Family Fun Week - Day 1

Well, the kids have the whole Thanksgiving week off from school and with feeling the need to conserve finances, we decided we would not be doing any grand destination vacation. So, I came up with what I thought would be a brilliant idea (so far, I think I'm the ONLY member of our family that thinks so) of staying local, but acting like we are on vacation. We all contributed to a list of places we would like to visit/experience. Our budget is $100 a day for a family of four, not including gas and bridge tolls, but including food.

And here we gooooooooo...

Last night went to the The Paramount Theater in Oakland to see Singin' in the Rain. It was so much fun! The theater is art deco beautiful (of course, I forgot my camera) and the movie was great! (Nobody in my family had ever seen it.) And the Paramount doesn't just show you a movie, oh no my friend, they give you an experience. At 7:30pm a man sitting at an elaborate organ rises from below the stage and proceeds to play some oldies until 8pm. After each song the audience claps and cheers. Next they show an old cartoon and some previews of old movies. At 8:15 they turn up the lights, and rising from the stage once again, the man playing the organ PLUS three men in tuxedos, one woman in a vintage fancy dress and a very cool retro spinning wheel with 3 turning dials/wheels. It was time for "Deco-Win". Each patron received a numbered raffle ticket when entering the theatre. The Paramount's "Carol Merrill" (Vanna White for you younger readers) spins the wheels/dials, one of the tuxedoed men calls the winning number and, ta da, the lucky ticket holder wins a gift certificate from a local food place. They did this 3 times and no, we did not win, but it was still great fun! Then the movie begins. After each great dancing scene the audience applauds and cheers!

It was a great time and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is near enough to partake!

Movie entrance fee -- $25 (5 people, Little Cat A took a friend)
Food Treats -- $23 (4 bottles of water, 3 bags of popcorn and 1 box of Milk Duds)
Parking -- $10
Experience -- Priceless
Total -- $58