This weekend our ship the USS Angeles, the local chapter of the Starfleet International fan organization hosted the regional Starfleet conference here in Los Angeles. Our own group numbers about 60 and is pretty diverse and spread out since we cover all of southern California and have members in 5 counties and a few out-of-state as well. The region we're in, Region 4, covers a pretty wide geographical area and has I believe 20 chapters spread throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona. This conference, since it was in LA also drew a few people from the midwest as well. In all we had 43 guests.
A Starfleet conference isn't a convention. It's more like a big family reunion. It's friends who are spread far and wide getting together for a weekend once a year and enjoying themselves.
The boys and I were helping out throughout the weekend and as part of the planning committe I'd taken on the task of arranging the transportation for two tours we planned and offered to anyone who wanted to do a little Star Trek sightseeing. Basicly anyone who wanted to go on one of the tours just chipped in and I rented tour buses.
We were based at a small hotel, the Marriott Courtyard at LAX. For the locals it's no big deal that Hollywood is our backyard and as a club we volunteer regularly at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. So Saturday we took everybody to Hollywood where we had arranged for exclusive use of the Star Trek sets that are part of the Museums collection. Paramount has donated a lot of stuff to the museum. They've got the original bridge set from the Enterprise-D. Part of Picard's ready room, part of the engineering set, a transporter room and all kinds of props and costumes. They also have stuff from throughout the history of television and movies. Another favorite set of mine at the museum is the Cheers Bar set. So after everyone played on the sets for a while we walked down Hollywood Blvd past the various Star Trek actors stars in the sidewalk to Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Friday night we'd had a big party to kick off the weekend so after the tour of Hollywood we had a little down time before a big banquet that Saturday evening that was also a fundraiser for our chapters adopted charity The Any Soldier Program and the Hurricaine Katrina Red Cross Fund. Sam's company agreed to match the money raised and I'm pleased to say we raised a little over $2000. We'd invited some of our Star Trek contacts as guests for the banquet. Max Cervantes who made the hand props from the Next Gen movies, DS9, Voyager and the series premiere of Enterprise. Jim Van Over who worked for Mike Okuda in the graphic art department for 11 years and who is currently working on Threshold. Larry Nemecek the editor of the Star Trek Communicator magazine and author of the Next Gen Companion. Both Max and Jim are Angeles members. We'd been able to get stuff donated and Jim and Larry donated small set pieces for raffle prizes so we had both a raffle and an auction. Larry, Max and Jim had us all in stitches with their Star Trek stories and everyone ate copious amounts of delicious food and lets just say it's a good thing no one had to drive home.
Somehow we stumbled out of bed this morning and dragged ourselves downstairs where we embarked on another bus and headed off for two stops that were kind of spread out but it was worth it because we all had so much fun today.
The first stop was the Japanese Gardens a public park in the San Fernando Valley. This is the site used to film any exterior shots in Star Trek that are set at Starfleet Academy. The very futuristic looking building that houses the Tillman Water Reclaimation Plant is really stunning against the backdrop of this absolutely beautiful and authentic Japanese Garden. It's an incredibly peaceful place and once you enter the garden's gateway you would never suspect you were in the largest city in the United States. We strolled around for about an hour and a half, quite a few partaking of tea in the tea house.
Then it was back to the bus where we headed to Vasquez Rocks State Park which is just a little north of Los Angeles. After a stop for lunch we head into the park and disembarked to spend the afternoon exploring the various trails and do a little climbing. The bravest souls climbed some of the more magnificent rock formations. The Vasquez Rocks are another stunning site. This is where numerous television shows and movies have been filmed including a considerable amount of Star Trek.
I'll admit I won't attempt the big towering spikes but I do enjoy climbing the smaller formations. Both boys went all the way up the tallest though. Poor Ed Nowlan got to the tip of the tallest, threw his arms up in triumph and his beloved hat blew away. There have been running gags going for years about Ed's hat so several people decided to launch a rescue mission. I kid you not, these folks were trying to rescue a hat from a deep crevise several yards down the face of a VERY large rock formation. After a while they admitted defeat and poor Ed was very good natured about all the teasing.
So a bit later as the bus is pulling out to head back to the hotel Goldie looks back and sees that a small group has managed to retreive Ed's hat. So the bus driver finds a place further up the dirt road to pull over and half the bus goes running back to climb up and meet them and claim the hat. We laughed most of the way home.
Those lucky enough to have tomorrow off for the holiday were staying an extra night but most of us had to depart so we said our goodbyes when we got back to the hotel and climbed into our respective cars or headed for the airport. Sadly the boys and I had to depart too as they have school tomorrow. We got home a couple of hours ago. But is sure was a fun weekend.
