I'm a Culture Snob Part 1

I went on a trip to the Bay Area for my sister's birthday a few weekends ago, and I had more culture in that 2 days then I did in the past 7 years in Vegas.  I think this is why I'm so unhappy in Vegas; I'm used to so many cultural things, I've become a culture snob.  Don't worry, I'll illustrate.

We spent an afternoon in San Francisco where we went to Fisherman's Wharf and the Exploratorium.  Click that stuff.  Note that both are touristy things to do, but neither of them are a .com address. 

The Exploratorium I went to when I was a kid, and it was the coolest place I'd ever been to in my life.  It found a place in my little science nerd heart right away, but even people who aren't interested in science will have fun blowing giant bubbles and make a bird appear in a cage before your eyes.  I liked these sound waves we made with water in the picture to the left. 

I suppose it's meant for smaller kids, but even adults can learn something when they go there.  My sister and I sat in a booth for 5 minutes just listening to couples arguing to see what a beneficial and un-beneficial  way of communicating sounded like.  It truly has something for everyone.  Of course, there are always going to be those people who bring their toddlers who don't even have the vocal cord strength to say "science" let alone understand what is going on, but that's going to happen on the Strip, too.

After a fun time there, we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up sourdough, of course.  But then my sister introduced me to Musee Mecanique.  You guys, this puts our Pinball Hall of Fame to shame with it's vintage stuff! Moved from the old Playland site in 2002, this place is filled with antique mechanical machines that run as if they were just made.  In fact, the only machine that ate my quarter was the modern change machine.

You might remember seeing "Laffing Sal" in her small role in The Princess Diaries, or maybe that was just me.  I didn't realize this was the actual place from the movie, and was excited to be there.  We walked around looking at everything, and I hardly knew where to spend my money.  As far as pinball is concerned, our museum has more, but the Musee Mecanique I could spend all day and all my money in.  My favorite was one that portrayed a few cowboys around a fire, and a plaque stated that if you were easily offended not to play.  After one look my sister and I stuck a quarter in, and after a bit of moving around, the cowboys started to pass gas spectacularly.

I could have stayed longer, but we had way more things to do!  Stay tuned for Part 2 for the rest of my trip!