US west coast

[Dragoforce]

Another travel tip thread.

We're going to the american west coast this spring, road tripping down from Seattle to San Diego. We've marked all the usual big spots, but I'd love to hear from you guys who live or have experience from the area. Hidden gems, arcades or anything else you consider must-see. Thanks!

[brentsg]

I'm sure it's probably on the list, but if you go to Alcatraz, it's awesome at night. Seeing the city lights from the island is great.

[manatworks]

http://www.southtownarcade.com/

[Vexorg]

In Seattle there's the Full Tilt Ice Cream shop in Ballard which includes an arcade with a number of shmups (including some Cave stuff in candy cabs,) and has weekly meets on Tuesdays, and while you're in that general area the Ballard Locks are neat to go see as well. As for other stuff to see, I'd recommend heading up to Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill to get the cool postcard view of Seattle (especially at twilight.) Also, if you don't want to pay the exorbitant fee to go up the Space Needle, there's an observation deck on the 73rd floor of the Columbia Tower in Seattle (the tallest building in town, and on the West Coast) that's a lot cheaper and higher up. The Pike Place Market is also a must-see, but it's also pretty much one big tourist trap.

Also, I would recommend a drive on I-90 up to Snoqualmie Pass (about 50 miles out of town) to take in some of the scenery. A ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island or Bremerton gives you a chance to see the city from the water. If you have any interest in visiting the Friendly Neighborhood Evil Empire, Microsoft has a visitors center on their campus in Redmond that's kind of interesting to see. More info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/about/companyi ... fault.aspx

[GaijinPunch]

Plenty to do in San Francisco. Just get a guide book. It's worth stopping in Santa Cruz and heading to the beach I think. It's quite lovely... lots of hippies. 90 minute south of San Fran. It's not exactly on it's way as I'm sure the 101 is the best for Northern to Southern Cali travel, but it's not that far out of the way.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

If it's during ski season you could do a day or 2 at Mt. Hood if you ski/snowboard. Or if you like hiking. You could stay a night in Bend, OR and probably do the same and drink some microbrews and enjoy surreality.

[Dave_K.]

http://www.southtownarcade.com/

Southtown closed in November. Game Center Arcade is in San Mateo (about 5-10 minutes off Highway 101) but only 1 shmup (Ibara Kuro) at the moment.

If you are heading down via 101 through the Bay Area I'd offer to host a small meetup, but my garage is a complete mess now that I have a baby, and wife probably wouldn't be too thrilled. How's that for a luke warm offer.

[GaijinPunch]

but my garage is a complete mess now that I have a baby, and wife probably wouldn't be too thrilled.

Whoa.... hyper-style respect-o-meter definitely depleted...

[Dave_K.]

hopefully a temporary state, but we'll see.

[GaijinPunch]

Being a father gets easier and funner. Generally being a husband as well, but that one definitely gets an asterisk, and a list of possible symptoms a la those late night medication commercials!

[Herr Schatten]

I made a similar trip earlier this year together with my wife. We started in San Francisco, then rented a convertible and drove down the pacific coast highway all the way down to San Diego. It was a lovely trip and we enjoyed it very much. Our stops:

- San Francisco: Beautiful City, lots to do and see. I loved it. Be sure to eat at the Cha Cha Cha in Haight Ashbury. Their Cajun Shrimps are awesome.

- Carmel by the Sea: Beatiful town with a beautiful beach.

- Santa Cruz: Lovely town. Great for shopping. There's a nice small Retro game shop in the town center. Fairground at the beach. You can take a ride in the rollercoaster from The Lost Boys.

- Santa Barbara: One of the few places I didn't like much. The beach is great, but apart from that, it's mostly drunk college kids. We got ripped off badly with our hotel room, too.

- Los Angeles: Interesting City. An absolute Nightmare if you want to get around by car. In hindsight, Universal Studios were not really worth visiting. The Simpsons ride was amazing, though, and the studio tour was also nice. You can play Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, and Aero Fighters at an arcade on Santa Monica pier.

- San Diego: SD itself didn't strike me as very special, although it is nice. There are some very beautiful smaller towns in the vicinity, which are worth visiting, such as La Jolla or Del Mar.

[GaijinPunch]

You should eat California-style Messican food every meal, as well. Why has nobody mentioned that?

[CMoon]

If it's during ski season you could do a day or 2 at Mt. Hood if you ski/snowboard. Or if you like hiking. You could stay a night in Bend, OR and probably do the same and drink some microbrews and enjoy surreality.

These were the things which came to mind (living in CA); hiking and breweries. Lots of both. San Diego in particular has an obscene number of breweries and with a taxi or hotel shuttle you can hit several in the course of a day.

[neorichieb1971]

I always thought of the West Coast as the real America. Pity I have never been West of St Louis.

[Dragoforce]

Thanks for the replies! Keep em coming!

We'll probably to some lighter hiking at the parks. I'm traveling with my g/f and her sister, they're both nature freaks. We'll be there around late may-june, so there shouldn't be any snow around? On a related note, is Joshua Tree park worth visiting? It looks really plain judging by the pictures, mostly withered trees? Defintly going to do some beer sampling. Funny that the mayor US labels taste like watered down piss while you have the most awesome microbreweries I've seen anywhere in the world. I remember tasting some great beers in Colorado during our last visit.

If you are heading down via 101 through the Bay Area I'd offer to host a small meetup, but my garage is a complete mess now that I have a baby, and wife probably wouldn't be too thrilled. How's that for a luke warm offer.

Thank you for the heart-warming invitation I'd love to pay a visit to your world renown garage. Perhaps a short stop to not anger our women. I'll hit you a pm when we get get closer to our flight date.

[GaijinPunch]

Anchor Steam is a well known, SF beer. I like it. There's an IPA from somewhere nearby that starts with an L (Dave_K. should know) which is good. Apparently it's brewed by real life hippies. I think the power is run off of energy created from recycling their own turds or something.

[Dave_K.]

Not sure if you are talking about Los Gatos Brewing Company (LGB)? There's also Pyramid Brewery/Resturant in Berkeley. Couple other small microbrews near by me, Faultline in Sunnyvale and Rock Bottom in Campbell. Really depends on how you plan your trip down from SF. I also recommend the drive down Hwy 1 along the cost to Santa Cruz. You'll pass through Half Moon Bay where the Mavericks are and Moss Beach Distillery for decent food and great view out over the pacific.

[Cuilan]

There's a pretty good and fairly small arcade in San Jose, but I forgot what it was called. It is full of "real" arcade games though (Espgaluda, Gundam VS, various fighters, etc). I'm sure someone around here knows the name. Also in San Jose there's a fairly small Japanese district, and there's a famous and very good mochi shop there, and strangely also a really good Ethiopian restaurant there too. China Town in San Francisco is also a good place to experience.

Just north of LA, there's a really nice town called Solvang, but you might find it a bit cheesy since the place was made to look like a stereotypical northern/central European village (mainly Danish). Some good restaurants there though, in particular Pea Soup Andersens.

You should visit the Getty museum and the Getty villa while you're in LA. The former is especially nice. There's also Little Tokyo. The Buddhist temple there is really nice on the inside, and there's also a museum dedicated to the history of the Japanese in the US (mainly in California). You can go to the California Science Center to see one of the space shuttles.

While you're in San Diego, you should consider going to Sea World, the Wild Animal Park, the San Diego Zoo/Balboa Park, Seaport Village (very good Greek restaurant here), and Coronado (very good pizza place here). Most of the stuff that's worth seeing/doing in San Diego is located around the downtown area. It's a bit out-of-the-way, but on the very east of San Diego there's a small town called Julian, a very nice forested mountain region with good restaurants (try the pies). A bit further east from there is Borrego Springs, and if you want to feel like you're in the Wild West, that's the place to go.

If you feel like heading south into Mexico, you can do so as long as you have a passport (you don't need one to get in, but you will need one to get back into the US). Tijuana is one of the worst ways to experience Mexico though. But if you go further south to Ensenada, it's much nicer.

Another fun thing to do would be to visit every Mission that the Spanish built along the California coast.

http://www.missionscalifornia.com/calif ... s-map.html

[trap15]

Mmmm, Julian apple pie :9

[Frenetic]

Hmmm are you thinking Lagunitas Brewing? I remember when my band was playing a party at our label owner's house a guy from Lagunitas brought a whole bunch of beer (Hairy Eyeball) and I was just so stoked drinking good craft brew. Strangely, I played my first Cave game there on an old Aero City (Esprade). Anderson Valley is also known for "Solar Powered Beer."

Recs in SF/East Bay: Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa area, Beer Revolution in Oakland, visit the UC Berkeley Campus (eat at Chez Panisse or Cheeseboard for pizza), eat a Super Burrito (your choice of meat, I like Al Pastor) at El Farolito in the Mission District (right next to 24th and Mission BART station) Places to visit: SF Museum of Modern Art, the Castro District

Recs in LAish: Round One arcade and their Darius Burst: Another Chronicle cabinet. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and MOCA.

Recs in Long Beach: Send me a PM I have 2x New Net Cities and an Egret 3 with Toshiba Pure Flat monitor. Here's my list of games I have https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... zhiVHVXdkE
Also Milana's Pizza for NY Style Pizza. Compton has Honey's Kettle for fried chicken and Bludso's BBQ for american barbecue (get the brisket).

Recs in Orange County: Go to Disneyland, get a corn dog from the red corn dog cart, visit Hollingshead's Deli for beer, The Bruery in Placentia for beer, Bootlegger's Brewery for beer, go to Old Towne Orange and walk around looking at antique shops. Go to Smoqued for fatty brisket plate with candied bacon and brisket chili. Go to Bruxie's to eat a waffle sandwich.

San Diego has mad breweries

Cheers,
--the F-man

Anchor Steam is a well known, SF beer. I like it. There's an IPA from somewhere nearby that starts with an L (Dave_K. should know) which is good. Apparently it's brewed by real life hippies. I think the power is run off of energy created from recycling their own turds or something.

[manatworks]

http://www.southtownarcade.com/

Southtown closed in November. Game Center Arcade is in San Mateo (about 5-10 minutes off Highway 101) but only 1 shmup (Ibara Kuro) at the moment.

If you are heading down via 101 through the Bay Area I'd offer to host a small meetup, but my garage is a complete mess now that I have a baby, and wife probably wouldn't be too thrilled. How's that for a luke warm offer.

aw ,that's why, i've been busy with works until now, finally get a freetime on weekend to have some Blazing Star action and they're not there anymore

[GaijinPunch]

Hmmm are you thinking Lagunitas Brewing?

Yep, that's it.

Strangely, I played my first Cave game there on an old Aero City (Esprade).

And the story just gets better!

[mesh control]

The Academy of Science in San Francisco is worth a visit, followed by a stroll through the botanical gardens.

Marijuana optional.