The Adventures of BatGirl vs the Long Line of Standstillia

Last weekend was the very first Salt Lake City Comic Con. I'm a fan of Comics and all the related stuff that I know happens at the big San Diego Comic Con, but I was a little wary about attending this one. Salt Lake doesn't have a great track record for Nerdy conventions. I've been to a few in the past that were trying really hard, but had low attendance and no good exhibits or presentations. So when I heard about this event I was actually going to skip it. Then Cara mentioned that they had actually changed the venue to the Salt Palace because it was getting big. That caught my attention and I did some digging, (or rather I went to the Comic Con website). I found out that they actually had some big guests coming, Stan Lee, Shatner, Adam West, to name just a few. I figured Aven would like the superhero costumes and so I got some tickets for Saturday, Oh how I wish I had chosen Thursday or Friday.
At the time I bought the tickets they were advertising 20,000 tickets sold so far. Pretty impressive I thought this could be a a good convention and start a new tradition here in SLC. Well turns out they managed to get 70 to 80 thousand people there on Saturday. Also they apparently had stopped bothering to see if anyone had tickets at some point and the salt palace went over capacity. Aven and I showed up after lunch just in time to get in line and be told that they weren't letting anyone in. The Fire Marshall had closed the event for now until they could get a handle on the situation.
I figured we wouldn't be outside for long and I had already paid for a ticket so we stuck around in line and did some people (Super hero) watching. Aven loved all the costumes and it was really the only thing keeping her happy for what ended up being a 1 hour wait just to get into the Salt Palace. Once inside I had to get this kid, who was now getting a little cranky, a snack. Well the lines inside were not any better then the one to get in. All the concessions stands that I found had huge lines, and I knew Aven was sick of standing around not moving. I managed to find a juice bar that only had a few people in line and I got her a smoothie. That satisfied her for a bit. Now, finally for the fun part, right? Okay, so we head into the booth section of the floor and it was crowded- seriously crowded. It was a challenge maneuvering through that crowd especially while dragging along a four year old. I quickly threw her up on my shoulders so I could move around easier and let her see more, while making sure she didn't get lost in the crowd.  I was hoping to spend some time looking at toys for Aven maybe check out some comic books and some artwork, but it was too crazy in their for me so I just kept moving, trying to see it all. We managed to see most of the booths and glance at some cool art work and some vintage toys before I got a bit tired of the crowds and decided it was time to go home. I bought Aven a Batman car set so she would have something to take home and we high-tailed it out of there. Long story short, I will go back next year but not on Saturday. I'll also try to schedule it better and maybe attend a presentation or talk. Although I'm not sure how well Aven will sit though one of those.

Waiting in line, we were near a Creeper from Minecraft, or a "Green Monster" in Aven's words.

A cool Dinosaur visited the line outside for a bit. Aven didn't want to go say Hi.

There were lots of kids in costume, Aven pointed them all out. "Look it's Hulk Smash!"

Princess Peach didn't stay long enough for me to get my phone unlocked. 

Finally Inside the convention, Waiting in line for a smoothy, here's some Deadmou5 photos.
I think Aven thought they were Micky Mouse.

Zombies Scare Aven.

And there were a lot of them. 

Halloween is just around the Corner and Fear Factory (a haunted house) had a big booth.

Again, Aven didn't want to say Hi. 

Random Steam punkers in a not so crowded area of the floor.

On the way out Aven struck another super hero pose for me.