorite. It was lighter and sweeter than the other blends and Shannon was already picturing which cupcakes she would pair with it. It definitely would be a nice bottle to keep in the freezer for an after dinner drink when guests are over....

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for came - Johnny Walker blue. This is definitely the top shelf of their blends and you could taste it in the strong, deep, smokey flavor. I did still think though that the lighter gold was more fitting for my pallet. I'll have to pick up a bottle some day.

Week of February 28th 2011: Candybar

What do you do when you have Groupon expiring in a week? Well, you grab one of your closest friends and make sure you use that sucker.

Candybar is a little spot that my friend Elissa had told me about before. It's known for champagne cocktails, amazing desserts and board games. Since she told me about the place and loves all of those things (and we were still celebrating her birth), I thought it would be fun to bring her as my date.

Our timing was rather impeccable - we got there shortly after a tour bus full of young professionals. Although we had to wait a while, it was actually kind of entertaining. The "bus" was actually this comically old green bus and all of the participants of the group were dressed in their best suits and cocktail dresses. They all also had name tags on that had 3 random facts about themselves. It was pretty fun to watch until they cleared out and we were able to get a table.

We were finally seated and decided that the most appropriate game at Candybar was clearly Candyland. It should be obvious as to how we chose the colors of our pieces...

We decided to start off the night with two lemon drop shots which were really delicious. Then we ordered a couple of champagne cocktails each. I go the Mango Tango (champagne and mango) and the Jasmine Sparkle (champagne, jasmine and lemon).

For our dessert meals, Elissa got a really good flourless chocolate cake. I decided to get the panna cotta. I'm not sure that I'd even had panna cotta before but it came with a macaron so I was sold.

With our cocktails and desserts, we decided to play a few rounds of Sorry! After we both won a game, we decided to call it a night.

Overall, the bar is really cute. It's a great place to go and have a laid back date night or just spend some time with a friend - just try to avoid the party bus crowds.

Going on a Little Trip....

Hello Readers!!!

As you can tell, this isn't my usual blog post! In a few weeks, I'm going to be going on a little trip and I wanted to get some feedback! I'll be traveling to London, Paris, Amsterdam (somewhere new!), and stopping over in Brussels (also new).

I know a lot of you are big travelers so I wanted to get some suggestions! I love Paris so I have a good idea of what I would like to see there, but I'm pretty clueless otherwise. I'm going to be in London for most of the trip and I'm going to have a lot of time to sight see so please give me some tips.

All suggestions are welcome :)

Week of December 27th 2010: Tonga Room

Eddy and I had been wanting to go to Tonga Room ever since we found out it might close forever when they remodel the Fairmont Hotel. Since it was between the holidays and we both had a free weeknight, we figured it we needed to make it out there.


We decided to go on a Thursday night since they also had an appetizer buffet. For a small price, you got unlimited sesame wings, noodles, macaroni salad, etc.  While most of the food was kind of mediocre (not that that stopped me from piling up my plate as high as physically possible), the chicken wings were incredible.

Eddy and I also decided to get the legendary Scorpion Bowl. They don't let you even order it unless there are two of you. While it was a tasty, fun drink, it didn't quite live up to the hype in my opinion. I had better rum drinks at Rhumbar in Vegas (if you want a Scorpion Bowl, you have to try there's... it is HUGE and comes with atomic cherries). We decided to try the Lava Bowl as well. It was also good, but, well, it tasted almost exactly like the Scorpion Bowl.

The really cool part about the Tonga Room though is the rain. Every now and then, the bar will make thunder noises and then it will rain down in a pool in the middle of the place.

The Tonga Room is definitely a fun spot and worth checking out for the history at least. I would recommend at least going for the happy hour bar but don't stay for more than a couple drinks because it can get kind of pricey.

Week of December 6th 2010: Eve Lounge and Cat Club 80's Night

I decided to start my December right by spending the first two Wednesdays at two separate open bar events. The first was the SF Weekly Benefit that I wrote about last week and the second was my company's annual holiday party. I was very lucky to get a job in the middle of the recession at a company that weathered the hard times reasonably well so we've always been fortunate to have a rather great holiday party. In fact, it's the more or less the thing people warn you about when you join the firm. Last year, our CEO told us that we would sell our computers before we stopped having this party - it's that much of our company's culture.

Despite all of that, this year was relatively tame in my opinion. Although there was lots of drinking, and a few of the managers were heating up the dance floor (caught on iPhone video by some of my East coast coworkers), nothing really ridiculous happened. So, we did what we do every year and headed out to another bar afterward.

You'll be shocked to learn that I am part of the social committee at work (or as we like to call it, the Party Planning Committee, PPC for short) so when they announced last call at the party, I was being asked where we were going next. I sent out a couple text's and learned that Eve Lounge was open. I'd been wanting to go there since a friend's boyfriend is involved in the place and I figured it would be nice to bring a few patrons with me.

I'm not going to lie... my experience at Eve is a little fuzzy. I remember there being a lot seating and I remember having a great talk with a coworker who is joining the Peace Corps in a few weeks. I remember seeing the usual suspects flirting and dancing, but mostly I remember being a floater. I spent a little time talking to the IT guys, and a little time with the boys that I talk sports with, a little time with the New York office employees, and a little time talking a little more in depth with the one or two other people that for some reason I've always clicked with. For some reason in this group, floating really works for me.

Anyways, maybe next time when I make it to Eve, I won't be so far along in my night and I can give you more details about the place.

Although most of the next day was a little slower, I felt like myself by the time I got home the next night. So when I got texts from a friend asking me to come out to Cat Club, down the street from my apartment, I couldn't say no. Little did I know, it was also 80's night so I was in heaven. I love the 80's. Sometimes I joke that I would have been better off being born 15 years early so I would have been a young adult in the 80's and gotten able to really enjoy them instead of listen to 80's covers and re-watching Back to the Future.

80's night was really fun. I would highly recommend going with a group though because the place was a little seedy. Anytime I got too far away from my group of friends I was approached by some guy that gave me the creeps. I'm pretty sure there were at least half a dozen incarnations of Disco Stu so make sure you have a friend of your preferred sexual orientation who will pretend to be your significant other when you need an easy out from a persistent creepster.

Don't get the wrong idea, it was still a really fun environment. If you love to dance and love 80's music and don't mind getting hit on by some characters then you will have a great night. Plus, I got the DJ to play "Just Like Heaven" which is one of my favorite songs (and on Rockband 3!!).

Ok, I have a fat kitty who just made a bed out of my arms and I'm losing circulation in my fingers. Boa noite readers!

Week of November 29th 2010: SF Weekly's Holiday Benefit at the Academy of Science

This was actually a week of deals since I found out about this event through a deal site as well. For $10, we got admission to this open bar benefit at the Academy of Science and how could I say no to that? So Eddy, Try and myself all bought tickets for it and on the first Wednesday in December, we were on our way to the event.

We got there and were instantly greeted by a table full of mini cupcakes and glowing drink mixers. We each grabbed a cupcake and mixing stick and headed to the bar. Eddy got an acai vodka flavored drink while Try and I got some apple cider with rum. We then found another mini cupcake table. I took a picture of the cupcake tower with my rum cider but I was trying to be discrete so the picture wasn't framed well.. oops!

From there we decided it was time to find some food. We walked around and found tables with pizza, mini quiches, chips and salsa, etc. While that may seem like a lot of food, the portions were tiny and we quickly realized the food to beverage ratio was quite small.

So why fight it? We gave up on many of the food booths and started checking out the alcohol sponsored tables. We found it almost impossible to not be holding two drinks at once. The acai vodka had a stand where they were making acai vodka lemonade drinks. They were dangerously sweet.

Eddy also found a booth with whiskey and tequila shot samples. I may have made some man friends at that table when I told them about my prior experiences with Bourbon Whiskey. We both tried one of each although he had to help me finish mine.

After wandering around a little bit more, I found the wine sponsor. They only had two kinds but of course they were Chardonnay and Cabernet which are my two favorites. I ended up just standing around that table for a while enjoying the wines.

At that point, we were definitely feeling the effects of an open bar, alcohol sponsored event so we switched over to beer. Luckily for us, the event was also sponsored by Blue Moon. We ran into my friend Jeremy at the event (who happens to ALWAYS be at the same things as me, but that's another story) and he pointed out that they let you grab two beers at once - so we did and headed down to the aquarium.

I had come straight from work so my feet had started to hurt from my heels so we found a place to sit in the aquarium where we could watch the fish swimming over head. It was nice to rest a little bit and chat with my friends. But too much rest isn't good for anyone so we grabbed our beers and walked around the aquarium until the event ended. Honestly, I would go back to the Academy just to walk around the aquarium. Both times that I went, I didn't go to the aquarium until just before closing so I don't think I've ever gotten to look through it in as much detail as I would have liked. Guess we have to go back?

Week of November 8th 2010: Rickhouse Bar

After one of many disappointing Cal football games that took place in November, my friend Steve decided we could all drink away our sorrows at one of his favorite bars, Rickhouse. Like many other popular bars in San Francisco, Rickhouse is a prohibition themed bar with a classy 20's feel, and when you get my friends in a themed bar - you get themed outfits. Since many of us came straight from the game, or with little time to change in between, we didn't get as dressed up as we have before. I did manage to have enough time to grab my fedora before heading out to the bar.

Upon arrival, we learned that Rickhouse is a little limited space wise and we had to wait outside until a few people cleared out. Luckily though, it was a beautiful and warm November evening and the bouncer was extremely friendly so the time passed quickly.

Soon we were inside where we were greeted by a table full of our friends and a big bowl of punch. My friend Brian got a round of drinks although when I asked him what it was, all he could say was, "I know it had champagne and some kind of juice" in it. Well, much more than I knew. We finished our champagney, fruity drinks and helped out with the punch before it was time for most of our friends to catch BART.

Try and I decided to go out a little longer and met up with another friend at 15 Romolo, another speakeasy themed bar (they really are everywhere in this town). It wasn't my first time there so I won't bore you with the details but I wanted to keep the post going a little longer since I had so much fun rocking my hat. I think I may need to start wearing it out more often. I could do with a few more accessories every now and then.

Week of October 25th 2010: Pumpkin Punch & Koko Cocktails

As I sit in the airport ridiculously early for my flight (rumors about crazy body scanners, groping, tantrums, and protests prove to be decidedly untrue if you fly the day before the day before the holiday), I figure that it may be time for another post. Since Thanksgiving is almost upon us, it is only fitting that I write about the week of Halloween. I really need to catch up on these posts...

So this blog was always about doing new things and although many of my early posts centered around going to new places, a new thing can be as simple as something you can make at home. To get excited for Halloween, I had a crazy urge to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas. In order to coax some of my friends to join me, I promised them some sort of festive fall punch. I did a little bit of snooping around and ended up finding a great recipe for a pumpkin punch (I tried finding the link again and couldn't find the same exact site but if you search for "pumpkin punch" on Google, there are a several versions).

I thought it qualified as a new thing since the drink was served in a pumpkin rather than a punch bowl (which is very convenient for people who may not own punch bowls). You start out by hollowing out the pumpkin like you would if you were to carve it. I made the top a bit bigger though so it would be easier to scoop the drink out of it. Once it was mostly cleaned out, I began scraping the inside of the pumpkin so that I could get some nice raw pumpkin chunks that would be used later in the drink.

The drink was pretty simple and consisted of 1 part spiced rum, 1 part apple cider, and 2 parts ginger ale. I then added back the pumpkin chunks, some cinnamon sticks and a couple dashes of cinnamon for flavor. It was really tasty but mostly it was just fun to drink out of a pumpkin. Things got interesting near the bottom when we had to take turns "tipping the pumpkin" to get the drink out. Needless to say, we had way too much fun with this.

A few days later it was the Saturday before Halloween and time to wander the streets in costumes and such. My friends and I figured it would be fun to just go bar hopping on Polk St. For those not in SF, Polk St. in well known for being littered with small, casual little bars and it's great if you want to go out to a fun place and not spend too much money. It's also almost guaranteed you'll fun into friends.

I'd been to many of the bars on Polk St. but I had never made it to Koko Cocktails. My friend Shannon recommended we start there and I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I heard the name. However, it was a really cool bar inside. They were showing The Shining in the background and had a drink special called Red Rum which was basically rum and cranberry. It was a really fun little place and they had a lot of nice "Shining" themed touches. Example: in the bathroom, RedRum was also written on the walls - across from the mirror. I had a lot of fun there and I'm excited to go back for New Years!

Well Readers, if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days then Happy Thanksgiving! I am going to try to get to next weeks posts soon though. I want to dedicate them to my Dodger fan of a brother. In fact, I care so much about my brother, I'm wearing my Giant's shirt. Hopefully, he's still up when I get to Phoenix. I also hope that it's warm there because he may not let me sleep in his house... I guess sleeping outside in the dessert would be a new thing for me, although I was hopefully that it would have been a new Phoenix bar or restaurant. Suggestions?

Week of October 11th 2010: (Disneyland Edition) Flik's Fliers, ElecTRONica, World of Color

As part of my trip to L.A., I also made my annual trip to Disneyland. It definitely wasn't a new thing for me but I thought it would be fun to write about what's new there since last year. If there are any other Disneyland lovers out there, I'm sure they would love to hear about how the new attractions.

Flik's Fliers might not be a new ride but I had never been on it before so I'm going to count it!! The ride is in the middle of Bug's Life Land in California Adventure. Actually, come to think of it... everything new in this post was in California Adventure... but I digress. The ride isn't all that exciting but it's very cute. Since you're supposed to be bug-sized in Bug's Life Land, the cars are Chinese take-out and animal cracker cookie boxes. Curtis and Oleg wanted to be take-out so they jumped in that car while Shannon and I found cookies to be more fitting. Once the ride started, the middle rose up (so that the cars were in the air) and exposed that the engine was inside a giant whipped cream container. Overall - very cute and an easy way to kill 5 minutes with a lineless ride.

Most of the day was spent going on the classic rides and a lot of shopping was done. No, really, we stopped in almost every store. We had also managed to get an "It's my Birthday" pin for Shannon so all day she was wished happy birthday and she even got serenaded at lunch. Each time it made me giggle a little bit and we decided that it was more of a very merry unbirthday a la Alice in Wonderland.

As the day progressed, we saw a lot of signs for ElecTRONica, which I had never heard of before. This excited the nerd in Oleg and I and we both really wanted to see what we assumed to be some sort of show. Well, we showed up and there was a mini-Tron show comparing Tron from the 80's to Tron Legacy, but the show was all to advertise this ElecTRONica thing. ElecTRONica, it turns out, is a giant nightclub in the middle of Disney California Adventure. I was not expecting that at all. Although they tried to sell it as "fun for the whole family" they couldn't mask the fact that it was more or less a giant rave. The bar featured glowing drinks and I ordered a "Glow"hito which was fantastic. The music was also great - they had a couple of DJs but were mostly playing the Daft Punk music from the new movie.

In the back of ElecTRONica was Flynn's arcade. Flynn's, like in the movie, featured your favorite video games from the 80's. There was Pac-Man and Space Invaders and an air hockey table. Plus, just like in the 80's, everything was a quarter. Just outside Flynn's arcade, a few wii's were set up to let people play a new Tron racing game. Oleg and I played and unfortunately I lost, but I'm pretty sure he cheated so don't feel too bad.

Oleg had to leave at that point so the rest of us picked up another glowing drink and decided to stake out a place for the World of Color show. Basically, Disney completely gutted the whole lake in the middle of California Adventure and installed a ton of jet stream fountains like at the Bellagio. However, they then projected videos and images onto the fountains. It really was beautiful to look at. They also incorporated some pyrotechnics which is always fun. I think my favorite part though were the mini fountains and colored lamp posts spread throughout the audience. It was a nice little touch to have them unexpectedly incorporated into the show. I think that is my favorite thing about Disney all together - the details. Every little detail about everything Disney is so impeccable and perfect and the World of Color show was no different.

Well, that's it for my summary on what's new at Disneyland. Like I said, I'm a pro on the park so let me know if you want any suggestions. If you've been before - what's your favorite attraction? I will always love Big Thunder Mountain the best. I also love the Off the Page store and animation studio in California Advenure, although ElecTRONica might be gaining.