I've been an exhibitor at HeroesCon many times in the past but this year would be different as I would be taking my family with me. I had told my 12 year old daughter Kassidy that if she finished a full length minicomic that I would print it up and take it and her with me to Heroes Con. She met the challenge so we decided to make a sort-of family vacation out of the trip to Charlotte.
We left for Charlotte on the Wednesday before the show. Usually, I would just make the four hour drive down from southwest VA the morning of the first day of the show and spend the weekend in a sleep deprived fog. I gotta say that driving down well in advance is great and a major stress reliever.
As this was a family trip we decided to stay south of downtown in a more family friendly hotel. And by family friendly, I mean a hotel with a swimming pool. I like the hotels in downtown Charlotte fine. The beds in the Westin are super nice. But none of those hotels have swimming pools. Last I checked the Westin did not even have free wifi. Hell, the Westin does not even have free parking included with the price of your room. Kids, they need swimming pools and wifi.
We stayed at a Residence Inn and it was super nice. The room was huge with a full kitchen, couch, bar, desk etc. The hotel had swimming pool, weight room, hot tub and a gas fire pit. Loved it. I would miss getting drunk with pals in the Westin lobby but I wouldn't miss it enough to give up the hot tub and the fire pit.
I've been to Charlotte many times but the only thing I've ever done there is go to the convention center and some surrounding eateries. We didn't want this trip to be just about sitting at a comics show so we let the kids pick out something to do the day before. We ended up choosing Carowinds. I was super happy with that choice because I love roller coasters so very much. My youngest daughter, Alana, is 7 so this was her first amusement park visit where she was tall enough to ride all the fun rides. She had a fantastic time. The first thing she said at the end of almost every ride was "can we ride it again?" My wife and older daughter also had a nice time but I think they would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had not been 96 degrees that day. It was hot. Not gonna lie. It was super hot.