So Wednesday, July 20 is when the fun really started. We all hung around and did our own thing on Wednesday morning with the intentions of meeting up for our now annual kick-off-Comic-Con trip to In N Out. Personally, I took a nice hour long walk around Seaport Village and down the “boardwalk” behind our hotel and enjoyed the nice weather and last bit of quiet me time I’d get for a week. It was lovely.
At about 1:15pm, Jay, Jana, Clif, Nick, Boston, Mike, Alirio and I set off for the Trolley to take us to the In N Out at Mission Valley to meet up with Kolkie, Tim, Cory, and Michael. On our walk from the trolley stop to In N Out, we saw our old friend the Divorce Van waiting there to welcome us back. We all had fun hanging out and catching up, but the fun really started on the car ride home. Jana and Mike took the trolley back one stop to Fashion Valley to pick up their non-Preview Night passes while Kolkie, Tim, Cory and their friend Aaron drove 
back to the hotel themselves. Out of the goodness of his heart, Michael offered to take the rest of us back in his little Saturn. Boston called shotgun so as he stretched out in his nice, comfortable front seat, Alirio, Jay, Clif, Nick and I all crammed into the backseat. We could barely close the door and I’m fairly certain that Jay won’t be able to have kids for at least a year since both Alirio and myself were on his lap, but it was still an…adventure. The best part was when we got lost and it took us probably 10 minutes longer to get back to the Hyatt than it should have, haha. Boston took video of us all squished in, so that’ll have to be posted somewhere.
After regaining feeling in our limbs, we headed down to the Convention Center and straight up to the Sails Pavilion to get our passes. It was a quick and painless process this year. This year, we got sneak peaks at the shows “Alcatraz,” “Person of Interest,” “The Secret Circle,” and “Supernatural: The Anime Series.” “Supernatural” was up first. Not a fan. Maybe it’s just because I don’t watch anime, but I didn’t like how they combined the storylines from the first & second seasons in a way that made no sense to someone who’d never seen the show before. “Alcatraz” was second and it did not disappoint. Starring Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill, and Sarah Jones, “Alcatraz” is a (SPOILER ALERT) suspenseful mystery about missing inmates from the famous prison that are reappearing in 2011, looking exactly as they did when they disappeared. I think that there’s a lot of potential for this to be a really good series; I just hope that they have a way to continue the show past just one season.
We skipped “The Coven” in favor of going to wander around the Exhibit Hall floor. I have to say that with the exception of the very center booths for the big studios (Summit Entertainment and Fox, for example) and the popular toys (Mattel and Hasbro), the Exhibit Hall was totally tolerable this year. When we got down there on Wednesday night, Jack asked me, “Did they get new carpeting on this floor?” and I said, “No, I think you can just actually see the floor this year.” We spent about 40 minutes on the floor and then headed back upstairs to 
Ballroom 20 to catch “Person of Interest” starring Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel. I also enjoyed “Person of Interest.” I will admit that the concept is 100% far fetched [Though I think Fox Mulder would disagree…] but it’s still got some good action and the storyline did have us all hooked, wanting to learn more. Part of me wishes that they hadn’t actually revealed to us why Michael Emerson’s character does what he does because it was sorta unbelievable BUT it’s nice to know up front and not have a revolt of “Across the Sea” proportions if it were to be revealed later on in the season/series.
After Preview Night was over, we all headed over to Fred’s for Media Junkyard’s “unofficial” meet-up. As we have the last 3 years, Boston, Jay, Kolkie and I “officially” started off the partying part of San Diego Comic Con with a shot of Cuervo. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I had a freaking BLAST at Fred’s that night. I know it’s not the best Mexican food by any means, but that bartender makes a mean margarita and it’s just a fun atmosphere to hang out and drink and just have fun with friends. I hung out with Ralph and Tonto Ted for a bit. We headed back to the Hyatt upon 
leaving Fred’s for a little after-party action. I won’t say much about the after party, but we did end up on the 4th floor in front of the fire pit after security was called to break up our very noisy group lol. There was also an incident involving me “punching” a blue cake (which I maintain I wanted to eat, but the BoyzMJ told me I had to punch it before we ate it). All in all, it was a very fun and random first official night of San Diego Comic Con 2011.
