kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2010-06-07 03:37 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2010-06-07 03:37 pm
Pinball Trip Cut Short
Sunday morning Lisa and I made a trip over to the convention center for the 10:30 prize drawings (we didn't win anything this year) and for Lisa to make last-pass-through-the-hall purchases. We then walked back over the bridge to start packing out of our hotel room. While we were doing that, Lisa realized that the antenna she'd bought was missing a piece. Since her bags were ready to go while I was still putting stuff away, I suggested I continue packing while she went back over and see if she could get the part from the dealer. (Given the flea-market arrangement of the place, this isn't guaranteed.) I got most of our stuff into the van and was ready to go when she got back. Fortunately, the dealer had another antenna with the correct parts and swapped her even-up for it.
We then headed north to Seaside, passing through Astoria and then Ilwaco (we did wave hello as we went through town, as requested; the photo behind that link is from last year's trip) before arriving at the Dodge City Shooting Gallery and pinball palace around 12:30. This hall is mostly new pinball machines, but the key thing for us is that they're all well-maintained and they have enough room around them. The arcade at Seaside has the machines jammed together so that there is no room to play them properly, and most of them are out of order anyway.
As a sign of how attentive they are, the attendant was wiping down all of the machines' glass main plates with Windex because a group of grubby-fingered kids had just passed through. We like this place. It's probably just as well it's too far away for us to go more often, or it could get really expensive.
We were all set for 4 1/2 hours of pinball -- they're normally open until 5 PM -- but around 3 PM or so, the manager came and put up the "closed" sign because there wasn't enough traffic at the mini-amusement park next door (it's all one facility). So our day was cut short. Darn! We were having a good time; unfortunately, two people with a bucket of quarters isn't enough to pay the bills, so we had to leave when we finished playing out our current games.
We got a small snack across the street: the place that makes elephant ears in Long Beach has reopened, so we indulged again. Incredibly, Lisa reported the maple-coated elephant ear was too sweet even for her, and she's someone who adds sugar to her Sugar-Frosted Sugar Bombs. We then went and played miniature golf at the course located behind Stormin' Norman's gift shop. Lisa once again thrashed me on this 18-hole course, beating me by 12 strokes. I wasn't helped by a hole where I went out of bounds twice and ended up taking an 8.
We then considered our next move. It turned out that we both had had the same idea, which required us to head back south through Seaside and back to US-26. I'll write more about that later, but I need to take Lisa to the dentist now.
We then headed north to Seaside, passing through Astoria and then Ilwaco (we did wave hello as we went through town, as requested; the photo behind that link is from last year's trip) before arriving at the Dodge City Shooting Gallery and pinball palace around 12:30. This hall is mostly new pinball machines, but the key thing for us is that they're all well-maintained and they have enough room around them. The arcade at Seaside has the machines jammed together so that there is no room to play them properly, and most of them are out of order anyway.
As a sign of how attentive they are, the attendant was wiping down all of the machines' glass main plates with Windex because a group of grubby-fingered kids had just passed through. We like this place. It's probably just as well it's too far away for us to go more often, or it could get really expensive.
We were all set for 4 1/2 hours of pinball -- they're normally open until 5 PM -- but around 3 PM or so, the manager came and put up the "closed" sign because there wasn't enough traffic at the mini-amusement park next door (it's all one facility). So our day was cut short. Darn! We were having a good time; unfortunately, two people with a bucket of quarters isn't enough to pay the bills, so we had to leave when we finished playing out our current games.
We got a small snack across the street: the place that makes elephant ears in Long Beach has reopened, so we indulged again. Incredibly, Lisa reported the maple-coated elephant ear was too sweet even for her, and she's someone who adds sugar to her Sugar-Frosted Sugar Bombs. We then went and played miniature golf at the course located behind Stormin' Norman's gift shop. Lisa once again thrashed me on this 18-hole course, beating me by 12 strokes. I wasn't helped by a hole where I went out of bounds twice and ended up taking an 8.
We then considered our next move. It turned out that we both had had the same idea, which required us to head back south through Seaside and back to US-26. I'll write more about that later, but I need to take Lisa to the dentist now.