The Vagabond: Pinball Hall of Fame

Long before the days of Wii, Nintendo, Atari and Sega, children and adults alike amused themselves with a much simpler game, Pinball. From the 1930's until the 1980's, these glass-encased boxes could be found across America in restaurants, drugstores, and taverns. Naturally with the onslaught of technology, video and arcade games became the standard and thus began the decline of the Pinball Age.

Although arcades still exist, many of the vintage games of our youth seem to be fewer and far between. Enter: The Pinball Hall of Fame. Located off of East Tropicana in Las Vegas, this non-profit gallery and retro gamers heaven is housed in a nondescript building with even less impressive signage. Whatever the outside lacks in appeal, the dark and slightly seedy interior makes up for with its enormous collection of over 200 vintage pinball machines, classic arcade and video games.

Nostalgia runs deep! Even non gamers can appreciate the sense of history, fantastic art and design, plus the appeal of old-school entertainment. For an hour and a fistful of quarters, it's definitely worth checking out!

Pinball Hall of Fame
1610 E. Tropicana Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89119

The Scenic Route

Have I ever told you how much I love the Sunshine State? Well, I do. It seems to be my third home these days. But the Central Coast... not so much. I never go there! (Okay once or twice when I was in college I drove up to Seattle, but the only thing I remember is smoking out to Mazzy Star and staying in weird motels. Don't judge.) A few weeks ago, we decided to take Highway 1 from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo before heading home to Las Vegas.

Thankfully this journey was different than my last. I was older, completely lucid, and with my husband and children. Although it was planned at the last minute (homage to 1994!), everything somehow managed to work out. We left San Francisco (future post), stopping as many times as they'd let me (see *Sidenote) and drove until the road closed just after Big Sur. We thought we might have to backtrack, which would have been disheartening given we'd already driven 5 hours straight (minus my insatiable need to stop every 2 minutes for a photo.)

*Sidenote: Ever wonder what it's like to travel with a photographer? Who wants to go on a road trip with me? My family was ready to leave me with the "other guy" en route with us, who was apparently on the same photo journey as me. Don't think I wasn't tempted to hop in his Forerunner and ask my husband to pick me up in San Luis Obispo! Unfortunately, he had a tripod and well, that's just too high maintenance for me. :)

Anyway... we got past Lucia around dusk and realized we'd have to take the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road through the Los Padres Mountains, which was basically switchback after switchback all the way up and down the mountains. That is when I stopped taking photos as an attempt to keep car sickness at bay. An hour and half later, beeping the horn around every turn, and a drive through two different military training camps (v. weird), we finally made it out the other side onto the 101. It was one of those drives that we will never forget.  But what was on the other side was equally crazy! More on that later...

Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero

The Slammer, Half Moon Bay

"Prime" Real Estate.

Peeking through the trees, grace meets fury.

Wildflowers, rolling hills, and rocks.

The Californian Riviera?

A quick stop for gas, icecream and wine at Big Sur General Store.

Wibbly-wobbly road through the Los Padres Mountains.

Twilight.

I fully believe in taking the scenic route at least one way! It's important to slow down and take in the beauty that surrounds us.

Map credit

Endurance Training

For the past few weeks, the children and I have been studying Ancient Greece. We've been learning all about the Greek myths and seemingly endless wars with Persia. We also read the story of "Marathon."

In case you aren't familiar with it: A Greek runner by the name of Pheiddipides was sent from Athens to Sparta to carry a message that the Athenians needed help fighting the Persians in the city of Marathon. Pheiddipides ran day and night (150 miles without stopping) to ask Sparta's army for help. Unfortunately, the Spartans were superstitious and wouldn't fight until there was a full moon. So like a human telegram, he was sent back to Marathon with their answer. Athens couldn't wait for the moon, so they decided to fight the Persians on their own. Days later, the Athenians miraculously conquered the much larger Persian army and Pheiddipides was again requested to run 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce their victory. He ran nonstop and died from exhaustion as soon as he delivered the message. This is where the "Marathon" race got its namesake. {I've learned so much from homeschooling!}

Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with me, right?

Well... I feel like I've been running all over the place. We've been on the road nonstop! I've made laps around California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada over the past two months. It has been great fun, but I have so much catching up to do, I don't know where to begin. There are thousands of photos, half-written posts, Vagabond excursions, a cookbook review, homeschool, unpacking, laundry, packing, etc. And speaking of running, while it's nowhere near a marathon, I've been training for a 10K that will take place this Saturday. Can you spell, NERVOUS? To top it off, I have 3 days to get my act in gear before I leave for Alaska! EEEEKKKKK.

So here's the deal: I'm going to try to post at least once everyday until I leave. Hopefully I won't keel over when I'm done!