Uncanny Valley

This store has all you need to start roving the seas (except ships and crews), but the real treat is how everything is presented. There are endless drawers with mysterious items, posters musing on various details, and of course, Karl, the allegedly surly pufferfish.

The store is basically a front for a writers’ workshop, who’s board includes the likes of Dave Eggers and Keith Knight. So in addition to puffy shirts and peglegs, there are literary anthologies and so forth available,

A PEZ museum near the San Francisco airport. Looks like the only thing they don’t have is the MP3 player, but they have everything else ever made, including three PEZ guns. The museum is small, but how much space do you need for PEZ? There is a good gift shop, and the owner is very friendly and knowledgeable and tall.

If you want a taste, try the audio tour. Actually, its more than a taste, because the audio is almost 50 minutes and very thorough, but interesting.

A town where most of the people under the desert in the cool underground, Coober Pedy is so desolate-looking that films such as Pitch Black and Mad Max were shot here. In fact many of the props are still here. The genesis of the underground living was the discovery and subsequent mining of opal, which produced many old mines that later became housing, known vernacularly as dugouts. There is a dugout museum, a few dugout churches, and even a dugout hotel.

Sarah Winchester had buckets of money from the sale of her husband’s rifles. She also had buckets of guilt because of all the people killed by the product. She thought that by expanding her house for decades of construction would somehow appease the spirits and redeem her own soul. Apparently when she died the workers just up and left in the middle of whatever they were doing. Pretty spooky.

I’ve only taken the nighttime flashlight tour, but I feel like that was the better choice. The guide said they can’t talk about spooky happenings on the day tours. I’m not sure how much I believe of that, as Mrs. Winchester was about the only one that was convinced the spirits were there. I must say though that I had anticipated the place being more weird than it really was. It turned out to be a bit more mundane, but I still had a great time. No, I wasn’t disappointed.

If you are too cheap for a tour of the insides, you can always go on a tour of the gardens outside for free. However there are these motion-activated audio guides that are a bit disconcerting out there. They also had these hanging planters that had the bottom sides covered with small green plants. A courteous guard told us that “Not even Disney can figure out how to do that,” but me and my friend theorized that they just grew the pots upside down first and then righted them and put in the other plants. I’m sure there are more factors involved though. Other than that the grounds were just average.

The gift shop here is giant. For this being in one of the ten largest cities in the U.S., you’d not think it to be stocked like Wall Drug. They also had a video arcade, which seemed kinda out of place as well. Whatever though, the tour is what you’re here for, and the tour is good, so do that.

Photo courtesy of Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California.

The Starkenber Beer Myth, where one can take a bath in a tub of beer. With 3 friends if you like. Well, it isn’t technically beer, it’s water mixed with beer sediments, but either way it’d void your warranty of your hot tub at home.

This is also a working brewery, obviously, so you can get served beer to drink while hottubbing in beer. Either you’re a total lush and you’re already packing or you’re like me and just thinking thats a bit sticky. Or you’re a poor lush and heading to the store to get a kiddie pool and a few cases.

There is also a hotel and restaurant here.

It’s like a no-kill shelter for abused, abandoned, or otherwise rescued farm animals. The farm doesn’t just try to rescue every animal that was supposed to be dinner (though they’ll take anything they have room for), they try to give priority to the cases that even factory farmers would think were pretty cruel. The rehabilitated animals are very cute despite any mutilations or injuries, and most are pretty friendly. I liked the turkeys and chickens the best, but maybe that’s because they liked me the best. The pot-bellied pigs were also sweet.

Despite the cuteness trips here are bittersweet. If you’re not vegan, you will (or should) be feeling guilty, and if you are vegan, you’ll probably feel bad for how these animals were treated. Either way you’ll probably see a few things that will change your concepts on how animals are raised for food (why are the chickens missing beaks?).

I would bring children here. But then I’m vegan. I don’t think it’s right to proselytize, but I feel if you’re going to go to a farm, this is perhaps more honest. You’d probably have to gloss over some questions though.

Laguna Creek Trail is a private, one-lane, unpaved road. Four our tour, we parked on Cherry Glen Road where it bends by the island, and hay-rid up. Note that the island is the second right-angle turn in Cherry Glen Road from I-80.

This is the only place for the dead in San Francisco. A columbarium is for above-ground interment of cremains. Often times, like my grandparents, this is in a wall. While there is a wall here too, what makes this unusual is that it is a 4-story copper-domed building. Inside it isn’t spooky like a cemetery, but looks and feels like an old library, with all the brass and dark wood furnishings.

The Columbarium was built in 1898, and has been owned and operated by the Neptune Society since 1980. It is still in use and there are spaces available. Many of the ‘tenants’ obviously get regular visits, and you can see flowers and pictures and the occasional stuffed animal or action figure.

The easiest way to find this is to drive West on Geary. On the south side there is a BevMo, and across a side street (Stanyan Street), a Kinko’s. You can see the copper dome from the Kinko’s parking lot. Walk around the corners and you’ll get to the Columbarium

This is a unique instrument that is played by the bay’s waters. I had heard many many rumours the tubes were clogged and that the site was defunct. I finally went and it is working and you are ALL LIARS! The sounds it makes are not tones as much as gurgles, but the gurgles have different pitches and it is a relaxing place with a great view.

You can walk or drive down the road past the fancy yacht house, past the lighthouse, and past the older and plainer yacht house. You may think you’re going the wrong way because it is a bit of a walk with no signage, but once you are there, you’ll know it. The stones that form most of the benches and walkways of the wave organ were from an old cemetery, so if you’re a ghost hunter maybe you will hear some EVPs from the wave organ. I haven’t heard anything about it being haunted, but then I have only heard that the place was broken, so who knows?

A collection of antique arcade games and amusements that is always one of my favorite spots to bring visitors. It’s not really a geeky place, although geeks will like it, its kind of like a museum that’s just the fun parts. A lot of the games are still a nickel or a dime, and the punching robots are usually free by default because its so hard to win that one. Beside games, there are nickelodeons and little show things like ‘The Guillotine’ or Laughing Sal, which just laughs at you in a creepy way.

This used to be in the Cliff House, before that underwent its recently-completed remodeling. I think the Wharf is a little more accessible, though I think it would be neat to have had it next to the Sutro Baths. However seeing the updates they’ve made recently I think they’re doing A-OK right where they are.

UPDATE: It seems a bunch of the machines are now 25¢, as opposed to 10¢ or 5¢. This may seem a little annoying, but since there were no change machines that gave out nickels or dimes, this makes it more likely that one can use these machines. Plus, it’s only a quarter.

This is a unique dinner theatre performed on horseback in Old Town Chicago. Actually, I attended a matinée which was without a meal, although chips were available for purchase. The audience was light, especially considering the holiday weekend. It was mostly children, and they were RAPT, even during the slow parts. I’ve never heard such quiet children in the U.S.. If your kids are being bonkers, take them here and get some quiet nd see a fun show.

There are different shows throughout the season, and the one we saw was the King Arthur one. The story was a bit light but the horsemanship was excellent. There were many tricks like the rider swinging under the horse and back up to the other side, and a rider standing astride two horses jumping over obstacles. Other less showy tricks were more like making the horses walk sideways, and many people don’t know how difficult that is.

The show was one hour, and for the dinner it is 1½ hours. I suppose that the extra 30 minutes is for the meal and the shows are the same. Afterwards you can meet the performers and pet the horses. The seating is nice and spacious, and the theatre lacked any strong manure smell you may have been anticipating. All in all well worth the money, even if it did not meet my very high expectations.