They Roll the Sidewalks Up At Night

Lisa and I did head down to the "Ten Tiny Tees" indoor miniature golf course, and it turned out that we were the last players on the course before closing. ( Mini Golf )

( Finding a place to eat at night in Seaside )

( Pinball a bust )

( I really like this Holiday Inn Express )

Now we are winding down before going to bed. I wish I could be up for the Ditmar Awards live coverage, but if I'm doing my time zones right, it's at 4 AM PDT. And on the other end of the time zone shift, I'd like to watch the French Open men's final, but that starts at 6 AM PDT. I might see part of it, but if I do not because I slept in, it's not going to kill me.

Winding Up Sea-Pac 2009

This morning, after I watched the final set of the French Open tennis and after Lisa and I had breakfast, I explained to Lisa that I'd had a remarkably high overnight fasting blood sugar. (166! An immediate retest showed 135, so maybe the first one was a mistake, but that's still 35 points too high.) I needed to get out and walk for a while after eating.

Lisa was concerned that what I wrote yesterday about the badge she made for Kuma Bear sound like she was forging badges or that Sea-Pac's badges were merely completely blank pieces of cardboard, and took a couple of photos in evidence to the contrary.

( In case anyone got the idea that Sea-Pac had ZERO badge security )

Before going back to the convention center, Lisa stopped and attached the extra spring we bought yesterday to help keep the throttle from sticking open. We then walked to the convention center and made a final pass through what was left of the commercial and flea market tables. Lisa found and bought a few more odd connectors people were selling. This is a good event for finding odd bits here and there. We checked, but hadn't won anything in the 9 AM door prize drawings.

( Beach Walks and Clams, or Why We Didn't Win the Big Screen TV )

Rushing back to the hotel, I hopped into the shower as Lisa began to pack things up. She also went back to the convention center to drop off our plastic badge holders so that they could be recycled for use next year. As I was getting dressed, the phone rang. I picked it up and told the front desk -- I knew it must have been them -- that we were running a little late and would be out by noon. They said that was fine.

( Moving Out )

With all secured, we bade good-bye to Seaside and set a course north to Long Beach, where we planned to have lunch and an afternoon of pinball.

Pinball Burn-Out

Lisa and I drove north from Seaside to Long Beach, heading for the Dodge City Shooting Gallery and their collection of well-maintained pinball modern pinball machines. As we passed through Ilwaco, we stopped and took a picture just for debgeisler's benefit:

( Splash! )

Continuing into Long Beach, we drove past the front door to circle around to the parking area. I saw with dismay that the building was empty and a "closed" sign was on the door. Oh, no! Had they gone out of business? We've seen a lot of places busted by the economic downturn, and even those that are open were looking sparse. But the adjacent amusement rides, which I thought were owned by the same people, were still running.

Lisa almost just turned around and headed out, but we did need to at least stop and use the restrooms, so we had a look at the building. A hand-lettered sign said, "Closed due to fire in kite shop." You could see that the kite shop in the adjoining building space had burned and taken severe damage. We inquired at the ticket stand of the Tilt-a-Whirl next door if the pinball palace was closed for good. To our relief, they said that they'd simply had to clear all of the machines out of space so they could tear out the carpet and repair the damage and repaint the place, and that they expected to reopen in a couple of weeks.

That didn't do us any good, but at least we expect they plan to reopen, so we'll not write them off and will come by again the next time our travels take us near this southwestern corner of Washington.

Seaside Coda

After discovering that the Pinball Palace was closed for repairs, I suggested that we go across the street and drown our sorrows in an elephant ear, of which I'm allowed one per year. The only places we've seen them regularly are in Seaside and at a little place across the street from the Dodge City Shooting Gallery.

Except the little snack stand is closed, out of business, with a big For Sale sign in the window. Ouch. Two swings, two misses. This afternoon was looking to be a bust.

( Back to Seaside )

( Why is there a puddle under the pickup truck when it hasn't been raining today? )

( We Hate Traffic )

( One last chance for pinball )

We got back to Mehama about 9 PM, and I headed over to her father's house to check the mail and deal with messages. I see now that it's after 11:30. I need to be up at 6 AM because, no work having arrived over the weekend, I expect the roof to have caved in on me by the time I get to work a bit more than seven hours from now, so I'd better go get some sleep.

After arriving home, I found that while I'd slathered myself liberally with sunscreen, it wasn't much proof against windburn.