Last weekend we got the opportunity to attend Wekfest LA. From previous experience in San Francisco; we knew this was going to be an awesome event and were very excited to be attending. As the weekend got closer-anticipation got bigger. I only had to work 3 days that week but it felt as if I had worked 7 days…time passed so slowly.
Friday morning I headed out to Matt’s house. I was meeting Paul, Jorge, his son David, and Jorge’s nephew. As I approached Matt’s house, I saw the gargantuan van Matt just got. You could NOT miss it! Shockingly, everybody was there on time, we loaded up, made a plan, and took off. I rode with Paul and he told me that we had to make a quick stop at Acura of Tempe to get some parts for the RSX. The rest of the crew were not stopping so we just planned to catch up with them.
As we were about to exit the free-way, we saw a warning stating I-10 heading Westbound was closed due to a car accident. Since Matt and Jorge were ahead of us, they gave us a quick report of the closure details and reported that it was a big mess. After picking up the parts, we took off and chose a different route. However, this was no good and we camped out for a minute. After some more waiting, we were through and headed after our convoy. The rest of our trip went without a hiccup… well other than having to deal with Paul’s erratic driving!
We split-up when we arrived at L.A. since Matt had to return some parts. Checking-in to our hotel was a complete fiasco. Everything was messed up and I thought Paul was going to end up fighting somebody….those shoes man. We all met again later that night after we ironed out the hotel situation. Everyone was tired and was ready to call it a night but Matt and I decided to go out and do a small photo session of the city at night. We didn’t realized how late it was until the five-o showed up and chased some kids out of the park. Somehow, we went unnoticed and we were not even asked to leave.
The next morning, waking up was hard since we hardly slept but somehow we found the energy. We grabbed our gear and headed out on our way to the Queen Mary. Once we arrived, you could not miss the huge cruise ship. The funny thing was; as majestic as the Queen Mary is – eyes of thousands were focused elsewhere.
We got the opportunity to enter the event earlier than we thought. This was a good thing since once the doors opened, it would become difficult to take photos with people around. At first I tried to move quickly and take as many photos as I could but the lack of sleep and food caught up with me and I had to slow down. I used this slow down process to talk to people. I saw great friends that I had not seen in a while. As well as, Matt introduced me to a few peeps that I knew only by postings on forums and/or by looking at their photos. It was good to put a face to a screen name.
Lunch couldn’t arrive any sooner and we took the opportunity to call it the half-time show. A few of us took the water bus across the bay to get some grub. I swear I could have had two servings but I knew I would pay for it later. An even bigger party was on the way to meet us but by the time they got there, we were finished. From what I heard; their lunch became a marathon and lasted over two hours.
We took the water bus back to Wekfest to do some more walking, talking and capturing. Only this time, we took our sweet time.
Photos from our morning session. Second half coming soon.
