davemerrill

So on Sunday the 26th we drove to Buffalo and got on a plane, which flew to Cleveland. Then we got on another plane and went to Chicago. Then we got on ANOTHER plane and flew to San Francisco, with me feeling like I should have booked the tickets a few weeks earlier. Anyway it was the cheapest way to get us there that didn't require a sleepover in Iowa or cost fifteen hundred dollars each. Shain hadn't seen her brother and his family in a while and I love that whole part of the country, so it was up next on our vacation roster.

We got in Sunday night. Shain's brother picked us up at SFO and drove us to the family estate out in Concord, and then we kinda crashed. Monday we loaded up the minivan with the kids and went down to the Presidio to the Walt Disney Family Museum - it's just what it says it is, a museum full of Disney family and film memorabilia. The entrance is full of Oscars and Emmys and Golden Lions, the gift shop is dominated by one of their multiplane cameras, and the museum itself takes you through Disney's life, from his paper route to his WWI ambulance to his earliest animated films. I'm not the biggest Disney fan in the world but if you like pop culture and history the way I do you could spend a week in this place. It's full of original sketches, production artwork, models, film programs, original comic art (those Donald Duck newspaper strip pages were huge!), merchandise of all kinds, and biographical sketches of all the top Disney artists. And yes, there's even a big display about the 1941 strike complete with life size picket signs. The exhibit continues to Disney's film & TV work in the 50s and 60s, has a giant model of the original concept of Disneyland, one of the studio's two optical printers (used from the 40s up until 1983), records, toys, saddles, Halloween masks, etc.

After the museum we went over to the Haight district, got some lunch, and then spent some time digging through Amoeba Records, still a great destination record store if you're ever on that side of the Rocky Mountains. And then it was time to go home.

Tuesday it rained. This is a big enough deal that it became the top story on the TV news. And it did in fact rain like crazy. But that wasn't enough to stop us from heading out to Fairfield to visit the incredible tourist attraction that is the Jelly Belly factory. Sure, this was mostly for the benefit of the kids, but it's interesting for adults too. And where else are you going to see giant portraits of presidents, and John Wayne, rendered in the form of jelly beans? Seems like every family in that part of the country had decided to spend the rainy day watching jelly beans get made, so there was a long wait. But we did get to see jelly beans made and the wide variety of flavors added to the raw materials, and there were free samples handed out, and our tour guide had a Tenchi Muyou character keychain on her belt. After the tour we went over to the mall and had Chic-Fil-A for lunch, which was a treat since we ain't got it up here in these here parts. And then we hit an antique mall on the way back to Concord.

Wednesday it was time for Japantown where we met up with TV's own Patrick Macias, who gave us a personal tour through the inner mysteries of the mysterious Orient. Well, okay, some toy stores and Japan Video, which in the half-decade since I've last been there has transformed its stock into domestic releases of Japanese films (instead of the strictly import stuff that was there my last visit). I don't know if I entirely approve, I miss a video store full of completely incomprehensible foreign surprises rather than DVD-9 releases of ODIN, but what can ya do.

Thursday the 30th was our day to hit the Alameda County Fair! Rides, prize winning animals, a giant model train display, 4H Club exhibits including place settings and textile art (one place setting was built around Black Butler) and artwork from school kids from across the county including Hetalia fan art. The petting zoo had two small kangaroos among the goats and sheep and ducks and rabbits. I'm pretty sure Thursday was the day we went over to Emeryville and visited the venerable Kimono My House, which is too cool to do what it says on their website and has moved two blocks down the street and is only open on Saturdays. But they were kind enough to let us do some shopping. They have an amazing collection of fairly old school merchandise - the kind of stuff you'd see at A-Kon back in the glory days - in-box Popy diecast toys from 60s and 70s anime series, Godzilla and Ultraman and Kamen Rider stuff, Astro Boy toys and memorabilia, etc. All priced a little north of what I can afford at the moment. But well worth a visit if you're in the area, just for the drool factor. The proprietor gave the kids candy, too. Well, he gave us all candy.

Friday the 1st we drove down to Silicon Valley to penetrate the mysteries of Dreamworks Animation. You know, Shrek, Monsters VS Aliens, How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Megamind, etc. Shain went to Sheridan with a guy named Rob who's now lead storyboard, and he gave us the bells & whistles tour. We all had to sign non-disclosure agreements so I can't tell you what we saw. Well, okay, here's a secret - they're making another MADAGASCAR movie. Shock, surprise. The concept paintings we saw were incredible, we got to see a bit of the 3D modeling they do for backgrounds and settings (built a whole city right down to trash cans) and the kids were impressed by the walk outside which involved fountains and a view of the bay. It is always fantastic and a bit humbling to be in this kind of environment - this is where world-class creative talent works. The big leagues.

After Dreamworks we drove on down to San Jose and dared to enter the WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE. You know, Old Lady Winchester kept building onto her mansion because the spirits told her to. Doors to nowhere, windows to other rooms, tiny staircases, numerological carpentry... spooky! We survived our mystery house tour and then went to San Jose's Japantown to pay our 80s anime nerd pilgrimage to Nikaku Animart, the venerable mail order retailer that kept us all in Animedia and New Type subscriptions in the dark ages. Nikaku's retail space is about 30% anime stuff and 70% cultural Japanese gifts, and of their anime, about 75% of THAT is priced like it's still 1995 and people are willing to shell out top dollar for Tenchi Muyou laserdiscs. But hey, some day that guy with more money than sense will drop in and pay $350 for the Kamui The Ninja Part 1 LD box. Not me though. I did pick up some books I'd been looking for, and the proprietor gave the kids paper cranes.

Saturday we went to a family birthday picnic at a park in Oakland. We ate sausages, waded in the lake, got sunburned, watched the kids swim and look for turtles, and we saw a big cormorant sunning itself.

Afterwards Shain and I took the BART into town to do a little soloing. We went back to Japantown for further investigation, and then we went over to Chinatown, up to the Fremont Hotel for drinks at the world famous TONGA ROOM, where the Scorpion Bowls and Bora Bora Horrors are always flowing and every twenty minutes a tropical rainstorm takes us back to the South Seas.

The great part about getting blitzed in the Tonga Room is that pretty much every direction is downhill. So we staggered through Chinatown shopping in stores filled with obscene ashtrays, ornately carved woodwork, bobble heads of Richie Rich and Casper, airsoft pistols; you know, Chinatown. We didn't visit this nightclub, however.

We turned a corner and suddenly we were in North Beach, home of beatniks, hipsters, and City Lights Books, which we did some browsing in. I got a book for the flight home and then we made our way back to the BART and Concord.

Sunday we visited "Playland Not At The Beach". Some explanation is in order. There used to be an amusement part called "Playland At The Beach". It was filled with rides and games and scary laughing clown animatronics. Well, it closed, but much of it was saved and now it's in a 9000 square foot building in El Cerrito. We saw a flea circus, played a lot of pinball, gawked at the minatures, had our love tested at the Love Tester Machine, and were creeped out by Laughing Sal. Also we got to see a mural featuring that giant dog restaurant that Bill Griffith is always drawing.

Sunday night we had dinner outside in the back yard, while the family chickens Daisy and Peach pecked through the grass. Yes, chickens.

Afterwards David set up the video projector and the neighborhood kids and parents came over and we had Movie Night in the back yard. The feature was Disney's "Tangled", which the kids watched about half of before losing interest and instead started running around the back yard with the lantern. The adults drank margaritas. After "Tangled" I noticed David had the Jungle Emperor Leo film which I hadn't seen, so we threw that in and I drunkenly explained that it was directed by this guy who just died and that the movie was basically a movie version of the "Susume Leo" TV show, which was a sequel to "Kimba The White Lion". And that guy with the moustache is in all Tezuka's stuff. And then it was bedtime.

Monday it was time for the Marin County Fair! This one was a little classier than the Alameda fair. For one thing it featured performances by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which we saw and which swung, baby. For another thing, the Marin County fairgrounds are beautiful.

The art exhibits were full of classy actual art type art, skillful paintings and sculpture and all sorts of media. There was a giant toothpick sculpture of San Francisco that the artist built to act as a ping-pong ball track that takes you through the city landmark by landmark. And there was this piece, in the 'comic art' section.

Also rides, animals, merchandise, and some boiling sun boiling down on our boiling heads. I need a hat.

Tuesday it was back to work and daycare for our hosts, and Shain and I borrowed the family car and went to Reno. Shain lived there for about a year a while back, and I had never been anywhere near there in my life, so off we went! Up 680 to 80, past Sacramento, through the Donner Pass and the beautiful mountain scenery, and down to the valley where Reno sits astride the Truckee River and the traffic lights all last twice as long as they should. Seriously.

We got a cheap mid-week room at the Harrah's, hit a couple of Reno's antique malls (if you need one of those Japanese Dagwood fans I wrote about at Let's Anime, there's one in Reno for $15), hit the penny slots in the Cal-Neva, the Silver Legacy, and the Circus Circus:

and played a slot machine named after our own cat.

The Miss Kitty slot machine SHOULD have paid out for us, but much like its real-life namesake, it was annoying and moody. This was the view from our hotel; you can see there's still snow on the mountain peaks.

I was expecting Reno to be grim and dusty, and it kinda is, especially next to the 'closed for reno-vation' casinos that dot downtown, but by the river there are shops and parks that were filled with locals hanging out, skating, chatting, biking, checking out the art installation, and generally ignoring the tourists such as ourselves. Anyways after our gambling spree (Shain had the best luck, but at no point were we "ahead") we had a great dinner in the "Hash House A Go Go" in Harrah's and then we hit the hay.

Wednesday it was up and out after a $4.99 breakfast at the Cal-Neva. We headed up the mountain to Virginia City, the home of the Comstock Lode silver mine and where Sam Clemens first used his "Mark Twain" pen name. It's way up there in the mountains and it's hard to believe that at one time it was larger than San Francisco.

It's also the home of the original Bucket Of Blood saloon!

Also: repro tin signs, slots, video games, and wild west shootouts every hour on the hour. Don't miss it! We waited out a mountain rainstorm and then headed back down the hill to the city, which we breezed right through northwards towards Portola CA, to visit my pen pal Meg whom I've corresponded with since the early 90s but had never met. Portola is across the state line a few miles from where the desert becomes green piney mountains.

It was great to finally meet a long-time old school anime correspondent in the flesh; we were sent on our way after a great dinner with loads of neat stuff, including old con program books and anime club flyers from the 80s and late 70s, if you can believe it. Our trip home involved taking CA 70 along the middle fork of the Feather River. This is an amazingly beautiful drive along 1000 foot gorges, mountains, cliffs, and waterfalls, through national forest that in parts is still recovering from wildfires. We made it out of the mountains to Oroville, to 99, to I-5, to I-80, to Sacramento and I-680 and back to Concord just before midnight.

Thursday it was time for the beach and we went down to Santa Cruz for a little sand and sea. And boy that water is COLD, I mean to tell ya. Santa Cruz has an old school boardwalk with rides and games, a big pier with sea lions barking like crazy, and C-130s circling overhead dropping parachutists into Monterrey Bay. I hope it was training. We battled traffic back to Concord in time for dinner, washing clothes, and packing. Friday we got up early, got onto BART, to SFO, flew to Chicago, changed planes, flew to Buffalo, got into the car, and drove home. And that's were we are now, unpacking, petting the cat, needing to go grocery shopping.

It was terrific to see David, Heather, Daniel, and Glory; they interrupted their lives and loaned us the minivan and generally played host for two weeks and we can't thank them enough for putting up with us taking over the spare room and the couch. Also fantastic to see Patrick and Meg, and to the friends I missed seeing, we will catch you on the next trip out!