The (San Diego) Barracks

My journey to Comic-Con began on Wednesday July 20th, 2011. In line to check in at the Ottawa airport I overheard a young lady behind me mention that she too was heading to Comic-Con. Between planes in Toronto I noticed a few folks wearing Comic-Con T-shirts; it seemed that all roads were converging on San Diego!

Greeting me on arrival at the San Diego airport were @chrisleaning and @Lottery_Ticket. (I'll use Twitter names in these posts.) It was the first time I had met either in person! I recognized Lotto from a few video calls we've had in the past, but I didn't recognize Chris and actually mistook him for one of my other Twitter friends. Slightly embarrassing, but a sign of the times, I guess.

Lotto drove us back to "The Barracks", our code name for the two condos in Mission Beach that we had rented out. The interior and exterior were already decked out in LOST decorations, including a wonderful take on The Numbers designed by @zort70 and printed by @andalone.

Below photo courtesy @CaliPH

Likewise the interior of the condos were filled with amazing LOST art and other paraphernalia. I was in equal measures astounded and delighted by my surroundings. Several of the Barracks Losties had been shipping boxes of goodies to San Diego in the weeks leading up to our rendezvous. Many of the items involved many hours of effort to put together. Kudos and thank you to everyone involved!

Below 3 photos courtesy @CaliPH
Below photo courtesy @LOST_4815162342

Below photo courtesy @CaliPHBelow photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

Also appearing at The Barracks was HOST (Head-on-a-Stick), a dead ringer for @andalone who traveled the globe last year and even has her own blog. HOST's signatures include Carlton Cuse and several LOST fans involved in the LOSTArgs.com site.

Below photo courtesy Mel

The Barracks are located just seconds from the beach. It features a large deck which we made good use of day and night.

Below photo courtesy Mel

Below 2 photos courtesy @CaliPH

The Wednesday of my arrival was also the night of our big LOST party at The Barracks. Invitations went out to many prominent LOST fans who were either in the San Diego area or were known to be in town for Comic-Con. @Lottery_Ticket did an amazing job putting together and sending out the invites; my contribution was a minor "script polish" on the text of the invitation letter and the boarding pass.


DHARMA cook @kiwilostie manned one of the grills. Along with BBQ we had a huge selection of food and alcohol. Mel's homemade chile was a favourite.

Below photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

Below photo courtesy Mel

Below photo courtesy @CaliPH

Each party guest was required to undergo DHARMA orientation and testing. This included trivia questions, ink blot interpretation, recording information about other party guest in a notebook, and viewing of an amazing slick DHARMA video produced specifically for that evening. (I was personally thrilled when some of my text from the invite was used in the video!) We also played a round of Hurley golf.

Below photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

Below 3 photos courtesy @CaliPH

Well-known LOST fan @jopinionated was at the party that night. She was a lot of fun and the whole group had a blast with her LOST trivia questions. Somehow I managed to prevail in the first round of trivia and won a Super 8 ball cap.

Below 2 photos courtesy @BonnieJGreen

Below 3 photos courtesy @CaliPH

Jo was presented with a print of one of Jack Bender's LOST paintings. She is a real bundle of energy and enthusiasm.

Below photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

I had a little surprise for Jo as well. Knowing that she's a HUGE Elizabeth Mitchell fan (and even had the privilege of meeting her a couple of times) I brought one of Juliet's shirts that I had won during the 2010 LOST auction. It is the shirt that Juliet wore on Hydra Island for several episodes (and a mobisode) including her first centric episode Not In Portland. Jo looked thrilled and I was in turn happy to be able to share it with her that evening.

Photo below courtesy @CaliPH

Below photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

Photo below courtesy @CaliPHBelow photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

The mastermind behind The Barracks gathering was @Lottery_Ticket, who invested many hours over the previous few months organizing every aspect of the trip. It was she who convinced me to venture out to San Diego, and for that I am forever grateful. In thanks for all of her work, The Barracks housemates acquired some of Kevin Tong's original drawings for The Hatch, one of the poster produced for the Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear series. They were presented to her that evening.

Below photo courtesy @CaliPH

Below photo courtesy @BonnieJGreen

There were also many prizes and party favours, each demonstrating the amount of effort and love that had gone into the party preparation.


What a first day of vacation! Incredible. If I had known then the amazing events that would unfold afterward, my head may have literally exploded.