Playland-Not-At-The-Beach

We went to Playland-Not-At-The-Beach on their monthly adult night. I loved the rows of pinball machines. I drew while a couple of serious players racked up really high scores! The other thing I really like there is the miniature circus, built to scale of half inch to a foot. There are over 300,000 hand carved figures! Scroll down and see what the other sketchers liked.

Playland-Not-at-the-Beach, Too

Playland-Not-at-the-Beach contains many artifacts from the original Whitney's Playland-at-the-Beach, a popular attraction at San Francisco's Ocean Beach from 1928 to 1972.

I was immediately drawn to Walking Charley, a life-sized composite of original parts from hand-carved wooden characters that decorated the original Playland Funhouse in the company of Laughing Sal.

Check out the documentary Remembering Playland at the Beach, rich with archival footage of thrilling, sexist and sometimes dangerous rides and attractions at Playland.

For more on Playland and the documentary: http://m.sfgate.com/movies/article/Review-Remembering-Playland-3191379.php

Playland-not-at-the-beach

Playland-not-at-the-beach is slightly hard-to-find — on San Pablo Ave just over the border into Richmond going North. The warren of rooms meandering around leads you from one set of marvels to another. Hard core pin-ball players can be found in one of the several rooms filled with interesting antique machines from the mid-1900's and beyond.
See some more features of Playland not at the beach: 1 minute video

between two pinball games from the 1940's.

Pinball and other delights at Playland-not-at-the-Beach

The decorative art from this period of time was so fun, it reminds me of the carousels and other imaginative, theatrical pieces. Very lush!

Grotesque Garbage

There are about a million different things to see at Playland Not-at-the-Beach. Here is a weird and creepy trash can that I kept noticing as I walked by. Such a grotesque figure on top of the wooden barrel, yet I couldn't look away.