Category: Trip

Six Flags

August 15, 2019

We went to Six Flags New England today, an amusement park a couple of hours away with lots of rollercoasters.

That’s their Superman ride, which was awesomely tall, fast and thrilling. I rode it twice, and laughed like a child both times.

That’s the Batman ride, with lots of inversions. It wasn’t scary or too jarring, just fun, and after I did a test ride KLS took my word and had a go. She liked it but not enough to go on another big coaster.

So I rode the big ones alone, and we went on the smaller ones together. Ironically it was one of the little ones – Catwoman’s Whip – that gave me motion sickness 🙂

Our visit was free! Kristin’s work had given us passes which included parking, admission, a line-skipper and a meal. Even better than a trip to the amusement park is a free trip!

The park also has a big waterpark attached with lots of innertube rides. We rode a bunch of these as well before I hit my head hard on a concrete wall while on a lazy river and ended up in the first aid house for a bit! Right now, hours later, I’ve still got a big bump on my head…

It was a fun day though. If we get free passes again next year I’m sure we’ll visit again 🙂

All Good Things

August 12, 2019

I only brought a small carry-on with me, thinking if I bought anything I could mail it. That was foolishly optimistic since I ended up buying everything (yes, including all those books) and B & L have graciously bequeathed me an old suitcase to get it all home.

These last few days have been a relaxing mix of the usual activities, including a trip to the San Jose flea market! This is a big market full of stalls selling clothes, household goods, food and other essentials:

Amazingly they have a great arcade with many original retro cabs. I parked myself at Raiden Fighters for a while…

The food options were mostly Mexican, although there were some novel ones like pop-rocks encrusted corn-on-the-cob!

We found a strength tester and foolishly attempted it. You had to squeeze two bull horns to measure manliness and it was incredibly difficult and quite agonizing. As you can see Bernard defeated me, although my excuse was I stopped early since I was worried about my usual chest pain!

Today I went for a 3 hour walk in the hot, breezeless streets of Sunnyvale. Once I got back to the apartment I collapsed and have been loafing on this couch watching YouTube ever since. A fittingly comfortable way to end this vacation 🙂

$1.38

August 10, 2019

Ever seen those penny-squasher devices? You put two quarters and a penny in, turn a crank, and out comes a penny that has been squashed in a press and now has a souvenir design on it.

Bernard’s got a collection:

He’s got 138 of them in total, from all over the world. Most of them are pennies but there’s a few euro cents, British pennies and even pressed blanks as well.

That’s a selection, showing pennies squashed in (from top left) England, Tokyo, Hawaii, Ireland, Australia and Scotland. Some of these Bernard did himself; the others came from me. In fact whenever I see a machine I always press him at least one.

That one I got him in Wales at the now closed Dr Who experience. I imagine it’s worth a lot of money now ;P

This one is a bit of a mystery. It’s a euro coin, which means either we (KLS and I) did it in Ireland or B got it in Germany back when we visited. But I’m not sure what it actually is? Any ideas?

Here’s a very rare double-sided penny that we pressed at – can you guess? – The London Eye. It’s got the usual souvenir picture on the front and this nice little impression on the back. This one must be a prize in his collection!

The pennies store in these nifty folders of which he has four. These guys are much rarer than the squashers themselves, so if you’re planning a collection of your own be sure to grab one when you see it!

And if you’re ever somewhere weird and see a squasher, why not press a penny yourself? Even if you don’t want it, you can send it to Bernard 🙂

Robot Claw