Summers in Monterey also some games

Writing about the Edgewater Packing Company made me think about when I was younger and spent summers in Monterey at my dad's house. I would spend a lot of time with my friend Jovette during those times. We would ride around on the bike path and go from Pacific Grove to Seaside. I also had a charter membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (it was the aquarium in Star Trek 4) so I would hang out in there a lot. Not only did I get in for free with that membership but it was only like 10 blocks away from my dad's house. I have really fond memories of the aquarium since I spent so much time there. I used to wander around listening to Chrono Trigger music and to this day I still associate that music to the aquarium. I haven't been to the aquarium in about 5 years but I really like it every time I go. Riding around on our bikes was a common occurrence for us and we would also go down the the fisherman's wharf. When we were there we would always get the free samples for clam chowder (which was fantastic by the way). There was also looking around in the various shops down there.

Another place that we would hang out at was the Del Monte Shopping Center. We would go into all the shops and just look around (we were probably kinda annoying since we didn't buy a lot). Electronics Boutique (later EB Games then even later it was Gamestop) was a regular stop and we used to talk with the workers there a lot. I guess I got my payback later in life since I had to deal with the same kind of thing when I worked at a Game Crazy / Fun N Games. It sounds kinda lame but we would hang out at parks a lot when not playing video games. Both of them were really close to our houses. These parks were Oak Newton and Archer park. Not much exciting to say about parks there was really no craziness involved, we would mostly just talk about games and stuff like that. During the summer I was actually quite active when in California. Read more after the break?

Thinking about that time in my life makes me think of video games as well (this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone). I have a lot of memories of playing Super Nintendo games such as Mario Paint, Super Metroid, and Super Mario Kart (I know there were more but I can't remember them right now). Before the Super Nintendo we would play lots of regular Nintendo games. Playing Double Dragon, Dragon Warrior, Mega Man 3, and anything else we had at the time. Back then we would take turns playing 1 player games since not all games were 2 player. It was fun to switch back and forth between watching someone play a game and playing it. Other memories I have of this time are going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and riding the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster. Sometimes we would all take trips to Great America as well (which had a fantastic amount of rides). I really wish Oregon had better amusement parks. There are a few in the Salem area but they aren't really all that great. I love a good amusement park and it's a itch that I can't really scratch up here in Oregon.

Onto something different now, I have been playing some Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles this evening on my PSP. The game is fantastic, it is one of the best if not the absolute best original style Castlevania game. It was originally on the PC Engine CD (TurboGrafx CD) but it was only released in Japan. Of course now the remake is on the PSP and you can buy the Japanese version on the Wii through the virtual console. I would strongly suggest buying or at least playing it if you haven't done so already. I downloaded the demo for Costume Quest but haven't really played it yet. I'm actually kinda excited about it since it is a Tim Schafer game and he is responsible for Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and Brutal Legend. If I like the demo I might have to pick that game up at some point. More to come in the future!