Martin's DW

I started off today by wandering around Winnipeg for a couple hours and checking out used book and comic shops in the area. I didn't find anything too exciting, but I did grab a back issue that was on my priority list and, of all things, an Aquaman collection from Red River Book Store, a shop in the Exchange District. This all took a bit longer than I expected and I had to dash a bit to get my loot back to my hotel, then head to the convention in time for the first panel I wanted to see today, at 1:00pm. This was "Dinosaurs! We want more Dinosaurs!" which was basically Julie Czerneda (and the audience) asking Dr. Philip John Currie, a paleontologist, questions about avians' Mezozoic predecessors. Dinosaurs are always fun to hear about.

After that panel I hung out in the exhibit hall a bit, checking out the exhibits, the Art Show, and being amused by a fanzine discussing the Memphis 2023 Worldcon bid. I then headed downstairs to Nisi Shawl's Guest of Honor interview, and after that I attended the memorial for John Mansfield, the Fan Guest of Honor. Following that it was after 6pm and NASFiC site selection had closed. As one of the WSFS staff members for this convention, I went to help count the ballots, which went reasonably expeditiously and resulted in ... well, you'll all get to find out tomorrow morning at 10am CDT.

Once the site selection result had been obtained, the WSFS staff (all five of us) had an enjoyable dinner at the Elephant & Castle attached to the Delta. Towards the end of our meal, thunder started booming and rain began pouring down. Fortunately, we were shielded by the building overhand and a table umbrella, but it was still a bit exciting. We paid up and headed back inside, dispersing. Linda Deneroff and I swung by the parties (there were three tonight: Seattle in 2025, Glasgow Worldcon 2024, and Minneapolis in '73; unfortunately the parties were operating under fairly strict capacity restrictions by hotel mandate) before heading back to our respective hotels. The rain had, fortunately, blown over by this point.

Tomorrow morning: the first ever NASFiC Business Meeting.

Today was the longest travel day I've had in quite some time. I woke up at 4am PDT to drive up to Millbrae BART, where I dropped off my car and headed to SFO. I got to the airport at about 5:30am. It was pretty quite that early. Security was really fast (to the point where I was scrambling to have my documents ready for display—I'm used to having a bit more time in line to get them out). SFO has nifty new baggage screening carousels that at least look a lot cooler than the old ones we're all used to. And I got ferried into a metal detector line to further speed things up. So that was all very convenient.

This would be my first flight out of the revamped Harvey Milk Terminal 1, and while I think I missed the biggest part of the exhibition outside of security there were a good amount of Harvey Milk pictures inside the secure area. There was also a cool little SF Opera Centennial exhibit with a bunch of costumes from a century of opera productions. I had a decent amount of time to kill so I checked out as much of the area in B concourse as I could before boarding began. It started promptly a bit before 7am and I was soon on the airplane, a WestJet 737 MAX 8.

And there I sat for a bit longer than expected. Despite getting in the night before, the airplane apparently had a last-minute mechanical issue that needed to be addressed. Fortunately this only took about fifteen minutes, which was just long enough for me to start researching backup flights to Winnipeg before the situation was resolved, the gate doors were closed, and the flight proceeded apace. We made up the time en route to Calgary. I didn't get to see much, being in the aisle of a row where the window-seat occupants decided to close their windows the entire flight, but I did get a couple glimpses of the Canadian Rockies. And I read about half of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, which was the one Best Novel Hugo finalist novel I hadn't read yet.

We got to Calgary a bit after 11am MDT. Canadian customs was quick and fairly painless (sadly, no passport stamp) and so I had a good three hours to kill at YYC before my connecting flight to Winnipeg left. And, well, it feels that a lot of YYC is awaiting new tenants. I was flying out of Concourse C which was absolutely packed, so I headed down to the other domestic concourses and while they were quieter, they also were mostly devoid of anything I wanted to eat. I did get a bit of fun planespotting in: most notably WestJet's Mickey Mouse Disney World 737-800, but I also appreciated the Dash 8 turboprops that the Canadian regional airlines still fly. (The U.S. majors phased out turboprops in their regional affiliates some time ago.) At any rate, hungry, I finally joined the Tim Horton's line at Concourse C. This was a mistake. Not because of the food, but because the queue was painfully slow.

After eating I wandered over to my gate and ran into a few fans; we chatted until it was boarding time. The 737-800 (in normal WestJet livery, in case you were getting any ideas) was on a very quick turnaround from YQQ and ended up departing a bit late because there just wasn't any way to board everybody in time. (And by everybody, I mean every seat—both flights today were full.) That's on whoever in WestJet wrote up the schedules. This time the windows stayed open but there wasn't a whole lot to look at between takeoff and landing, so I finished the novel about fifteen minutes before landing. The ride down was a trifle bumpy but nothing to write home about.

Upon deplaning in Winnipeg, I headed for the bus stop outside the airport. Just after I got there it started pouring rain, so I had to duck into the covered bus shelter to grab my hoodie out of my suitcase and don it. The bus started out pretty empty but filled up quickly as we got close to downtown. (Amusingly, it's the exact same kind of bus that VTA runs.) By 6:30pm CDT it had stopped raining and I was at my hotel, the Holiday Inn & Suites in Downtown Winnipeg. This is actually the overflow hotel for Pemmi-Con because I was lazy about booking my reservation. I actually don't mind, since it's an excuse to walk around the city more. I got a top-floor room and even a little welcome gift of Perrier and lemonade, which surprised me since I have, uh, "Club Member" status with IHG. Still it's actually really nice to get a treat when checking in.

After taking a half hour or so to decompress a bit, I decided I needed to stretch my legs a bit in a luggage-free environment, so I walked down to the Forks Market. This took maybe another half hour. I passed by the Manitoba Legislative Building, the RBC Convention Center, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the way. What really struck me is that I also passed by a bunch of low-density commercial and industrial lots, too. For being in, or at least very close to, downtown Winnipeg, it's really not that built-up and feels surprisingly run-down in sections. I was actually a bit surprised.

I wandered around the Forks Market, which is an old railroad site near the conjunction of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, for a bit before heading back to my hotel (okay, I wandered around the convention center a bit too on the way back). I grabbed pizza from across-the-street Freshslice Pizza and finally felt full. And then I wrote all this up!