Oh, consider it a gift from me to you as a life-long NorCal resident with a carousel fetish. I've often thought that a day tour of the 4 SF machines would be awesome, though it would involve a lot of driving and would probably be impractical, if only because the SF zoo is a day of its own. Still...tempting, innit? And if you just hit the 3 American rides and ended with the zoo, it could be a very nice (albiet still tiring) day.

I wish the American Carousel Museum was still open to the public. I volunteered there as a young teen, and thereby learned quite a bit, to say nothing of the pieces I met. (Dentzel hippocampus, which had survived a fire that seared only its paint, making it looked barnacle-scarred. Swoon).