So it's been 2 and a half weeks since my last blog and it hasn't been completely uneventful.
I went to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate park in San Francisco.
It's a nice place to walk around.
I've also been to the Winchester Mystery House.
It was built by Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester fortune after her husband William Winchester died. After losing both her daughter and her husband she was told by a "psychic" that the spirits of all the people ever killed by Winchester rifles were after the Winchester family and out for blood and the only way to get away from them would be to never stop construction on her house (ghosts are apparently easily fooled by architecture). So this house was under construction continuously for 38 years until she died. I guess if ghosts are after you it's just a matter of time. The "Winchester Mystery House" is full of things like fake doors, windows that face walls, and there's even a stairway that just goes into a ceiling.
Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the place.
I spent 3 days in:
I was visiting a good friend of mine and attempting to get passage to Hawaii.
I saw some sea lions basking in the sun down in the marina district:
and I caught a great sunset on the beach:
I also went in to Musée Mécanique.
It's a very cool little place full of antique coin-ops that are all still working. They had a whole bunch of little animatronic things you could watch for a quarter and "fortune tellers" and that kind of thing
as well as just antique and vintage games
as well as some slightly more modern arcade games and a steam powered motorcycle:
I played some ski-ball while I was there (how could I resist?) but my favorite thing in the place was this pinball machine from 1967:
I like that this is not a "pinball machine", but a "Flipper Skill Game".
I know it's from '67, but calling it a "Flipper Skill Game" really makes it sound like something from the '20s. I can't help but picture every time you say "Flipper Skill Game", no sound is heard, but a card pops up afterwards with the words on it.
What really makes this machine hilarious though is this prominently displayed sticker:
In 1967, they apparently believed that playing pinball would corrupt any young mind not prepared for the horrors of pinball and society itself would eventually be brought to it's knees.
After much asking around and a little research, I found out San Francisco is not the place to attempt to get to Hawaii from. I still had fun around the city though.
I leave you again now, with some words to live by:
