At Pier 45 along Fisherman's Wharf is a free museum called the Musée Mécanique. But just because it was free, doesn't mean I didn't spend any money there. In my hand were 40 quarters and I had an absolutely thrilling time spending them all!
Photo from the museum's photo gallery.
The museum is a privately owned collection of arcade games and machines, some over a century old but all in working condition, mostly costing 25 cents each. The moving musical scenes, fortune tellers, love testers, arcade games, peep shows and games of skill and chance kept me entranced for hours.
With great difficulty I won at Pong, which was especially hard controlling the game with little knobs that spun crazily. It's little wonder the newer arcade games were controlled by joysticks and buttons.
I also had my fortune told a few times. I've always wanted to have a little card pop out at me, predicting my future, just like in the movie Big. The "Grandmother Prophecy" told me that I have a sympathetic nature and that after some hardship in the immediate future "everything will turn out for the best" which is excellent news.
This fortune telling machine didn't give me a card, but for 25 cents the little room at the top lit up and in it popped up the message - "An elopement". Exciting news (or not).
Another game that had me cacking away at myself was bowling. For 50 cents this time, I played 5 frames and even got a strike! Somehow I made 87 points, which is pretty close to Paul's record with a full length game and the kiddy bumpers up...
I also took a walk up to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. I was disappointed there were no tours of the production factory available but there were shops, which is where I had a Pumpkin Spice Caramel Hot Cocoa which was as good as the Pumpkin Pie I tried slash not very good at all. It confuses me no end that they like pumpkin as a sweet food. They have pumpkin soup but call it Butternut Squash soup as far as I'm aware. Most curious. The Ghirardelli chocolate is very yummy, however, and I have some to share when I get home. I have some cool lollies too. They have so much variety of all food types here! :D
Tomorrow I'm getting up early for a tour to Monterey. After booking it, I read some of the tour company's reviews. While the majority are fairly positive, the people who didn't like the tours really didn't like them. Like one person who is taking them to small claims court to get their money back. Okay, now I'm worried.
That Paul guy isn't just terrible at 10-pin bowls, he's also a complete idiot who thought all of your photos had weird diagonal lines through them, until he realised it was the reflection of his shirt (your favourite) in the monitor.
ReplyDeleteGet your butt back here so I don't have to tell everyone where the "person who wears the "I'm with stupid" shirt" is any more :-(
You're having too much fun!!