After the overnight on the USS Hornet (read about it here), Lizzie had mentioned something about the Pacific Pinball Museum. Wait, wait, wait... WHAT?!!?? A place where I can visit that's less than an hour away from where I live?
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| Vintage and awesome! |
Knowing that I loved pinball, Lizzie found her ticket on the Discover and Go website and printed out her FREE ticket. I, on the other hand, forgot to reserve my ticket. The tickets for that day were all claimed. *if you want a ticket, reserve it in advance!!*I had to pay the $15 entrance fee.
All the pinball in the Pacific Pinball Museum is FREE!!! So, save your quarters and play all the pinball you want. After you pay the entrance fee, get a hand stamp for same day in and out privileges.
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| The vintage pinball room |
From the outside, the museum looks small. In fact, when you walk in, there are a row of new pinball machines (for $0.50 per game) and behind the cashier, there are a slew of restored machines from 1930's through the 1960's. I was ALMOST disappointed until I looked to the right of the cashier and saw an Addams Family pinball machine along with 2 other machines (of which I ignored because I love the Addams Family machine!). They have a private room for rental. When there's a party, that room is closed and the machines are for the guests only. Luckily, there was no party that day.
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| The 80s are alive! |
There are other rooms for machines from the 70s and 80s. There were a fair amount of machines. The rooms were off of an indoor courtyard area. They were small and had a few machines per decade. They were not what I was looking for.
There is limited pinball art in one of the rooms. There are some pieces on the wall and an interactive display where you can make a bumper hit. The scariest thing in that room is an old clown game (not pictured for "scares the bloggess" reasons). There are 2 machines with a clear plastic body where you can see the innards at work.
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| Old pinball boards |
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| Bump the bumper!! |
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| My high school years come alive in music! |
For me, the magic was in the 90s room! It was a lot of my favorite machines crammed into one room. There were about 14 machines and a FREE jukebox. I made a playlist of all of my favorite music from high school: Pulp Fiction, Cranberries, Oasis, etc. Some of the pinball gems I played over and over were: Earthshaker, Doctor Who, Road Show and Twilight Zone. The 90s room provided a good hour and a half of entertainment for me. Though, let me just say that scoring a free game when playing a free game...is not as rewarding as one might think after playing a free game.
Getting high score, though, is always a huge thrill. It felt good to get a decent win under my belt. Also, it was amusing to see a crowd around me. The folks learned that pinball is an art... and not mashing the buttons around. It was a good run.
Admittedly, when asked "How do you do that?" I said, "See these buttons on the side? I push them to make the ball go out to the board and on the ramps.". After a hearty group laugh from my sarcastic answer, I told him how to make the points work for him. All in all, it was a good run.
Should you go to the Pacific Pinball Museum? Yes.
Is it really a whole day of fun? A few hours, yes. A whole day? No. But if you get your tickets for FREE from the Discover and Go page at the library, it's definitely worth your time and a day trip to Alameda!
If you enjoy pinball, you can try and find your favorite machine at the Pinball Locator. After all, what good is your love of pinball if you can't play your favorite machine?
xoxo
The Bloggess
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| I'm the #2 player for the day! |
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