Huppdates: Retirement Surprise

For about the past 4 years my dad's response to "when are you going to retire"? was "This year..." only to be followed by another year of work. However, mid 2011 something changed, and despite the date rolling forward from September to November and eventually into February of 2012, he finally officially retired. I fully appreciate the difficulty of leaving a secure job and believe me, the loss of routine can be a frightening thing for us Caetanos, but I wanted to see my dad retire because, darn it, it was time the man stopped having to go to work!

In an unbeknownst to him celebration of his actual retirement Jonathan and I, along with my mom, planned a secret weekend trip to Alameda. We arrived later than desired, but safe and sound via cab from the airport on Friday night and entered the house from the back. My mom called out to my dad, "Jerr, look what I found in the back". When he walked into the hallway he stared for a moment at our silly mugs and said "where'd you come from?" with a faint smile. "Surprise!!", we replied back as he looked back and forth between us and my mom. Fully aware that exuberant surprise doesn't run deep in the Caetano blood I was happy to see his disguised shock at our presence.

We woke the next day to gray skies and rain showers that soaked Alameda all day Saturday and into Sunday but being determined to enjoy this celebration weekend we loaded into the trusty suburban and made our way across the island to check out a Pinball Museum. My initial research on the museum's website had me thinking it was akin to you're average museum for touring, so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and the admission covered an hour and a half of all you could play pinball! The first of 3 rooms included original pinball games from the 1950s but as you wandered deeper into the museum the machines spanned the generations all the way up to today's pinball machines. Having watched a pinball documentary Jonathan informed us that when pinball games were first developed they were considered games of chance and therefore a form of gambling so they were declared illegal to play. Soon thereafter someone developed and implemented the button operated flippers in order to bring about an element of skill to the game which allowed for their legalization.

We all enjoyed about an hour of play, crisscrossing through various rooms which contained varying stages of pinball machine development. It was fascinating how the art changed and the speed increased as the years and technology advanced. Jonathan noticed that the earlier models provided 6 balls for a certain price which eventually transitioned to 3 balls for the same if not higher price, and it certainly wasn't difficult to recognize that with increased speed/bells and whistles and decreased pinballs, the likelihood of spending more money, faster, greatly increased with newly developed machines. Tricky machine manufacturers.

With the buzzers and bells of pinball still faintly ringing in our ears we headed home to unwind until dinner. We had reservations at a well known German restaurant in Alameda that I'd heard great things about for years but had never tried. Its a shame we hadn't been to this restaurant until now because it was fantastic! Dad and Jonathan enjoyed wild bore, I had a pork chop that was out of this world (and I'm not much of a chop fan), Mo said her chicken was terrific and Mom was quite pleased with her pork cutlet. The sides for each plate were similar, mashed potatoes, or spätzle, a side salad with beets and my favorite, some delicious sauerkraut. A round of various scrumptious desserts finished off our celebratory dinner and well all made our way home very full and very satisfied.

Jonathan and I were scheduled to depart OAK around 4 PM so we concluded our visit by going on a short walk about the neighborhood, hanging out and chatting, and sorting through a few childhood things. The final leg of our trip, our return to Phoenix was annoyingly delayed but none the less we arrived home safely and were quite happy to pick up Jackson and return to the kitties. I don't pretend that my dad's retirement will be filled with transatlantic adventures but am nonetheless happy for him to have finally retired and wish him enjoyment and occasional relaxation in all his new found free time. Adjustment may be a little bit of a challenge, but sans any mandated schedules, I think he just might find a way to enjoy life, be it in California, Idaho or the desert we call home.

Here are a few more pics from our pinball adventures.