If you went over to my appearances page, you might have noticed that I crossed LonCon off the list. 😦

As much as we’d love to attend LonCon3 (WorldCon) in London this year, we’ve gone over the finances, and the difficulty, and the challenges of either bringing Caitlin with us, or only one of us going, or leaving her stateside with dear friends while we both go, and we’ve determined that it’s just not worth it to us.

We both LOVE London. Going as a family, we couldn’t afford to stay longer to do London Things. Going separately, we’re not keen on doing London Things without the other. (We did that already in previous trips before we met. We want to do London Things TOGETHER.)

One person going:

If only one of us goes, it’s a lot of money, and we won’t be happy without the other one there to share it. Michael and I both dread traveling without each other in general, and neither one of us wants to be in the position of either  a) the person staying home with Cait or b) the person at LonCon feeling guilty about being there while the other person stays home with Cait.

All of us going:

Caitlin’s stamina is just not quite up to an 8-hour plane ride. We’re attending Phoenix Comic-Con next weekend, and flying to that, which will be a test in and of itself. And with plane tickets hovering between $1500-1800 EACH, Plus hotel, plus food, etc…  it’s just not worth it to wipe out all of our savings for a trip that will leave all of us exhausted and grumpy. Plus international travel with lots of medical equipment, etc. etc. etc. NO FUN.

[And honestly? If we’re going to drop that much cash on a family trip? GOING BACK TO DISNEY WORLD AND UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. WAY easier travel, much more accessible for Cait, AND cheaper.]

Us going, and leaving Cait with friends:

Still too expensive, and we’d be taking a trip to London in which we wouldn’t see London because we’d only be there for the convention. And while I’m sure the Excel Center is lovely… *sigh* Dear friends volunteered to take Cait for the convention, but we don’t want to be away THAT long–if we both went, it would be just for the length of the convention. And the dear friends are in the Twin Cities area, so we’d have to GET there first, drop Cait off, and THEN fly to London from MSP. Direct flights with fewer connections are best for this setup, and they are mighty pricey.

So, long story short: We won’t be attending LonCon after all. Instead, we will be putting some of our resources towards house stuff, and some likely towards another convention stateside in the next year.  And some resources will stay put just in case, as one does when one is a grownup.

Being a grownup is hard, but ultimately, I think this is the correct choice for us right now. This will not keep us from grumbling, of course, but that’s also part of being a grownup.

We’ll be watching LonCon with the rest of the world over the web. We hope y’all have an excellent time. *raises a glass*