The Musee Mecanique!!!

Sorry for all the obnoxious exclamation marks, but I'm so excited about this post! (last one, I promise.)

I have been wanting to visit The Musee Mecanique for about a year now and I finally went on 4th of July.

The Musee Mecanique is a 'museum' of one of the largest private collections of restored and working penny arcade machines and other 'mechanical wonders' in San Francisco, Ca.

I say 'museum' because it is basically a big arcade you walk into (free-no admission) and can play on all these old machines. I must admit, if they were mine you would have to be screened, drug tested, racially profiled, finger printed, etc. before I would let you near my old machines. Then it would be just to look at them or perhaps a very trustworthy docent would put a coin in and show you how it worked.

Well, lucky for everyone, they are not mine, they are the private collection of the Zelinsky family. Edward Zelinksy started the collection and after his death his son Daniel, who shared his passion, now owns and up keeps the machines.

I took so many great pics and have so much to share that I will cover the Musee Mecanique over a couple of posts.

The most popular character you will find here is "Laffing Sal".

Laffing Sal is a six foot high paper mache automated lady that was made by the Philidelphia Tobggan Co. in the 1930's. She was used to draw crowds outside of fun houses and boardwalks. She laughs a high cackling laugh, shakes her body, and waves her arms.

Some people find her very creepy and others love her. I am quite fond of Sal, but my daughters both find her creepy. In the photo at the top of this post you can see my youngest daughter plugging her ears and closing her eyes as we walk into the entrance painted like Laffing Sal's head.

Another very popular machine is the wrestling machine which you may recognize from the first Princess Diary movie. Mia and her grandmother play this machine which is actually a scene filmed at the collections old home, in the bottom of the historic Cliff House.

(It was a hard battle, but I won.)

The new home for the Musee Mecanique is at Pier 45 in Fisherman's Wharf. It is definitely a great place to visit.

My next post will feature :

the fortune tellers! (one last exclamation mark is not gonna kill you.)