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Archive for category Trips

Can I Interest You In A Fiji Mermaid?

Aug 30

Posted by val in USA | No Comments

Museum of Jurassic Technology

Culver City, California

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

It’s not a museum depicting how CGI was used to bring Michael Crichton’s novel to life; there is no reproduction of tools used by ceratosaurus, allosaurus and other prehistoric life. So what is it, exactly? Well, imagine a committee was formed to open a repository of knowledge in display format, and that this committee featured Rube Goldberg, Albert Einstein, P.T. Barnum, John Waters, L. Ron Hubbard, Robert LeRoy Ripley, Leonardo DiVinci, Baron Victor Frankenstein and Professor Irwin Corey. If you find that concept confusing, then you have head start on what’s to come with a trip to the MJT. Part of their mission statement is to “provide[s] the academic community with a specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic”, which technically was between 200 and 175 million years ago. Understanding this as you enter will put you in a better frame of mind to truly appreciate the museum. Suspension of disbelief is not required; disregard for disbelief is. Your visit to the museum will only work if you don’t wonder or even care what is true and what is false, but simply be entertained by what are literally thought-provoking and imaginative displays of curiosities. Like some bizarre closet of secrets, the museum features displays of everything from the importance and significance of cat’s cradles as language to early theater techniques for reproducing weather conditions onstage. Once you’ve rung the bell at the front to gain entrance to the windowless structure, you enter a dark and mysterious labyrinth; the narrow hallways join rooms that make a corn maze seem easy to navigate. The darkness allows the displays to be creatively lit using micro-spotlights, with some exhibits creating their own light. In some places, 3-D and holographic technology is used to have things appear in the display when looking through special lenses. Names and titles sound grand and familiar, but Google searches will leave you scratching your head.
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Crying All The Way To The Bank

Jul 26

Posted by val in Trips, USA | 1 Comment

The Liberace Museum

Las Vegas, Nevada

The wacky and surrealistic Liberace Museum in Las Vegas

The wacky and surrealistic Liberace Museum in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada is a monument to excess, a flamboyant, gaudy, over-the-top adult Disneyland. It is for this reason that the Liberace Museum is perfectly at home there, a palace in the desert built in honor of the Sultan of Kitsch himself. Unlike stars such as Elvis (Presley, not Costello), the Liberace Museum is not located in any of the homes he owned – his last house in Las Vegas is currently privately owned, and hopefully renovated to no longer resemble a fatal explosion resulting from a battle between Louis XIV and P. T. Barnum. It is about a mile and a half off The Strip, but if you don’t have transportation, you need not worry – a courtesy van lavishly emblazoned with Liberace’s image on it and “Free Shuttle to the Liberace Museum” plastered across the side will cheerfully pick you up at your hotel; dark sunglasses and a hat help to ease the embarrassment. As you pull up to the museum, any urge to ask the driver, “Are we there yet?” will be curtailed by the sight of the entrance in a building that was undoubtedly the joint effort of the famed architectural team of Salvador Dali and Dr. Seuss. Read the rest of this entry »

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Attack Of The 20-Foot Artichoke

Jul 5

Posted by val in Trips, USA, USA | 2 Comments

World’s Largest Artichoke, Giant Artichoke Restaurant

Castroville, California

Grateful that the artichokes are a peaceful race

Grateful that the artichokes are a peaceful race

Castroville, California bills itself as the Artichoke Capital of the World, and as discussed in the article on the Castroville Artichoke Festival, it is well justified. When you have the chutzpah to adopt such a lofty title for yourself, it only stands to reason that you’ll want to erect a monument to establish your dominance and strike fear in the hearts of also-rans and other vegetable king wannabes. In 1963, this monument took the form of a 20-foot tall steel and concrete artichoke, the symbol of Castroville’s fame and prosperity. Of course, giant vegetable advertising didn’t hurt Ray Bei’s vegetable stand, which eventually grew into the sprawling stop for all things artichoke simply known as “The Giant Artichoke”. This includes a continuation of the original vegetable stand featuring fresh and frozen artichokes and even dried artichoke flowers. You can also get local honey (still in the honeycomb), nuts, a variety of vegetables and fresh and dried fruit. A walk through the heart of the artichoke (an empty inverted green globe hallway) takes you into the restaurant.

If there is another artichoke dish, they missed it

If there is another artichoke dish, they missed it

The front of the restaurant features a gift shop where you can purchase your standard artichoke souvenirs such as shot glasses, postcards, T-shirts, but ironically no mini tribute knock-offs of the goliath guarding the entrance with its concrete petals and metal thorns. The restaurant is simple, decorated with Artichoke Festival posters from the good old days, and the immediate expectation is you’ll be offered an artichoke as a side dish for everything on the menu. Fortunately there’s a variety of artichoke food options to choose from, or you can simply cut to the chase and get the artichoke platter which features a three-way bonanza: fried, steamed and artichoke bread. Claudia was full from the food from the festival and opted for a bowl of the cream of artichoke soup. I imagine this dish is a no-brainer, as soup is the perfect way to market the previous day’s menu surplus. The food didn’t take too long – I felt that Yoda and Kermit the Frog would have enjoyed the presentation, since it was a veritable testament to the color green. The steamed artichoke was tender without being wilted, but the fried hearts were a dark brown color, usually a sign of being left in the oily bubble bath a little long. They were crispy without being crunchy with pretty green juicy centers. I wasn’t sure what to make of the artichoke bread – it was the consistency of zucchini bread with similar flavor, but with a green hue that hinted at the possibility of food coloring doping. The soup was full of flavor, but depending on the spoonful it was sometimes difficult to differentiate from cream of broccoli until you hit upon the familiar slightly bitter aftertaste (a tell-tale by-product of the cynarine compound produced by the vegetable). The food exuded the essence of the armored vegetable and was both flavorful and relatively inexpensive. The only disappointment was the city’s missed opportunity of concocting an artichoke ice cream – it would have been a fitting desert as well as a nice feature at the festival. Don’t get me wrong here; this is road food, not haute cuisine, but when in Castroville, do as the Castrovillians do.

Not the recommended method of eating an artichoke

Not the recommended method of eating an artichoke

Should you drive from Peoria, Illinois non-stop to eat at The Giant Artichoke? No. Should you make this a stop traveling the length of Highway 101 from San Diego up through the redwood coast or on your quest to see all the California Missions? Sure, why not? Should you dine here in the shadow of the vegetable behemoth born in the days of Camelot and the New Frontier while attending the venerable Castroville Artichoke Festival? Most assuredly. It’s a great way to try a variety of artichoke preparations, see the uncontested world’s largest artichoke and attend the famous festival all in one fell swoop, crossing the three items off your California bucket list. Make that a bucket of artichokes, please.

Giant Artichoke Restaurant
11261 Merritt St
Castroville, CA 95012
GPS Coordinates: 36°45’44.81″N 121°45’10.99″W

See images of Val’s visit to The Giant Artichoke Restaurant

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Hunting High and Low

May 24

Posted by val in Trips, UK | No Comments

Liverpool, UK

Radio City Tower, The Williamson Tunnels

Radio City Tower rising above Williamson Square

Radio City Tower rising above Williamson Square

While Liverpool’s main draw from a tourist standpoint is that The Beatles lived there, there is a wide variety on non-Fab Four things to see and do there. The best way to truly see and appreciate Liverpool is from above and below. From above, there’s no better vantage point than Radio City Tower. Originally called St. John’s Beacon, it was designed as a ventilation shaft for St. John’s Market and completed in 1969 (presumably John Lennon should have been able to see it from his house). Similar to structures such as Toronto’s CN Tower, The Space Needle in Seattle, Reunion Tower in Dallas and San Antonio’s Tower of the Americas, the tower featured a revolving restaurant and an outdoor observation deck. Eventually these were closed, and the platform at the top was occupied by Radio City 96.7. The tower had closed for renovation but was recently reopened for tours on weekends. It had been the tallest structure in Liverpool until being replaced by West Tower in 2008. West Tower features the Panoramic restaurant on the 34th floor with a commanding view, but be forewarned that dinner will probably run you the equivalent of front row tickets to a Paul McCartney concert, whereas Radio City Tower will only set you back about £6.25. Read the rest of this entry »

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Heart Of The Country

May 10

Posted by val in Trips, USA, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Center of the Contiguous 48 States

Lebanon, Kansas

One of many signs indicating the center of the country

One of many signs indicating the center of the country

Use your favorite adhesive and mount a Rand McNally map of the contiguous 48 United States on the wall (if it has all 50, we’ll just ignore Alaska and Hawaii for now). I’ll wait. Done? Good. Now take a dart and take your best shot to hit the center of the map. If you’re a decent darts player, you should land in the vicinity of Lebanon, Kansas, and with close to the same accuracy as L. T. Hagadorn and L. A. Beardslee achieved in 1898. As part of the U. S Coast and Geodetic Survey that year, engineers Hagadorn and Beardsly cut a detailed cardboard form of the U. S. at the time (Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona and New Mexico were not yet states, but the latter two did not affect the shape). This was rested on a point until it balanced, placing the location in the middle of Johnny Grieb’s hog farm in Lebanon, Kansas (about a half mile from the current location of the marker). Since Farmer Grieb didn’t want a bunch of city folk traipsing through his fields, the current site was selected. A slightly more scientific method of centering the intersection of even-length lines between the northernmost and southernmost and the easternmost and westernmost points of the contiguous U.S. would place the center some 215 miles away as the crow flies near the appropriately named Center, Kansas in Chautauqua county, but since no one really agrees on the most accurate means of calculating the point, Lebanon is as good a location as any. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mystery Date

May 3

Posted by val in Trips, USA | 2 Comments

Dates

Shields Date Gardens, Indio CA

Like you could miss that?

Like you could miss that?

I drove up to a fruit stand in Indio, California and asked the proprietor if he had dates, to which he replied, “No”. I then asked if he had nuts – he responded with, “If I had nuts I’d have dates”, then sent me off to Shields Date Gardens (where they have more dates than Sheryl Crow). You like blonde? They’ve got blonde. You like brunette? They’ve got brunette. Ever make a date shake? They do, hundreds of times on a daily basis. And porn? How about continuous showings of the film, “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date” What is this place, Val, a gentlemen’s club in the middle of the desert? Of course not. But everything I’ve said is true (except for the part about the fruit stand, and I don’t know whether or not Sheryl Crow owns a date orchard). Shields started from humble beginnings – in 1924 Floyd Shields and his wife Bess drove out to the desert with the impossible dream of growing dates. Dates are tricky – they require considerable water but no rain, take over a decade before bearing fruit and reproduce with such difficulty that it’s a miracle they produce fruit at all. Floyd used to take time from the arduous work of dating to lecture people who stopped by on the how-tos of date growing. After a while he incorporated a slide show which became affectionately known as “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date” (which is oddly family friendly). This has evolved into a constantly running film in a tiny, slightly dark theater; there’s no sticky floor here, even though dates have high sugar content (you knew where that was going, didn’t you?). Read the rest of this entry »

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The Bird’s The Word

Apr 26

Posted by val in Africa, Colombia, Tasty Animals, Trips, USA, USA | 12 Comments

Ostrich
Africa and elsewhere

The original Ostrich Land sign in Buellton CA

The original Ostrich Land sign in Buellton CA

The ostrich is a laughable bird, with wings too weak to lift its body and a light-bulb shaped head on the end of a fuzzy snake of a neck. Of course should you choose to laugh at it, you run the risk of getting kicked into tomorrow. Although they are the world’s largest bird, they generally prefer to avoid confrontation. They can run about 45 miles per hour and will lay down flat to avoid detection (contrary to popular belief, they do not bury their heads in the sand to hide). It’s hard to imagine that an animal this size would need to worry about predators, but the maned cats in their native Africa could make a bucket of Original Recipe out of one in short order. It is for this reason that the ostrich has been armed with a deadly clawed-toe Kung Fu kick. They also have mankind to worry about, having been hunted and farmed for feathers, hides, oil, eggs and meat for centuries, if not millennia.

Manager Sonny Cabrales shows his ostrich offerings

Manager Sonny Cabrales shows his ostrich offerings

Ostrich farms were lucrative businesses, but towards the end of the 1900s the cost of raising them led some farmers to simply let them go; it was not unusual to hear of a hunter in Texas running into one face to face. One ostrich farm that has managed to keep in business for the past 20 years by introducing their livestock to tourists is Ostrich Land in Buellton, California. You may have seen some of their ostriches in the film “Sideways” but you don’t need a Hollywood camera crew to see them up close. Ostrich Land has a small gift shop that sells eggs (yes, they make great omelets), feathers, oil and other ostrich products. They do have some meat for sale, but they maintain that it comes from a nearby ranch. For 5 dollars, you can go out back and get a large dog food bowl attached to a metal dustpan filled with what looks like rabbit pellets to feed the birds (ostriches as well as their diminutive cousin, the emu). The ostriches saunter up to a railed platform and jam their heads in the bowl like a feathered cobra, emptying the bowl in a few minutes. The two-handed death grip is recommended as they will steal the whole contraption given half a chance. Oh, by the way, important safety tip – keep your face well out of their reach. Sure, ostrich feeding is fun until someone loses an eye.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Through The Looking Glass

Mar 15

Posted by val in Trips, USA | No Comments

Fort Bragg, California

Glass Beach

People scavenge for glass on Glass Beach

People scavenge for glass on Glass Beach

There are some places on earth that blur the distinction of what is natural and what is man-made; other places where mankind’s disregard for the environment results in the creation of a place of unusual beauty, where one man’s trash truly becomes another man’s treasure. One such place is Glass Beach, in California’s Mendocino County. In the 1940s, residents used this small stretch of shoreline as a dump, a practice unimaginable today. Household items were discarded into the sea, from bottles and dishes all the way up to old cars. In the 1960s, the dumping was stopped and the state closed the dump, making efforts to remove what large waste items they could – nature took care of the rest. Over the years, the surf rolled and pounded the trash against the rocks and tumbled them in the sand until there was not much more than pebble-sized items left. Since a great deal of the trash was glass, it is the primary component of the pebbles that cover the entire beach, giving the beach its recent name. Read the rest of this entry »

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Oh, Sandy!

Feb 22

Posted by val in Trips, USA | 2 Comments

Steele, North Dakota
World’s largest sandhill crane (Sandy)

A quick history of Sandy the sandhill crane

A quick history of Sandy the sandhill crane

In the race to build the superlative beast, it appears that the contest for world’s largest sandhill crane is down to a field of one. The 40-foot tall sheet metal avian (“Sandy”)  stands watching for tasty cars passing by on Interstate 94 (North Dakota’s big beast highway) in Steele, North Dakota. Easily visible from the highway, Sandy seems to have nested in an unlikely location. Unlike the fanfare for her bovine and bison counterparts, there are no billboards or gated parks that indicate her home. Sandy stands at the end of the giant gravel parking lot of the Lone Steer Motel Restaurant and Lounge, a place that would look at home in one of those movies where the car breaks down and you have to spend a creepy night. Sandy’s grassy plot is not conspicuously marked – there’s no entrance booth or path, just a couple of wooden kiosks describing the life and migratory habits of the sandhill crane. The park is populated with local plants, bushes and trees that were donated or purchased through a grant from the North Dakota Forestry Department. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ice Water In Their Veins

Feb 1

Posted by val in Trips, USA | 2 Comments

Wall, South Dakota
Wall Drug

The sprawling cluster of buildings that make up Wall Drug

The sprawling cluster of buildings that make up Wall Drug

Have you ever been in traffic, maybe in Boston, Chicago or Atlanta and noticed a Wall Drug bumper sticker on one of the cars in front of you? Perhaps you’ve wondered, “What is this Wall Drug, and why does a drug store have bumper stickers?” The fact of the matter is that Wall Drug is a variety of things, least of which is a drug store. Part of its mystery and allure may come from the fact that it’s pretty far from anywhere. To find Wall Drug you’d have to either plan a trip out through the badlands of South Dakota or just happen to be passing through on Interstate 90. It’s impossible to ignore the signs along the highway for hundreds of miles in either direction, beckoning like The Thing on Interstate 10 in Arizona. Since there’s really nothing else around for miles, it almost makes sense to stop, which is exactly what Nebraskan pharmacist Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy realized when they bought a little drug store in Wall, South Dakota back in 1931. What took a little time was to figure out how to get the lines of people heading down Interstate 90 to see the relatively new Mount Rushmore to stop in their little town. It was Dorothy who hit upon the idea to offer travelers free ice water, and as the saying goes, if you build it they will come. Billboards on the highway attracted travelers and business got so good that they grew from a storefront drug store to what amounts to a rustic, western-themed mall and entertainment complex encompassing an entire city block. Read the rest of this entry »

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Postcards From Hell

Jan 11

Posted by val in Trips, USA | No Comments

Hell, Michigan

Greetings from sunny Hell

Greetings from sunny Hell

What could give your bragging about having been to Hell and back more street cred than a trip to Hell, Michigan? Think about the joy of having a point of reference the next time someone says, “It’s hotter than Hell today”, or to truly know what a snowball’s chance there is. Don’t let the name fool you – although it would be fun to provide pictures of Death Valley or Kilauea and let you believe this is what Hell looks like, this couldn’t be farther from the truth; I would liken parts of nearby Detroit as more befitting the name of Hell. The tiny town is about 20 miles from Ann Arbor as the crow flies (you can substitute a raven if you’d like) and as is true of much of that region of the Midwest it is relatively flat. The drive takes you through picturesque green rolling pasture and farmland, and while the road to Hell is assumed to be paved with good intentions, I am sorry to report that it is smooth, well-kept asphalt – not even brimstone! Read the rest of this entry »

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Right Is Right And Left Is Wrong

Jan 1

Posted by val in Trips, USA | No Comments

Pasadena, California
Fork in the Road

The fork in the road at the fork in the road

The fork in the road at the fork in the road

The road to life often forks, leaving you to wonder which path to take. At the intersections of Pasadena Avenue and St. John Avenue in Pasadena, California you can only go right, but you may want to linger for a bit to admire the fork itself. Local artist Ken Marshall erected an 18-foot tall steel-reinforced wooden fork at the intersection of the two streets as a prank for the birthday of The Ice House founder Bob Stane’s 75th birthday during Halloween in 2009. A permit is required when erecting public art in Pasadena, but men dressed as CalTrans workers erected the sculpture surreptitiously in the middle of the night. Pasadena’s mayor has expressed no desire to have it removed, noting that it brings people to the area and has a positive impact on the community, but the traffic island is under the jurisdiction of CalTrans and may eventually have to be removed. The fork is painted silver, but the fact that it is made of wood may make it temporary anyway.

You can eat a lot of meat with this fork

You can eat a lot of meat with this fork

The fork is not the first of its kind, nor is it the largest. In 2000, artist Stephen Schreiber created a 31-foot tall fork from steel and aluminum, also located at a fork in the road in Milan, New York. A giant steel fork in Springfield, Missouri stands outside an ad agency – it was originally in front of an Italian restaurant but purchased and moved when the restaurant went out of business. Although probably the largest fork in the world, it is disqualified here since it not only doesn’t stand at a fork in the road, but also is hidden behind the building. The Pasadena fork can safely be called the largest wooden fork in the world. Recently a food drive was successfully conducted at the site of the fork, and with all the positive publicity it will probably be around for awhile, or at least until they’re told to get the fork out of here.

Forks in the Road:
Intersection of Pasadena and St. John Avenues
Pasadena, CA 91105
GPS coordinates: 34°7’51.81″N 118°9’17.27″W

Intersection of New York 199 and New York 308
Milan, NY 12571
GPS coordinates: 41°58’13.52″N 73°49’15.23″W

Large fork:
2215 W Chesterfield Blvd.
Springfield, MO 65807
GPS coordinates: 37°8’43.49″N 93°19’23.81″W

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These Buffalo Don’t Have Wings

Dec 18

Posted by val in Trips, USA | No Comments

Jamestown, North Dakota
World’s Largest Buffalo, white buffalo (Frontier Village)

No need for a sign to see the giant buffalo

No need for a sign to see the giant buffalo

As you may have gathered from the article on Salem Sue (world’s largest Holstein cow), North Dakota truly is the land of the giants. This becomes apparent in Jamestown, North Dakota, a mere 90 miles west of Fargo (oh, jeez!) when you catch a glimpse of the world’s largest buffalo from Interstate 94. You could be content to pull off to the shoulder, exclaim, “That IS a big buffalo” and head back on your merry way to see the world’s largest sandhill crane, but why not stop and see what makes Frontier Village interesting? Fight the urge to turn around at the gates, even though it looks like you’re about to enter Walt Disney’s version of F Troop. Ignore the wind vane decorated to look like a Native American headdress and pull all the way down the road to the parking area. From the parking lot you will have no problem finding the world’s largest buffalo – nothing stands between you and the behemoth except a dirt path. Normally by this point in the article I would have been using the beast’s name (e.g., Betsey the lobster, Sandy the crane, Salem Sue the Holstein, etc.), but for some unknown reason he (yes, the buffalo is anatomically correct) doesn’t have one. For the sake of this article we’ll call him “Bill”. Read the rest of this entry »

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Florida, Land of The Giant Carnivores

Dec 9

Posted by val in Trips, USA | No Comments

Islamorada, Florida (World’s Largest Lobster)
Christmas, Florida (World’s Largest Alligator)

The largest spiny lobster returns to the Florida Keys

The largest spiny lobster returns to the Florida Keys

North Dakota is home to a fair number of the world’s largest beasts (at least in sculpture form), but Florida vies for runner-up status with several oversized local carnivores. Two of the more impressive are separated by almost 300 miles of U.S. Route 1 – Betsey (a contender for the title of world’s largest lobster) and Swampy (undeniably the world’s largest alligator).

Betsey was originally commissioned by a Florida restaurant in the 1980s and sculpted by local artist Richard Blaze out of fiberglass and metal. The restaurant went out of business prior to the work being completed, but was purchased by Tom Vellanti for his display outside his Treasure Village shops in Islamorada. Treasure Village itself had an interesting history – it was formerly Art McKee’s Treasure Museum, a place where diver and shipwreck recovery expert Art McKee displayed the treasures reclaimed from the sea. Betsey had stood guard for several decades until Treasure Village’s owner died in 2007; shortly afterwards Treasure Village was converted to a Montessori school and Betsey was dismantled and stored for sale on eBay.  Early in 2009, Mike Forster (owner of The Rain Barrel Artisan Village across from Treasure Village) purchased Betsey and began rebuilding her across the highway from where she formerly stood. At 35 feet long 25 feet tall, Betsey is a competitor in the category of World’s Largest Lobster, but faces strong competition from a lobster in Shediac, New Brunswick made of reinforced concrete. Although the Shediac lobster is the same length and shorter in height, they may be counting the sculpture’s base in the total size. Regardless, it is safe to say Betsey is the world’s largest spiny lobster, since the Shediac lobster is representative of an American (alternately Maine) lobster. Betsey’s visibility along U.S. Route 1 in the Florida Keys is assured for at least another decade, so don’t start heating the swimming pool and melting a bathtub of butter quite yet. Read the rest of this entry »

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Watts Up, Doc

Nov 30

Posted by val in Trips, USA | 2 Comments

Livermore, California
Longest Burning Lightbulb (The Centennial Bulb)

Centennial Bulb, shine a light on me

Centennial Bulb, shine a light on me

In 1901, U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated, succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt; Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic radio broadcast; the first Nobel Prize was awarded; and, oil was discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. Also this year, a hand-blown, 4-watt electric light bulb was installed in the ceiling of the firehouse at L Street in Livermore, California. What makes the installation of this bulb noteworthy is that it is still used today, over 108 years later, making it the longest burning bulb in the world. On its 100th birthday it was dubbed “The Centennial Bulb.” Finding it is a little tricky; essentially you have to be on your way somewhere else to get to it. As historic as it is, it is best attempted as a side trip, perhaps on a trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Livermore is relatively large, with Interstate 580 running right through it. A couple of turns off the interstate and you are there, at Fire Station 6. This is the bulb’s third and presumed final home (and yes, it was off while it was moved). The station generally isn’t busy; if the garage door is open where the fire trucks are housed, walk right in – they’re expecting you. You will likely be greeted with “You’re here to see the light?” The crew is friendly and helpful, but if you hear alarm bells, it would be prudent to get out of the way.

Me and my wife Claudia beneath the Centennial Bulb

Me and my wife Claudia beneath the Centennial Bulb

The bulb hangs near the right wall high up on the ceiling; at 4 watts, it’s barely as bright as a night light. A small American flag is attached to a pipe just below in case you’re having difficulty identifying the clear glass bulb amidst the rows of fluorescent fixtures. The firemen on duty are quick to tell you that depending on which way you stand, the lit filament spells out either “ON” or “NO” – for maximum impact, go for the “ON” view. You are encouraged to sign the guest book (which I doubt is over 100 years old) on a shelf below plaques and certificates confirming the bulb’s authenticity. The firemen will even take your picture when requested with the bulb in the background (a difficult task given the height of the ceiling).

A timeline shows events in the first 100 years of the bulb

A timeline shows events in the first 100 years of the bulb

A similar bulb in Fort Worth, Texas just hit the 100 year mark itself, but the Centennial Bulb still maintains the record and is the first bulb to break the 100 year mark. From a historic standpoint it is worth the diversion, but be sure to go during normal hours as you may not be able to get access after hours (although you can see it through the window). There is also a doorbell you can ring to get someone’s attention, but keep in mind it is a working firehouse. Unless you show up at a ridiculous hour of the night or the crew is preparing to respond to an alarm, you will most likely be cordially invited in. You can rest assured, like Motel 6, they’ll leave the light on for you.

The Centennial Bulb
Fire Station 6
4550 East Ave
Livermore, California 94550
GPS coordinates: 37°40’48.69″N 121°44’22.14″W

More images from the Centennial Bulb in Livermore, California

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