Warner Brothers Studio Tour

 Yesterday morning we had a very fun studio tour at Warner Brothers in Burbank. We stayed at the Best Western Plus on Riverside Drive in Burbank which was only a five minute drive away. We booked the Deluxe Studio Plus tour which includes two hours with a guide and two hours on our own at the museums plus lunch. It started at their lounge where we had it all to ourselves to enjoy some snacks before we met up with our guide Ken. He used to be a camera operator but had become a tour guide about seven years ago. He took us around the various backlot sets which have been used for so many movies and television shows. He would point to a street corner and tell us that is where Chevy Chase drove his car during Christmas Vacation. Or this is where Peter Parker kissed Mary Jane upside down. He was also a very big fan of Gremlins, using that movie more than any others as he would point out where things had been filmed.

The most interesting part of the tour for me was the prop warehouse. It's four floors of what you first describe as a Hoarder House!! But there is an organization to the suspected chaos. Every item is carefully barcoded and tagged. Each area is generally one theme or style of props. Such as one area having a lot of Egyptian statues or art. One area having everything you'd need for the West Wing or any other White House show.

A whole section of any type of phone imaginable. And many famous props such as the leg lamp from Christmas Story or a couch from Casablanca. Some props, including that lamp and the couch, are designated to never be used again. Sort of like museum pieces. Although they are just sitting out, collecting dust. The leather from the Casablanca sofa was thick with dust and cracking. I thought they'd be more preserved. They also have an electronic inventory system where you could search for nearly anything and up will pop a list of what is available and where it's located. The productions will rent out the props for the number of days they feel they'll need it. And the warehouse isn't just for productions filmed at Warner. We saw trucks for other studios pulling up for their pickups.

The studio also has several replica sets of Friends and Big Bang Theory where you can get your picture taken on those iconic coaches. And there is also the famous Friends fountain. Not being a fan of either show, that moment was lost on me. But if you are a fan, you'd really enjoy it. There was also another museum that has interactive sections about sound and sound editing. Plus an impressive collection of some costumes from Batman and Wonder Woman.

We checked into the Conrad Hotel downtown. Loved it. We took their included car service to Union Station to ride the free bus to the Dodgers' game. Another ballpark off the list. It was a beautiful night for baseball.

7.26.19 Detroit

Thursday night we headed to Detroit, Michigan after work. 

We stayed at the DoubleTree Suites downtown. 

Friday morning, Glenn and I worked. Our friends Jon and Jackie arrived at lunch time. We headed to Grand Turk Pub where I had a delicious Turkey Reuben sandwich. 

After lunch, we went to the gorgeous Apparatus Pub at the Detroit Foundation hotel. It was gorgeous. I had a very spicy margarita and everyone else had beer. 

Our car came to pick us up and we headed to the Michigan Brewers' Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti. The beer fest was fantastic. 1,150 beers from 150 Michigan breweries. 

Our favorites were from Arclight. They had some delicious sours. Witch's Hat and Speciation were also tops for us. We made a big mistake at not evaluating the food options before picking a line. We ended with partially frozen hamburgers when we could have had tacos. 

At the end of the night, we brought our A game to the port-a-potty line. The people in front were not paying attention. I may have ran to the front of our line and pushed a large man into a port-a-potty so our line could move ahead of the other lines. Allegedly. It ended up being a pretty fun move as everyone then started cheering for this own line. I got an ovation when I exited the port-a-potty. Someone said I'd get a gold medal in the Port-a-potty Olympics. I humbly said I was happy to be of service. We headed back to the hotel for a night cap. We headed back to the hotel for a nightcap. I was so happy to see my favorite New Holland gin on the menu. 

Saturday, we headed to the Eastern Market in the morning. 

We tried some beers at Eastern Market Brewing. They were not our favorite. 

We also tried our luck at the Detroit City Distillery. 

I had the gin flight and it was fantastic. Glenn enjoyed his bourbon cocktail. We tried some pierogis, but they had nothing on the Polish food you can find in Northern Michigan. 

We headed up to Ferndale to sample some Mead. We stopped at Public House for a quick bite. Then we went to Schramm's Meadery. We tried all the meads on the menu. Glenn's favorite was The Rebuttal - a cherry mead aged  on cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans in a bourbon barrel. My favorite was the ginger. 

Finally, after a short nap, we headed to the baseball game. It was a gorgeous, cloudy night. We had great seats on the third base line front row. 

My favorite thing about the stadium was an awesome food court with a carousel in the middle. 

We also LOVED the chicken shawarma nachos. It was a funny moment because Glenn asked our car driver from Friday night was food was Detroit known for. He answered Mediterranean and chicken shawarma. We were skeptical. 

After the game, we went to a dive bar near our hotel - Anchor Bar. It was a great spot. Good service. Great prices. A decent ham and cheese sandwich. 

Sunday, we stopped at the Detroit Institute of Arts before heading to the airport.  We encouraged Jon and Jackie to check out the Star Wars Costume Exhibit while we wandered around the museum. They had a great baseball card exhibit. We were impressed with the museum and the exhibits. 

8.22.15 - 8.23.15 Pittsburgh

We headed to Pittsburgh to check off another ballpark from our list and meet up with our friends Jon and Jackie. We had a great time exploring the city, the Andy Warhol museum, and the local beer scene.

8.14.15 St Louis with the Bells

We headed to St Louis to visit with our friends the Bells. It was a great visit with a lot of fun times on their terrific deck and watching baseball. On Saturday, we headed down to the Cardinals stadium to check out the new Ballpark Village. It turns out it was the induction ceremony for the Cardinals Hall of Fame. SO FUN! 

Beth and I had a good time tweeting Megan Edmonds from the Real Housewives of Orange County since Jim was one of the hall members. 

8.7.15 Phoenix Baseball Trip

We headed out for a weekend trip to Phoenix to cross Chase Field off the list. We arrived last on Friday night. We had a little trouble getting to our hotel because roads were closed to facilitiate the traffic leaving that night's game. Once we found it  - we loved it! The Hotel Palomar was fantastic. It has a fun roof top bar and a great restaurant/lounge with craft cocktails - all walking distance from the stadium. 

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel, the Breakfast Club. The food was great. Then we headed east to see some of the sites. We stopped at a lovely historical marker. We aren't sure exactly what it commemorated. 

 

Then we went to Superstition Mountain museum that included the old sets from some of the Western TV shows. It ended up being pretty interesting. We had to try the Sarsaparilla. The Elvis chapel was also a highlight.

Then we headed to Goldfield Ghost Town I had read about. I obviously didn't read enough about it since it was a recreation - not exactly the real deal.  We took the mine tour. I liked it since they built it as a tourist attraction. It wasn't as claustrophobic as other mines I'd been in.

 We took the train ride around the Town. The best part was when the train conductor explained all the conspiracy theories about the Superstition Mountains including that aliens that live there. He went into a very detailed explanation of what they could look like: Lizard bodies with human head and arms or human bodies with lizard heads and arms.

On the way back to Phoenix, we stopped at Four Peaks Brewery. The food was really good - especially the kale salad. The manager was really nice and we had a good chat with him. We liked most of the beers.

Then it was finally time to head to the game. It turned out it was Randy Johnson's number retirement so that was really fun to see. We liked the Field a lot. They have so many places to watch the game - an area with pool tables, a beer bar in the outfield, a Fridays with tables and bleachers in the outfield. Very fun. We got a stand up table at the beer bar and had a nice time chatting up a local.

After the game, we walked back to the hotel and noticed a cool cocktail parlor: Bitter and Twisted.  We got a seat at the bar. It was so much fun to watch the bartenders whip up all these crazy cocktails. The food was pretty good too.

Sunday - we headed to the airport and spent most of the day flying.

May 24 - 26: Laurie, Kate, Rays and Disney

For Memorial weekend, Glenn's sister Laurie and her roommate Kate came to visit and see the Red Sox play the Rays. It was so much having them and introducing them to Tropicana Field. 

The game was crazy! Red Sox scored 5 runs in the first inning, but then ended up losing in extra innings. We left at the top of the 13th inning. It was just too painful to watch! 

On Sunday, we headed over to Disney since Laurie and Kate were staying there for the week. We had cocktails at Narcoosee's right on the water. It's a great bar with fantastic mint juleps. A huge rainstorm hit while we were there and the power went out. Then we met Kate and Laurie for dinner at Citrico's. The food and service were great! 

This fish dish was very good! The highlight of the meal was the soft shell crab appetizer and charcuterie plate - both of which I did take a picture of. 

Glenn had the pork loin which was very very good. It's the best pork I have tasted in the restaurant. 

After dinner, we headed back to Narcoosee's to watch the fireworks:

On Memorial Day, we had breakfast at Olivia's Cafe at the Old Key West Resort. I love the grits and shrimp and avocado omelet. And Glenn had his first smoothie. 

Then we headed over to Universal Studios to get a sneak peak at the new Harry Potter world and ride our favorite rides. 

A fantastic weekend! 

3.7.14 - 3.9.14 Spring Training and Camping at Myakka River State Park

Friday night we packed and headed down to Myakka River State Park. We left the house around 6:30 pm and had everything set up by 9:30 pm. We had a great campsite 13 in the quiet loop. Overnight it was pretty chilly, but we made it through. Saturday morning was gorgeous. We had a relaxing morning drinking coffee and reading by the fire. 

Around 11:30 am, we headed out to Sarasota for the Baltimore Orioles v. Boston Red Sox Spring Training game at Ed Smith Field. It was nice and sunny! 

The Red Sox had a rough day. We'll blame it on the Split Squad. 

After the game, we headed to a local bar call Beer Box. They had a row of Cigar City on tap and we were really impressed with the knowledgeable bartender. 

After happy hour - we headed to Venice to have dinner with my grandparents. We tried for Sharkey's but the line was 1 hour and a half long so we ended up at the Daiquiri Deck. The food was pretty good and the oysters were great. It was fun getting to see them. 

We headed back to the campsite for wine by the fire. It was a beautiful clear night so we got to see a lot of stars. 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to Bradenton for the Pittsburgh Pirates v. Boston Red Sox Spring Training. Again, the day was gorgeous. Buckner was pitching so that was fun. We got to watch him warming up. 

The Park was pretty cool. It has a bar in the outfield. 

Overall, it was a terrific weekend! 

7.13.13 A baseball trip: Philadelphia and Baltimore

To celebrate our friend Jon's birthday, we hopped an early morning flight to Philadelphia. Jon is also trying to visit all the baseball team ball parks in the US so we were excited to check Philadelphia off both our lists.

We met up for a breakfast beer at Reading Terminal Market. 

A blurry Reading Terminal Market 

9.23.11 Weekend in New York City

In September, I had another work trip to New York City so we decided to make another weekend of it. This time, we flew together so no worries about Glenn missing half the fun. Friday, we both worked from our respective city offices and then headed out to Brooklyn for an amazing dinner with one of Glenn’s co-workers. We ate until we had to be rolled out of there!

Saturday morning, we headed to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. I was able to secure free tickets through Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day. I had never before toured an aircraft carrier. It was incredible.

One of the highlights was meeting one of the men who served on the aircraft carrier during World War II. He was a mechanic and told us stories about how they moved the aircraft around the plane. My favorite moment was when Glenn asked, “Does it look like it did when you lived on it?”. He was trying to figure out what types of renovations occur on these types of aircraft carriers. The veteran answered, “Well no, it’s a museum now.”

Just outside the museum, Yankee Fan Fest was going on. Glenn is a die-hard Red Sox fan, but I was happy to get some free ice cream, hummus, chips and pens. I even got to snag a self-heating thermal shirt Uniqlo before the store even opened. Yippee! From the pier, we headed over to Blue Smoke. An episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network featured their potato chips so we had to check them out. We ordered several appetizers. I had my first ever deviled egg. It was pretty darn good. My favorite was the shrimp corn dogs.

We still had a few hours until the Yankee Game so we headed to Brooklyn Brewery. I loved the vibe at Brooklyn Brewery. It felt like a neighborhood hang out.

Softball teams were enjoying pitchers and pizza. We sampled the Oktoberfest, Weisse, Companion and Blast. This weekend was the last weekend of the NYC Craft Beer Week so we stopped at Mugs on the way back to the Subway to sample the BluePoint White IPA and Harbor Brewing Black Duck Stout. The White IPA was really good. Then it was time to head to Yankee Stadium.

We got there early and walked around. We had great seats. Unfortunately, the Red Sox were not able to pull out a win, but we really enjoyed the afternoon at the ballpark.

Post game, we headed back to Chelsea to find a local bar for dinner and drinks. After a disastrous stop at Flying Puck (cranky bartender and mediocre beer), we consulted the Craft Beer app and ended up at Guilty Goose. The restaurant was only six months. We had a fantastic time sampling beers, chatting with the owner and eating their fantastic food.

We liked it so much we went back the next day for brunch.

Poached duck eggs over ham on a biscuit with jalapeno hollandaise

Goose confit goat cheese omelet

After brunch, we hit the submway to head to Governors’ Island Art Fair. 

Marachi on the Subway

It was a contemporary art show so we had our usual reactions of confusion and occasionally liking something.

We had a few hours before our flight so we headed to Mustang Sally’s to watch the Patriots game. I love that we have been to NYC enough times that we now just act like we live there – hitting local bars for football rather than feeling pressured to see more.