Flight to SMOFCon

This morning I got up at my usual work day time and did not rush. I did make one miscalculation, though: the freezing fog continues to bedevil us, and I cannot find my frost scraper. It's not something that I use all that often given that I work from home and rarely need to be out and about in this weather. I eventually got the windows sufficiently thawed that I could set off for Reno Airport.

About the time I checked my luggage and was making my way to Terrorization, I got an update from Alaska Airlines telling me of a small flight delay. That was actually good because it meant that I would have enough time to have a full breakfast rather than whatever I could grab from Subway or McDonalds. In the end, I had about 15 minutes leeway.

It was nice to have a first class seat. This was my first trip on an Embraer E175, which has 2-1 seating in first class, and I had the side with the single seat, which suits me fine. It was a comfortable trip, and I took a bunch of photos.

This was last photo of the set, which was the plane on which we flew. This flight arrived at what I think of as the "Horizon" terminal and we deplaned from a ramp, not from a jetway. Fortunately, the weather was fine.

Here we are climbing out from Reno. We were warned that there would be turbulence, but I think we got lucky and it was a smooth flight.

Another view of Reno from the air.

North of Reno, we passed this fog-filled valley.

I think that is Mount Lassen in the upper middle distance.

And if that was Mount Lassen, this must be Mount Shasta.

I think his group of Oregon mountains was The Sisters.

It did not seem to be long before we were passing over Tacoma and descending into SeaTac. That appears to be the Tacoma Narrows below.

I took a couple of pictures of Puget Sound.

I think this must be Mount Baker, north of Seattle.

We made a broad turn to come into SeaTac from the north, passing over Boeing Field.

And after an uneventful flight, we landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The Doubletree Hotel is very close to SeaTac Airport. So it is ironic that it took me almost as much time to get from SeaTac to the Doubletree as the flight took to get from RNO to SEA. First there was a delay getting the luggage out. Then I went to the wrong place to get the hotel shuttle. Then I had to backtrack to the terminal to find a restroom, not helped by the huge amount of terminal renovations making a mockery of the signage. I finally made it out to the correct pickup location and called the hotel second time. They told me the driver would be there soon. In this case "soon" meant thirty minutes. It's just possible that I could have walked to the hotel faster. But I got there in the end, even if I was so disoriented that I left my luggage on the curb when I went inside to check in.

I was given the option of waiting several hours for the single king room originally blocked and reserved for me in the tower, or taking a nominal downgrade to a single queen, but on the ground floor of Wing 6 of the hotel. I took the latter. I'm traveling alone, and having a room sooner was better than later. Besides, while the Con Suite it on the Penthouse floor of the tower, Programming is in the function rooms downstairs, so it is possibly more convenient to be on a ground floor room. At least I'm not out on Wing 5B. (Norwescon regulars will understand why that's a good thing.) OTOH, this room doesn't have a refrigerator. On the gripping hand, there are no stores nearby so there's nothing perishable for me to store.

After unpacking and checking messages, I went up to the Penthouse and ended up spending the afternoon and evening smoffing, as one does at a SMOFcon. I did eventually get a meal, as I met up with Kent Bloom and Mary Morman, who invited me to join them for dinner in the hotel restaurant, which I did. We later were joined by Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf (who is leading the only bid for SMOFCon 42 (2025), Stockholm) and Vincent Docherty.

After dinner it was back upstairs for more socializing, which is to me one of the biggest attractions of SMOFCon. There was certainly no shortage of subjects about which to talk, with the plans of Worldcon 2025 Seattle (not the same group as is running SMOFCon this year) announcing plans to hold the WSFS Business Meeting mostly online.

Several people asked after Lisa, and I explained that she was a bit traveled out from the three month Worldcon trip.

The convention actually starts on Friday. See the SMOFCon 41 website if you are interested. If you are local to the area and are interested in the subject of genre convention running, you can still join at the door.

Fortunately, I don't have any commitments early on Friday, so I don't have to be up early. That's goodk because getting up at 4:30 AM and socializing until Midnight is something that's much harder to do than it was when I was in my twenties.