Ever wanted to experience the magic of Christmas all year round? Buckle up as we take you on a whimsical journey to some of America's most enchanting Christmas destinations. Join us, your hosts Joshua and Craig, as we dive right into our personal favorites, from the iconic Christmas Storyhouse in Cleveland to the winter wonderland vibes of Durango, Colorado. We share anecdotes about our own festive experiences and reveal some unique holiday traditions you might want to adopt!
Ever wondered what it feels like to cut down your own Christmas tree in Missouri? Or perhaps experience a dazzling light show at Silver Dollar City? We've got all that covered and more. We take you to the charming town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas City USA, and share some fascinating insights about its rich history, and unique holiday offerings. From the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world to a special holiday beer, Bethlehem has got something for everyone!
We wrap up with a visit to Santa Claus, Indiana - yes, you heard that right, a town with a Christmas-themed amusement park! Learn about the numerous festive activities in this town, including writing letters to Santa at the Santa Museum and Village. We also discuss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spot Santa in person in Durango, Colorado. So, stay tuned as we unravel the merry mysteries of these magical destinations. As always, we encourage you to keep exploring because you never know what unexpected gems you might stumble upon. Until next time, Merry Christmas, happy holidays and have a safe New Year!
Ever wanted to experience the magic of Christmas all year round? Buckle up as we take you on a whimsical journey to some of America's most enchanting Christmas destinations. Join us, your hosts Joshua and Craig, as we dive right into our personal favorites, from the iconic Christmas Storyhouse in Cleveland to the winter wonderland vibes of Durango, Colorado. We share anecdotes about our own festive experiences and reveal some unique holiday traditions you might want to adopt!
Ever wondered what it feels like to cut down your own Christmas tree in Missouri? Or perhaps experience a dazzling light show at Silver Dollar City? We've got all that covered and more. We take you to the charming town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas City USA, and share some fascinating insights about its rich history, and unique holiday offerings. From the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world to a special holiday beer, Bethlehem has got something for everyone!
We wrap up with a visit to Santa Claus, Indiana - yes, you heard that right, a town with a Christmas-themed amusement park! Learn about the numerous festive activities in this town, including writing letters to Santa at the Santa Museum and Village. We also discuss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spot Santa in person in Durango, Colorado. So, stay tuned as we unravel the merry mysteries of these magical destinations. As always, we encourage you to keep exploring because you never know what unexpected gems you might stumble upon. Until next time, Merry Christmas, happy holidays and have a safe New Year!
If they're heading to a hot spring, be prepared for fart smell.
Speaker 2:If you're a father, then you're gonna be in heaven because you can be there and do it all you want and blame the actual.
Speaker 1:That's just a sulfur.
Speaker 2:That's a sulfur. That's a dog anymore that's a sulfur.
Speaker 1:Do you love the outdoors? Do you love to travel? Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Josh.
Speaker 2:And I'm Craig, and welcome to Treasures of Our Town, the podcast that takes you on a journey to explore the unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.
Speaker 2:On today's episode, josh, we're gonna deliver. Well, you and I personally are gonna deliver our own five top holiday slash Christmas locations throughout the USA. And give you a hint, josh, I think yours is very different to mine.
Speaker 1:Ho, ho ho, Merry Christmas, Craig Merry.
Speaker 2:Christmas mate. Happy New Year to you as well, and I hope you have a safe one. Buddy, Just saying You're all excited. It's actually Christmas Day today it's Christmas Day.
Speaker 1:I hope everybody got everything they wanted and you are getting a gift from us. You are getting a Christmas episode on Christmas Day. This is fantastic, christmas special, as they say.
Speaker 2:It's a.
Speaker 1:Christmas. It's a Treasures of Our Town. Christmas special 2023.
Speaker 2:It is. And, josh, guess what I did on Christmas Eve? What did you do? I watched your video in amongst the actual Christmas story house. Josh, oh my gosh, that was amazing.
Speaker 1:That was just delightful.
Speaker 2:That was so cool.
Speaker 1:Every year I try to do a Christmas special on the Geocaching Vloggers YouTube channel. However, craig, last year I didn't do one. I didn't do one, but you know how it is with Christmas specials you can just watch them over and over. I mean, everybody watches Charlie Brown's Christmas every year. But this year, this year, we have a brand new one. It was from Cleveland and, craig, I had a great time recording it. Craig filmed it, he edited it. It, dare I say, was a masterpiece.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, mate, it was a masterpiece. It was so easy. Well, easy, yes and no. But it was so easy to do because, josh, while we were there, I didn't realize, because I'm from Australia and so we don't. I think I've mentioned this before previously on the podcast. We don't, we don't have that, that that you know. Every Christmas day, you watch a Christmas story over and over and over and over. We don't do that in Australia. Why? Because it's sunny, it's hot, we're down the beach, we're having barbecues, we're swimming in the ocean like Christmas. Save for Australia is outside, outdoors, never indoors.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's kind of like your 4th of July.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we don't have that either, but anyway, well, I know but, but that's what we do.
Speaker 1:on 4th of July, we go we go outside we're in the water, we're having hot dogs, barbecue, all the things.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. That's what we normally do, so we don't get that Christmas special as such. Now, when I was there with you in Cleveland at the Christmas Storyhouse, I had seen again bits and pieces of it not the full story, to be honest with you, because you're busy on Christmas Day and it's just you, just it's in the background, and and then I'm filming you and you say these different things, different lines. I'm thinking that surely that's got to be from the line from the movie. That's got to be a line from the movie. And Josh, you're almost word for word on these different lines. I had to pick, josh. I had to pick out which ones were the best lines and put it in order in the sequence, and then I had to find the actual footage and put it as well to show, to show people like me who don't know it like 100%, that damn man, you're really good at that stuff Like yeah, really, really good, it was just.
Speaker 1:It was just delightful to watch. You put the actual movies from the clips from the movies into the video. That was. That was so cool. I was actually impressing myself. I was like, whoa, I did, I did get it right. It tells you how much many times I've actually watched that movie Exactly.
Speaker 2:And how much it actually sinks into your brain, even when it's sort of it's on in the background, and on Christmas Day itself. What was the, the, the, what? My favorite line was the electric sex at the window. Whatever, it was that one.
Speaker 1:I think that one. I had to actually look up on my phone in the moment. I was like how did he say that exactly so that one might have been, that one might have been a little bit of a cheat?
Speaker 2:but it's a bit fudgy, a bit fudgy, oh.
Speaker 1:but it's oh so appropriate that we're talking about this, because we are talking about today the top 10 Christmas themed locations that are great to visit at Christmas time, but also some of them you can visit anytime. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Some of them you can't, some of them you won't get the experience though, because a lot of them, some of them, we've got, like you know, the different actual Christmas themed locations, but others are Christmas themed 24, seven, like you know, throughout the entire 365 a year and 366 on a leap day.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, and I'm going to say a disclaimer about this episode. This one is a little tough for me, craig, and you know we've talked about this before because most of the episodes that we have, we've actually had visited, you know the places, experienced them, feed on the ground, and several of these locations are aspirational places, places that we also want to go. But thanks to the internet and YouTube and all those good things Like, I think we found some real gems here.
Speaker 2:We really have and and he's saying that too you were, you were sort of you were a little bit adamant with me. You're like Craig, that one there that's not really part of our niche. So I'm like Josh, leave it in. That's what it's going to be, you know, because I go from. I go from the biggest to the smallest, to be honest with you in my list.
Speaker 2:So just saying shall we get to this? Shall we get to this? Or do you want to talk about your Christmas day at the moment? What are you doing right now?
Speaker 1:I'll just say today on Christmas day I'm sitting by my holiday tree with my star from the Christmas story story movie sipping on my eggnog in the glow of not electric sex but just my tree.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, fair enough. And do you think you're going to get a white Christmas this year, josh?
Speaker 1:I don't think so, and now I don't think so. We're recording this before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are. We're time traveling as we speak.
Speaker 1:I'm looking out the window and you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm going to stop right there because guess what?
Speaker 1:What? On the treasures of our town podcast. We do not talk about the weather.
Speaker 2:This is true. This is true. But in saying that, I'll be honest with you. This is the theme of the show and that is a white Christmas. I know everyone from the Southern Hemisphere who almost no one in Southern Hemisphere experiences a white Christmas, and that's the one thing that we Australians, etc. When we come to America, we want to experience that white Christmas like the movies. Josh, yes, you know, and you're lucky enough to sort of most cases, live in that sort of location whereby you can actually have a white Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'd say probably about 95% of the time. Here in Minnesota we have a white Christmas, but I don't know. We got a week and I don't think anything's in the forecast and actually I don't mind it. We've had. Well, I'll stop right there. Yeah, talking about the weather, you and more you, almost.
Speaker 2:I'll say this, though, for everyone out there Okay, I've realized the true definition of a white Christmas. You know, you yourself know what the definition of a white Christmas is. For you to have an actual white Christmas.
Speaker 1:I would say the grass needs to be covered with one inch, one inch of snow has to be laying upon the ground.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't actually have to be physically snowing, snow falling down, for it to be a white Christmas, as some people think. No, it just has to have an inch of snow layered on the ground and therefore then it's classed as a white Christmas. There you go. See the tips, see the knowledge that comes out from.
Speaker 1:This is just delightful.
Speaker 2:Should we?
Speaker 1:get to our list. Yes, we should.
Speaker 2:Let's get to our list at the top ten.
Speaker 1:You can get there Christmas themed locations. We're going Christmas people. Yes, it's Christmas day, exactly my first one. And you know we always say these are in no particular order, but I don't know, as I made this list, did you do? I think these actually might be in my order, but that's okay. That's okay, mine's not. Mine's not the first one. I've never been to this place. Yeah, but it's the North Pole. What the actual? Oh, the North Pole, not the actual North Pole there is. And because we only talk about the United States here right, true, true.
Speaker 1:Well, this is North Pole Alaska. Oh, so technically still in the US. Yes, Population population Two thousand two hundred and like twenty four. Wow, and there is actually a North Pole, alaska.
Speaker 2:Can you believe it, craig? No, I didn't. I didn't even know this until I saw you write it up on the show notes and I went oh dude, look at this North Pole, alaska. There's actually a town called yeah, how.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, how can you have a Christmas visiting list without adding the North Pole in there?
Speaker 2:And what's what's in there?
Speaker 1:There's so much, craig. Yeah, well, first of all, you've been to Alaska, haven't you? Yes? Yes, I've been to Alaska. What a, what a vibe that is I know it is beautiful place.
Speaker 2:It is an absolutely stunning location.
Speaker 1:When did you visit North?
Speaker 2:Pole.
Speaker 1:Or the Alaska.
Speaker 2:I visited in the fall of twenty, okay, 21. Yeah, I think it was yeah.
Speaker 1:That's when I visited to.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe the year after? I think yeah, but North Pole Alaska is pretty darn close to Fairbanks Alaska yes. So it's up there, it's not at the top. You think North Pole Alaska would be at that very top of Alaska.
Speaker 2:There's not much up there.
Speaker 1:There's not much up there, although I have think I have seen a video of somebody finding a geocache, like in the most northern point of Alaska. Yes, Crazy, Crazy Anyway but the big highlight of this location is the Santa Claus house.
Speaker 2:Santa really up there. He's actually got a Santa Claus house.
Speaker 1:He's. There's a house and it used to be apparently like some sort of trading post and you know it's. It's. It's probably exactly what you think it would be Just like a big store with a lot of Santa stuff. Of course Santa is there. I saw a video where you can like look into, like where he hangs out in his little workshop, and I think I don't know this for sure, but I think most days of the year there is a Santa's there. I mean, he's there, except, of course, christmas Eve. Yeah, so he's all over the round the world and there's a huge Santa statue that is, of course, a virtual geocache. Of course, the whole area is covered with adventure labs and if you don't know what we're talking about, we had a whole episode about location based games. But you can play, you can geocache, you can probably Munze, you can probably do adventure labs all up there. So fantastic, so full Santa themed. There's reindeer farms, like actual reindeer.
Speaker 2:Like real, real life reindeer. It's not the. Yeah, I don't think they fly though, josh, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think these do these probably fly.
Speaker 2:They probably fly, but only once a year when they get sprinkled the dust from Santa just saying.
Speaker 1:This is true, and you know, I just discovered that reindeer are really caribou Caribou. Did you know this?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I did know that. Yeah, because I learned that when I was in Alaska. There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we had a little bit of a Roswell, new Mexico. We had an episode about Roswell. We did, and do you remember the McDonald's? Yes, the actual spaceship.
Speaker 2:It was a spaceship McDonald's, yeah. It was a UFO, ufo McDonald's, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, the sign at the McDonald's in North Pole, alaska, is a candy cane. No, it's a candy cane.
Speaker 2:So it's year round, so you can probably go to this place year round for Santa and stuff. I dare say.
Speaker 1:Yes, I just love the theme McDonald's.
Speaker 1:Yes, and here's the thing If you ever go to North Pole, alaska. Here's another thing If you go about an hour to the east, a little bit farther out, there's the China Hot Springs Resort the actual hot springs. I saw a video of it. It's full snowing, it's really cold out, but it's hot. It's hot water in an actual hot springs, and so it's like a resort, and on the resort grounds there is an ice museum similar to that one that I went to in Germany, where you walk in.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, and it's just all these ice sculptures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I bet, though, there's not a signal of a frog in that ice museum, though there probably isn't.
Speaker 1:Daniel Fleeger, get on that. Yes, yes, and you know we love our restaurants. So I was just curious. I was like you know what kind of Santa delicacies are there in North Pole, alaska, and there is a very popular Chinese restaurant called the Pagoda Restaurant. And guess what, greg, this was featured on diners, divans and drives. Really, like guy went all the way up to Alaska and it's some of the best Chinese food around and I, oh I, love my Chinese food, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good.
Speaker 2:And again, that's very Christmassy. What's that movie where they actually went and ate Chinese for dinner on Christmas Day Was?
Speaker 1:that a Christmas story? Was that a Christmas story? It was. There you go, because the bumpers' dogs ate the turkey. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:See, you know more than me, mate, you know the more that's true.
Speaker 2:Well, farron, you started up high. You started up in Alaska. I'm going to come back down a little bit south now. I'm going to start in Missouri. Mine are in no particular order. In Missouri we have Branson, missouri, now. Branson is a small, smallish town. It's about four hours south, or southwest, I should say, of St Louis as well. So about four hours southwest St Louis.
Speaker 2:Now, josh, this place they deck it out at Christmas time. So if you're going to go there, obviously the best time is Christmas time, unlike your Alaska one, where there's pretty much going to be Christmas all year round. Here you've got Christmas themed stage shows. That's one of the biggest drawers is the actual Christmas themed stage shows they have. It's at Kings Castle Theatre. They claim it's the biggest holiday celebration in the actual Ozarks itself, and the show lasts for about two hours and there's free parking there as well. So I think, to be honest with you and this comes out spoiler alert, this will come out later on in the show where the what are those dances that are in New York City? The Rockettes, the Rockettes. So it's like that. It's like an actual Christmas themed show, like the Rockettes, but I think this one changes every single year, so that's.
Speaker 1:I always love a good show. I can't believe I've never been to Branson, can you believe? And I don't live that far away from it. I mean it's, it's quite a, it's quite a tourist area. Have you ever been to Branson?
Speaker 2:I'll be honest with you. I have never been to any of these places at this time of the year.
Speaker 1:Wow, this time of the year.
Speaker 2:I have been to some of these places, but not at this time of the year. So yeah, there's the difference. Branson is also known well I think that's personally known like they brag it Because America is Christmas tree city, because there's more than 1000 Christmas trees on display throughout the two counties that actually encompass the town. So 1000 Christmas trees you can actually walk through, drive through, etc. And they're all decked out in their light display as well. The holiday celebrations typically kick off around the beginning of November, so they don't do the December one, they start the month early in November and then they run all the way through to New Year's Day.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's really cool. That's a really good question for you. Are you a real tree person or are you an artificial tree person?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question, because growing up I was a real tree person, because you know that smell of the pine, you know you feel like it's Christmas and even Christmas in Australia we had real Christmas trees inside our house. You know real Christmas. But you know, growing up and getting your own house or getting your own place, and then you have to deal with all the mess and the you know. For evolvities I turned to sort of the plastic, the artificial Christmas tree. In actual fact, there's been years, josh, I'm what? 48 now. There's been years where I didn't even put up a single decoration in my house. Wow, well, obviously sometimes I'm a single man. You know it's what's used.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean. Do you try to impress?
Speaker 2:Exactly Like you know, all the traffic always comes to my house. But yeah, no, no. So that's yeah, that's what I'm. So I started off as a real. I've turned into a fake.
Speaker 1:I think most people are that way. They want a real tree at heart, but it's a lot of work and it's a mess, as you said. I'm looking at my tree it's artificial and it's just you know, it's just fine, it's just fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just fine, but that smell is nice.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:The other thing you probably do is sometimes you go, you go real, artificial, back to real, back to artificial. Now, why I say that? Is because you go from real when you're a kid to artificial, when you're sort of, you know, move out of home or whatever, and then before you, when you have kids yourself, you go back to real again so you can give them the experience of that true pine and you know. And then, as as, as anyone knows, as a with a young family or whatnot, christmas itself is all about family, and so to see the see the delight on the kids faces, and give them that joy of Christmas and that that smell of the pine, you know is true.
Speaker 1:Question in Australia do people go out and do they actually cut down their Christmas tree? Yes, Are there places like that? Are there places like go and like get one already cut down?
Speaker 2:No, there's both, so there's actually Christmas tree farms. Yeah, there's tree farms, but there's also Christmas trees that you can buy, already cut down at the side of the road with some some hack. So with these bum bag and full cash, you know, go. Oh. So these Christmas trees, you know, and it looks like he just stolen from the next to the neighbor's house, but you know.
Speaker 1:I've never actually cut down our Christmas tree. I have to. That's, that's a bucket list for me. I have to do that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So when I first cut down, my very first cut down, my very first Christmas tree with my young family at the time, we actually went out, josh, and we bought an actual Christmas tree saw. So it was a saw. We only used Christmas trees. So there you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go. Anyway, we do. If you want to see a lot of cool trees, go to Branson. You go to Branson. 1000, 1000. That's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:It says 1000, probably 1001 by now. But who knows? You can also experience, while you're there, the old time Christmas at Silver Dollar City and they celebrate this season with the theme parks. You know, have you heard of Silver Dollar City? It's a theme park.
Speaker 1:Oh, like you know, like a Six Flags, Six Flags, but I think it's going to be smaller than Six Flags, let's be honest.
Speaker 2:But they celebrate. Get this. 6.5 million lights. I know 6.5 million. One and a half million of the lights are located in the actual midtown lights spectacular they have every single night. That must be beautiful. Yeah, there's an eight story state of the art Christmas tree and it debuts at the centerpiece of the actual town square. I bet you that's fake. Yeah, well, yeah, it has to be. Let's be honest, it has to be. Are they all fake? That size? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know, the Rockefeller Center one, I think, is a real tree, that's a real tree.
Speaker 2:That's a real tree. Maybe they I think they grow that specifically for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bring it in.
Speaker 2:While you're there, josh, you can actually explore the candy lovers dream as well. So there's, you know, there's the candy, and then there's the displays at the incredible Gingerbridge Village. So all the gingerbread houses. You can actually build your own gingerbridge house, etc. Quick funny story recently I went, I went with dinner with a mate of mine and left my wife here alone, who should bought a Christmas, christmas tree, a gingerbread house for her to build right, I come home from having dinner with my mate and and I saw just a couple of little strips of what he called icing on the coffee table.
Speaker 2:I said what are those? The front says oh, oh, I left them out. I go what do you mean? She goes well, they're from the, they're from the gingerbread house. I go where's the gingerbread house? She goes I threw it away. So I said, oh no. So what happened was and told me out there, people, you might have these in circumstances, and that is, you know, you're trying to glue this thing together, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah you're going to get together with, with icing or whatever, right, and I think, because she's from New Jersey as well, they have like the less of a you know, tolerance and patience. And so this thing kept the wall, kept on falling down, falling down, falling down to the point where the last one fell down. It cracked. So she cracked it herself and she threw it all in the trash. And then, after she threw it in the trash, she thought, oh, I don't craig to see this, because she bundled up the trash for the first time ever and took the trash out to the trash can.
Speaker 2:She was so embarrassed by her craftsmanship of the gingerbread house, and she won't be embarrassed by me saying that because she doesn't listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1:That's like and isn't that so true about gingerbread houses is that, even if you make them and they look like as a kid, you see them, you're like, oh, they're so beautiful, there's gumdrops on them and icing it's gingerbread cookie. And then you're like, okay, christmas is over, now you can eat it. You eat it and it's just disgusting. Oh, it's dry. Like I never had a gingerbread house that tastes good, it's cardboard.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's any sugar in it, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:No, it's just, it's nasty, it is it is, it is, it is, it is.
Speaker 2:Anyways, throw in the trash, throw in the trash. Exactly, apart from the candy lovers dream here in Missouri, you can also this is the last part as well, you can ride aboard. They've actually got a polar express. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, is Tom Hanks on it? Oh?
Speaker 2:yes, not the actual Tom Hanks, but oh, it's the Branson Scenic Railway and they do a holiday train every single Christmas time itself, and the whole family will love it. You board along the Polar Express at the historic 1906 depot in downtown Branson. You'll be greeted by characters out of the story, josh, including the prominent train conductor Tom Hanks, the friendly hobo as well, and Santa Claus himself as well. So they get the Polar Express actually happened to be Branson.
Speaker 1:They're themed on the movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, they try to make it most like the movie, most like the movie. They try to make it exactly like the movie.
Speaker 1:I love a good train ride. Yeah, something about a train ride, that's just. You know. Maybe someday, craig, we'll have to like see if we can just like take an Amtrak together somewhere and just like have a experience, because it's just a kind of a lost travel art. I know people do it. Yes, yeah, you don't hear about it that much. I don't hear about too many people.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I took a train all the way to Seattle or something like that Like my brother in law, though my brother in law has a bucket list of train rides he wants to do and he's been doing them. Oh really, yeah, he's a single guy. He did one from New York to Chicago. He did that one recently.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And he really enjoyed it. He said, like you know, it was the same price as flying.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I think it takes longer and it takes much longer and it's not as comfortable. I don't think, but still, yeah, he said, and he always said as well. Here's a tip for you if you're going to do a long train ride like that, pump up the money and actually pay for the better seating, the better quality, where you can lay down. If you want to, yeah, we can go and visit the sleep car, sleep car, sleep car, yeah, the sleep car. So put out a little bit extra for the sleep car. Don't ride in the economy. You know that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so that's the end of Mind. Josh in Missouri.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's Missouri. We're just going to go a little bit south of Missouri, are you?
Speaker 2:ready for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to go to Chickasaw, oklahoma, chickasaw, oklahoma. What's the heck, what the heck is Christmas have to do with Chickasaw? Well, this is all based on the movie we just talked about. Off the top, a Christmas story there is there. It's pretty much new. It's like been there, I think, only like a year. Craig yeah, a giant leg lamp statue.
Speaker 2:Really have you seen pictures of this? Have you seen? I had to. I had to Google it. When I saw your show notes, I had to Google it and went. It's even on a little fragility box.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's very fragility. That's Italian, yeah, it's Italian. It's a major award. Yes, and even Valerie from Silly America. That's right, we like. This is how I found out about it, I think as soon as that place was erected. I mean, valerie made her way down there, yeah, and of course took a picture and of course had an outfit that matched. But it's actually a leg lamp statue and we're not talking. It's huge. Yeah, it's huge, craig, you need to look it up. I didn't look up how big it was, but it's humongous.
Speaker 2:You want me to look at it now.
Speaker 1:You don't have to, but tell me more about it and I'll look it up for you. I will, I will. So where Chickasaw is? It's just south of Oklahoma City, craig. This is this is Oka City. This is a place that you know we have talked about visiting together. I've never I've only driven through Oklahoma City, but this is just south of it, and, of course, it's from the Christmas Story House that we covered on the Cleveland Rocks episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because the actual Christmas story, and actually the Christmas Story House, is not on this list but it certainly gets honorable mention because but we've talked about it extensively on another episode, on that Cleveland Rocks episode but I had to ask myself the question why did they put the leg lamp statue in Chickasaw, craig? Why do you? Why do you think without looking at the show notes?
Speaker 2:Oh geez.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2:Why would I guess that? That I would guess. I would guess that, like a, either the director or a writer or something like that, is from Chickasaw. That was my guess.
Speaker 1:It's pretty close.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:What is it? Chickasaw claims. Now, if you're from Chickasaw, you know, write us. But Chickasaw claims that the leg lamp idea was sort of invented there. There was an artist by the name of Nolan James, local artist, and years ago he, he, he created a leg lamp and it was interesting because it was actually Craig. A two leg lamp. You know maybe what I was wondering, like, why is there only one leg? Yeah, but he created a two leg leg lamp and you can actually see it, the actual two leg leg lamp that Nolan James created in like one of their museums in Chickasaw. That's really cool.
Speaker 1:And so they essentially they're claiming that they are the place that invented the leg lamp, and you know how towns are. They're just they want, they want to be. They're the Christmas, they're the Christmas capital, they want to be the Christmas capital of Oklahoma. So why not put a gigantic leg lamp? Leg lamp, great piece of pop culture.
Speaker 2:It's 40 foot high, 10, 10, 10 foot high Craig and 40 foot high leg lamp, so 50 foot in total 50 feet tall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And Chickasaw. Chickasaw claimed to be the birthplace of the lady leg lamp. Yeah, that's what I said, and it is it is only new, it's from November 2022 was actually erected.
Speaker 1:So it is on display. You can go at Christmas time but it is on display year round. That is a permanent location for the leg lamp. Want to visit it. You know I love the big things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do, I do. This is a great with fishnet stockings too.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure they light it up at night.
Speaker 2:They've got, they've got.
Speaker 1:Surely surely, chickasaw, chickasaw, hidden gem, hidden south of Oklahoma city, there you go.
Speaker 2:For the leg lamp. Anything else for the leg lamp, Josh, my second one going through now. This one here is very I reading about this and actually researching this as well actually surprised me. It is Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:Oh, stop. Yes, oh, little town of Bethlehem, pennsylvania, okay there you go there enough.
Speaker 2:Well, this, this is what surprised me, though. So on Christmas Eve in 1741, josh, 200 plus years ago.
Speaker 1:Just before, before, this was a country Correct, correct Before America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a small group of Morivians and their benefactor, the German count Nicholas Zenzendorf I'm probably hacking that one they held a religious service to christen their new settlement in Bethlehem itself, and they observed the singing and the atmosphere, and then he declared it, the new settlement to be known as Bethlehem. So Zenzendorf actually declared it as Bethlehem. But the fact is though, josh and this is what surprised me as well, and that is the Chris it's known as a Christmas city now, obviously for obvious reasons, but it wasn't coined that until 1937.
Speaker 2:So there you go yeah, so almost a hundred years later, they actually then, so 200 years later, they actually coined it as the as the Christmas city of the USA.
Speaker 1:It's kind of fascinating that they didn't name it new Bethlehem.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I know so in the United States it's like Hanover New, hanover, olm New, olm New.
Speaker 2:Bethlehem, hampshire, new Hampshire no, new Jersey, there's all these new things. It is the Christmas. There is a Christmas city village there as well. Of course, they're inspired. It's got a Christmas market, markets from two different locations. It's really. It's a perfect. Bethlehem is a perfect town whereby you park outside and then walk through, take it as long as you need to and know that it's going to take a while and literally walk through. There's the Moravian Bookshop as well. Now, this bookshop, the bookshop was established in 1745.
Speaker 1:Whoa, that's old, that's old, it's old for us.
Speaker 2:And it's known as the oldest continually operating bookstore in the world.
Speaker 1:So that's cool fact, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:That's really cool the oldest one in the world. However, the shop itself is so much more than a bookstore, they say, because inside you can sample delicious beer, josh, and so it's a bookstore with beer, you can have some chocolates, you can browse around and have a look at the other holiday merchandise that they have as well, and obviously all the Bethlehem souvenirs.
Speaker 1:So I bet you can get a really killer nativity set there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Like salt shaker nativity, like all kinds of nativity sets. He's a question for you, Lego.
Speaker 2:He's a question for you now. You asked a question for me. He's a question for you again. Oh, this is off. The books and nativity sets. Are you a nativity set person where Jesus is in the nativity set before Christmas, or wait until Christmas day? Oh, we wait.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, you're a wait. Yes, I was a little. I set up the nativity set and all that was there was Mary and Joseph at the start of December and I had the wise men. I moved them around. So Reese would be like when she was little, she was like dad where are the wise guys? She called them the wise guys, she's like where?
Speaker 1:are the wise guys. And so every day she'd wake up in December and she'd look around the house and look where the wise guys moved. And the wise guys would move closer and closer to the nativity set. And then, of course, on Christmas Eve oh, christmas Eve, yeah, I think Christmas Eve we put the little manger there and then the wise guys showed up. That's really cool. That's really cool. There you go.
Speaker 2:See, I'm living more in the nature.
Speaker 1:Way better, way better than Elf on a shelf.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, you don't have to think about like bad stuff that you can do with. Elf on the shelf.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the wise guys were creating mischief and like destroying the kitchen and cleaning the toilet and painting on the kids faces. That yeah, painting on the kids faces like that darn Elf, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:Anyway, in Bethlehem we talk about the beer at Beer and Books. Josh, we're gonna talk about the brewery that's in Bethlehem as well. Fegli's Brew Works, it's called. It's only quite new itself, but it features delicious beers throughout the year. You can obviously go there throughout the year and have the beers, but those who are wanting the taste of the holiday season, you can't miss out on the Rude Elf's Reserve. So it's a bourbon barrel aged beer.
Speaker 1:We know all about that.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do.
Speaker 1:We took a bourbon tour? Yeah, we did so. They put the beer inside of old barrels that they distilled whiskey in, or they ferment whiskey in.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. And these bourbon barrels, they were charred. Remember when they actually had, before they put the whiskey in, they charred the inside of the barrels to a certain char level, certain char degrees. And so what happens is when you put the beer in these barrels, then it takes on that flavor, it takes on the char flavor and it also takes on that smoky bourbon flavor, exactly. So there you go. I knew you'd like that one. I knew you'd like that one.
Speaker 1:That's fun.
Speaker 2:Finishing off in Bethlehem, there has to be a winter light spectacular. It's in the Landley Zoo. It's about 30 minutes northwest of the actual downtown itself. More than one again. One million lights throughout the zoo itself and there's characters like the Grinch, isla from Frozen, elsa Elsa, I said Isla Elsa.
Speaker 1:Elsa, you said Isla, elsa.
Speaker 2:Elsa Woody from the Toy Story, and also Santa as well. So there you go, Christmas light spectacular at the zoo.
Speaker 1:at the zoo. That's fun. Yeah, I wonder what the animals think of that. Whoa, this place got real.
Speaker 2:As long as there's no fireworks. I don't think they've made it too much with that. That's true. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:All right, here we go. Number three we're going to New York, but not New York City, because that, oh, new York City I mean, come on, this podcast is about hidden treasures. I mean, new York City is not a hidden treasure. So I don't know if that really fits our podcast, but we're going to New York, we're going to gosh. I was going to call you last night, craig. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I wanted to make sure you had seen this movie before we talked about it. Yeah, have you seen? It's a Wonderful Life.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Craig, that's a travesty. Craig, that is your assignment for this week. Not only Craig, it's a Wonderful Life, a good holiday, christmas movie it's one of the best movies ever made.
Speaker 2:Really, that's it. It is one of the big for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a 10 out of 10. It's for me 10 out of 10.
Speaker 2:Is it up there with Back to the Future?
Speaker 1:I mean it's Back to Future is number one but it's up there I have a list of my favorite movies, and it's a Wonderful Life. It's up there, wow. So that's Craig last. You know, this summer, when we went to the Christmas Story House, I was like yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Christmas Story. Yeah, here's some new. Another assignment. Yeah, I know it's a Wonderful Life, Craig, I dare you and you be patient with it.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a long movie.
Speaker 1:It's an old movie, but be patient, as the greatest message. Anyway, back to travel.
Speaker 2:Seneca Falls. Seneca Falls. Where are the Seneca Falls in?
Speaker 1:New York. I don't know, I don't know where it is. You can?
Speaker 2:talk about all of it. It's not in New York. No, no, it's not in New York City.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think. I believe it's in the north. I think it's in the north.
Speaker 2:Well, anything's in the north, in New York state too.
Speaker 1:True, I think it's, but I think it's at the top. I'm going to say it's the top of New York, oh, at the top of New York up that way. It's pretty close. Well, it's.
Speaker 2:Kisballz, Would it be in the Niagara? Whatever? Well, there you go it's going to be. Oh, let me just see exactly here, Just for you, Josh, as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we're map nerds, we want to know where they are. Yeah, exactly, I want to know where it is.
Speaker 2:It's about almost an hour and a half, between an hour and 45, going directly east from Buffalo, so directly east from. Buffalo, so it's right up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember when I visited Buffalo, nancy from the Deadliest Caches who listens to this podcast? She was like Josh, if you have time, go to the Seneca Falls, because it's the town that inspired the movie.
Speaker 1:They claim it. They claim it. If you've ever tried the movie, it's a wonderful life. The town, it's a wonderful life. It's called Bedford Falls. It's one of those things where, similar to Groundhog Day, the location is a character. None of the movie was filmed there. You know how I love my movie filming locations, but it was inspired by it and so they have. Of course they have. It's a wonderful life museum with several of the costumes and the artifacts from the movie. Every year, on the second weekend December it was last weekend they have it's a wonderful life festival where they have actors from the movie. And you haven't seen the, you haven't seen the movie, but you know the line every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.
Speaker 2:You know that line Okay, it's.
Speaker 1:At the end it's at the end of the movie and that's. That's a character, zuzu, and every year Zuzu the actress that played Zuzu she's there, she's there, she's always, she looks like, she always shows up and I think she's gosh. She's probably in her 80s, maybe 90s, child. That came off For those of you that have watched the movie. I don't want to spoil the movie for you, craig, but the the George Bailey Bridge is there, which is a significant plot point in the movie. The bridge is a significant plot point. I'm not going to say anything else because, craig, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 1:No, you got to watch it Now. I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to watch it, yeah, but if everyone else out there, this is this is a podcast for me.
Speaker 1:This is a podcast for everyone else. It's where George Bailey meets the angel and where he almost commits suicide.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, but it's very it's a plot point, it's a turning point. You can take. You can take official tours throughout the town. They'll just take, take you to different spots that were inspired. And then there's a hotel called. If you stay there, you must stay at Hotel Clarence. Clarence is the name of the angel. Oh, again, that's a mild spoiler, but anyway, if you're a fan of that movie, you got to. You got to go to Seneca Falls, new York. It's a wonderful life, one of the greatest movies and certainly one of the best Christmas movies of all time.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, you know what, josh, you said before about you know, oh, we're not going to go to New York City. We're not going to. I am, I am, Josh, I'm going to go to New York City, new York, and I'll tell you the reasons why. Very, very soon. Right now, too big, too big, I know you go. Oh, it's too big, craig. That's not the hidden gem, it's not about the hidden gem.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, josh, I can go, I can have the biggest one, like New York City, like one of the biggest cities in the United States, if not the world. I can have this as my list. Why? Because it is so iconic, josh. There's some things. I'm going to quickly list of things down. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, right? Yeah, things like we said before the Rockefeller Christmas tree, horse carriage rides, just like the movies, you know. The Bank of America Winter Village. At Bryant Park, there's an actual skating rink, like an outdoor skating rink. There as well, there's a Christmas spectacular starting. The Radio City Rockets, like we spoke about earlier. Gingerbread Lane, gingerbread, new York City. There's a bake off. There's lightscapes. There's the Sax Fifth Avenue light show, amazing window displays in Sax and Macy's as well, don't forget the Empire State Building. Josh, now I know you like the movies, just like the movie Sleepless in Seattle. You got to live like Sleepless in Seattle, like Tom Hanks. What's with Tom Hanks and all these Christmas movies?
Speaker 2:I just thought he's a good he's you know, he's in a lot of things, so he's a he's a holiday guy and he gets lost a lot too, but anyway, and of course you can then end it off with you can't look past the iconic ball drop in on New Year's Eve in the actual. Have you? Have you done it? Have you done it?
Speaker 1:No, I haven't done it because. I don't want to wear it. I don't want to wear a diaper, I know I know so.
Speaker 2:So all this, I know I understand what you're speaking about. This is too big of a place and all that sort of stuff and, yes, it's not getting it's getting too busy now, to be honest with you. I'll be honest for me. Personally, I wouldn't do it too busy. But I want to go back to refresh one thing, and that is the horse carriage rides.
Speaker 2:Just let me say this for one sense, and that is because people there's two people, two sides of the coin. Some people say these horses, you know, they mistreated their good work, whatever else as well. People don't understand. This came from the actual New York City veterinary clinic services.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the veterinary clinics themselves? Um then, apparently they're misinformed about the conditions of the carriage industry, so frequently claiming that the horses are forced to live and work under inhumane conditions. This is incorrect. A careful explanation of the lives of these animals reveals totally the opposite. Most of the horses, josh, are rescue animals themselves.
Speaker 2:So they're rescue animals, then they live and work under the careful scrutiny of the veterinary profession. So they've got to go through so many stringent testings and these testings are, you know, quite regulated and and whatnot as well. So there's the side of the story there that you know what sometimes the horses you know they'd probably like it, you know that sort of thing. So it's you want to have one side or the other. So I'm just putting it out there that people, before you jump onto the I'm Angie horse, just go do some research for yourself. Have a look at what's what's involved in it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess I didn't realize people were anti-carriage rides. Yes, there are.
Speaker 2:There are people that are anti-carriage rides, but anyway, so that is New York City, new York as a city, new York, as I said, I'm not going to spend too much time on it. It's just an amazing place to be and you could obviously spend, you know, quite some time there, length of time there, going through, and you still wouldn't see it all. But if you like to, you know, like in Australia, we see these movies, josh, all the time. You know, and and I'm watching actually off topic here I'm watching there's a new NCIS, sydney out at the moment, right, and it's filmed inside Sydney.
Speaker 2:And you know, I'm sitting there watching with my wife and she's like have you been there? I'm like, yes, have you been there? I'm like, yes, yes, yes. So I know all the locations. And so, for me personally, and like you, you like going to a place where you've actually been to the location. You can see it on film and then you see it in person. Those things can happen in New York City. Yes, so many, so many, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. So there you go, that's New York.
Speaker 1:City. Well, let me just say this I haven't been to New York City during the holidays, but my wife Tammy had been doing some interesting things this last year. I don't know if I ever told you this, but she has been taking one day long trips where they literally get up early in the morning, take a flight from Minneapolis to a destination far away, spend the whole day a day trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then literally get on a plane that night and come home the same day.
Speaker 2:You didn't tell me about it, but she did just saying yes, so she did.
Speaker 1:She did that at Christmas time last year and did Rockefeller Center. She did a horse carriage ride, she did all the I mean you can't do too much and get back to the airport, but she did all this Christmas related stuff in one day and was slept in her same bed when she came home that night.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 1:We should actually we should have her and her friend on the show that did some of that, because that's a really interesting concept, Actually, you know you can you save money from, not you know?
Speaker 2:yeah, hotel rooms that you know. It's just yeah, yeah, so, exactly, All right. So what have you got next then, Josh?
Speaker 1:What do I have next? A place that I have been to yeah, oh, you have. Yes, Because it's just north of Owensboro, Kentucky. I, Craig I'm not sure you know what, Craig I think I know that we drove by this place several times and we did not stop because, you know, we had, we had a lot to do back in May. We were, we drove by the spot and that is. Santa Claus Indiana.
Speaker 2:And it's actually named Santa Claus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the name of the town.
Speaker 2:I dare say that you could go all year round and be Christmas themed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, and actually it might be better to go in the summer. Yeah, Because there is an amusement park there called Holiday World. Now, I have never experienced Holiday World but yeah, it's a six flags, you know Cedar Point type of place, roller coasters and all you know all the stuff. But the cool thing is it's Holiday World. It's all themed not by just Christmas, but many different. There's sections like Disney, you know, they have like Future World and you know Frontierland and all this is like they have like Thanksgiving land, Valentine's land, Christmas land. Also, it's all the holidays, it's based off of all the holidays. Now, Christmas, of course, I'm sure, is really featured. Well, because of course it is in Santa Claus, Indiana. But yeah, and here's the cool thing, Craig, Back when we were there in May, AFK which AFK?
Speaker 1:Geocaching? It's a group of geocachers, it's like a business. They put a premium adventure lab there. And what I mean by premium? It's like they have a financial relationship with geocachingcom where they can put in an adventure lab in a location where you have to essentially pay to get into the place. Yeah, yeah, but they have a 10 stage adventure lab inside Holiday World. That's cool and that is cool. And you know I read some of the reviews of it and they were like, oh you know, there were several grumpy geocachers saying oh, too bad, I had to pay $70 to do this adventure lab. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, you paid $70 to go to Holiday World. Yes, right To ride the roller coasters.
Speaker 1:To experience it, and while you were there, yeah, while you're in line, you're getting 10 fines.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it's the same as our other location based game, munzie Josh as well, whereby you know they're actually in. The virtual Munzie's are in, you know parks and theme parks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, disney.
Speaker 2:World's huge Exactly Six flags are huge as well with them, and so you know, you're literally standing in line not doing anything else. So why not, you know, cap a few virtual Munzie's or do some premium adventure labs. So yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So Santa Claus Indiana was filmed, was featured two years ago in my geocaching vlog or Christmas special oh, put it in the show notes. Yeah, and I took Reese there. It was in the heart of the pandemic, so maybe, actually, maybe it was three years ago, I can't remember. Anyway, you can go to the Santa Museum and Village and you go there and you can write a letter to Santa. You put it in the box and they will literally write you back.
Speaker 1:Santa writes you back Really Like a week later, a week later, a week later and they actually have people that donate their time to hand write letters to anybody that sends a letter to Santa in Santa Claus, indiana. Wow.
Speaker 2:So it's not just a preformer, where the actual child's name is in a different font.
Speaker 1:You know, even this is do you Sarah? No, no, no, and they will respond to whatever the kid has written, whatever the person has written. So it's completely personnel's handwritten letter by people that are people that live in Santa Claus, that they volunteer.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. That's really cool, that's really nice, actually yeah.
Speaker 1:Of course there's a Santa's Candy Castle. That's featured in the video too. It's an incredible candy store. Yeah, and then I haven't visited this, but every Greg, we know this, everybody wants to claim Lincoln, yeah. Everybody wants to claim that the you know Illinois, the land of Lincoln. Yeah Well, this is Indiana. Near Santa Claus, is Lincoln's boyhood home.
Speaker 2:Oh, so not the, not the cabin where he was born. When we visited that time and guys, if you haven't listened to that, that's actually a golden nugget when we visited Lincoln's birthplace yes, yeah, yeah, so this is Santa Claus, Indiana.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, it's north of Owensboro Kentucky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, josh, I'm going to go from the biggest New York City Now I'm going to go to the smallest. So you make you happy, okay, just to make you happy. Okay, I did this for you, josh, no one else. No one else, just for you, thank you. It is McAddenville in North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Never heard of it Never even heard of it.
Speaker 2:No, it's very, very small, this population of less than 1000 people, and it's about 30 minutes directly west of Charlotte as well, for those of you who want to know. But apparently this place here, the tradition of the Christmas town, began back in 1956 when a few members of the men's club they asked Far his name is, I think I think I'm pronouncing it correctly that's the one who does the textile manufacturing in McAddenville as well and they asked him if they could actually decorate a few trees around the community center and that as well. And he said yeah, of course I'll give you permission to do that. But not only I'll give you permission, but I'll pay for it.
Speaker 2:And so he then paid, and to this day still pays, for all the Christmas lights around the town. Now, it started with, obviously, a few Christmas trees, but it's grown exponentially since then. I'm talking lights, lights and more lights. Yes, the best and only way to really experience it is a walkthrough. Don't drive through this place. Walkthrough, you miss things. So walkthrough is a best way to experience it. It is only you got to irrespect the hours, because it is actually like a town, josh, it's like a neighborhood area. The best way to experience Monday to Friday 5 30 to 9 30. After 9 30,. The lights go off Weekends though 5 30 to 11. So it's up to you whether you can get there on the weekend or during the week, and the dates are from January, january, december 1st to December 26th, and actually have the lighting ceremony on the first, and they also have a you log parade on December the 14th, halfway through as well. So so there you go, that is McAddenville, and it's all for them. It's all about the lights, the Christmas lights.
Speaker 1:Yeah Is far. The guy named far, yeah Is. Do you think he's still alive? Well, do you think if you did it 1956? He could be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he's probably pretty old. Yeah, I think he's. He personally is the one who said yes and offered to pay. I think he's still alive, but obviously he's. His family is taking over the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they have they have a textile manufacturer? Yeah, but you know what, you know what I think, motivated far to decorate all those trees. What's that? In this town? Yeah, what's that? You know, he was just, you know, he was just so proud of his town.
Speaker 2:Oh, geez, you got me.
Speaker 1:That's a damn rare thing these days that somebody would put their own money down to decorate their whole town because he wanted people to visit McAdenville, because he's proud of his town.
Speaker 2:That's a rare thing these days.
Speaker 1:Geez, damn rare thing.
Speaker 2:Damn rare thing I didn't, I didn't even know, I didn't know you had them put that in the show. No, look at you, go off the cuff. Geez, you're so clever, mr, you're so clever.
Speaker 1:It's a little nugget. It's a hidden nugget in every episode except one. We missed it once, exactly.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going to your last one, and it's your number one. Your number one. What is it this?
Speaker 1:Is my number one. Yeah, I've not been here. I watched it like a 10 minute YouTube video of a family that did visit it, leavensworth, washington.
Speaker 2:Oh, Washington State. Washington State, not Washington DC.
Speaker 1:The other side no 11, 11 worth 11, not Leavens. Leavenworth, washington, this town is basically, if you've ever watched, like a Christmas. Some hallmark movie like this is. It's like a set. The whole town is like a set of a Christmas movie and the whole town is Bavarian inspired. I remember, when you watch some of my YouTube videos, when we were down in Bavaria and we were like literally like with the big Steins and people in later Hosin yeah, the architecture, all the buildings you Look at, the whole town looks like it's in Bavaria. Wow, it is just, I mean it, gorgeous and, of course, with all the Christmas lights. Yeah, and I really regret, because I know you weren't at the big 2020 22nd anniversary of geocaching. That's when I was in Alaska. Yeah, you were in Alaska at that time and there were a lot of people that week that went to to Leavenworth Mm-hmm and they were talking about it like, hey, like her friend hailmeister and Neil Moore, they went out there.
Speaker 1:It's like two hours East of Seattle and they were talking all about this, this place, and there's a. Okay, this is where the geocachers out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah active.
Speaker 1:There's an active webcam. Oh, that's that. You know, that was the draw, that's the drill like that was the draw. They read and, and let me just say like, if you don't know it again, geocaching, a Webcam geocache, I'll explain it to you is there's actually a webcam. It's like old technology, mm-hmm, and you have to go to the location and you nowadays you can log on your phone and then you get a screenshot of yourself in front of the camera. Mm-hmm, now most webcams, let's just be real like they're pretty blame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just like you're in your, your pixelated dot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you look at the. So, craig, you look at the photos of this webcam which is right in the center of the village, especially at night at Christmas time. Yeah, the GC numbers GC Jhc 9. It's gorgeous, craig, it's like a holiday wonderland. You got to check out. Check out the images of this webcam, especially the night ones.
Speaker 2:It's gorgeous. I'm looking as we speak now. So, yes, yeah, yeah, I'm Kim's old Josh, they're so old. I did a web. You know they're rare around everywhere. Actually, guess what, josh, what? Guess what what? I found this one. Yes, I've been to this. There you go. Do you remember it? Yes, I do. Now what? Yes, I do you?
Speaker 1:did you find it on your way across the US?
Speaker 2:my very first time that I was in the US that year. The 90 19 listen to me 2018, yeah, it's when I actually when I found it. So there you go.
Speaker 1:You were there during the summer, or yeah, you know six six, eight, eight, eight, I was so which it looks like it's really cool to visit even the summer, Just because the bill. You know, it's just such a cool little town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really, is it really? So there you go, I know I.
Speaker 1:There's a YouTube video of a family that is visiting this place for the weekend will happen in the show notes. It's like I think it's called through through my lens or something. It's like a family vlogger dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he does a great job showing Several of the items. Of course, there's this Danish bakery with with, but Bavarian waffles. Have you ever had a Bavarian? No, never had a Bavarian. Well, watch the video because it looks just. It looks just delicious. Look up a very waffle and you will be impressed. There's a nutcracker museum with over 9,000 nutcrackers, oh wow.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, wow, actual nutcrackers. The ones are standing up. Yeah, you know when they got a little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those ones. Yeah, some of the nutcrackers are over a thousand years old in that museum. Oh, it's amazing. Wow, the big, the big, I'm gonna keep going. The big tree all the town. It's lit like, lit up like a candy cane like you'll, see that in the video. Yeah, you know that song, the Christmas song. Just nuts roasting on an open fire. You know that song? Yeah, I do actually jack fries.
Speaker 1:They actually have chestnuts Roasted on an open fire like a little chestnut stand. Oh, I've never had chestnuts roast on open fire. I'd like to. I'd like to try that some day I want to try that someday. Yeah, we know you, we like the beer. Icicle brewing company. Oh and nice ice cold be yes, you can get real sleigh rides, real reindeer. It's this place. I have a little bit of regret, I think, next time I go to Seattle I think I got to make a little day trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, but it looks like you know, speaking of Chris, like this Christmas time is the time to visit. Yeah, and that here's the tip ready Mm-hmm. Visit during the week. If you go during December, go on a weekday. Yes, the weekends I guess it's nuts.
Speaker 2:It would be. It would be like anywhere. Like anywhere would be nuts during the week Weekend, sorry. Well, josh, we're gonna wrap this up very soon because my last one right now is Durango in Colorado, again a very small, small place.
Speaker 1:I've been there you have Durango not during, not during Christmas, but I have been there before well, this is about seven hours, josh, seven hours southwest of Denver.
Speaker 2:If you drive, it's almost right at the southwest corner of Colorado. Now, if you go there during the Christmas season, it is a true, true white Christmas. For those of you who want to do a white white Christmas, this one, here we're talking winter, winter, winter, cold skiing to Boggan, snowboarding, snowmobiling a real winter wonderland. Obviously, you can find Santa there for your real, real life Santa snow photos as well. I think you, probably. I think he's actually outside, josh, in the snow and you that's where he belongs.
Speaker 2:That's where he belongs. He's all rugged up, he's got the big coat on. Yeah, exactly, can you imagine, josh, you got a place like this right and say if you could either go there as a family or you could go? There's just a couple, like a young couple and newly married in love still, and you can stock up on those little special treats like the olives and the cheeses and the crackers and whatever at the farmers market and then you can actually cook it up In a log cabin a real cozy with a log cabin fire and there's snow outside.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine that that's true, true heaven right there for most. Yeah, it's like a hallmark movie again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly. So. Yeah, Durango is great, it's an interesting part of Colorado.
Speaker 1:You're right like it takes forever because you have to drive. You basically drive through the mountains to get there. Yeah, from Denver. Yeah, when I went there I flew directly into Durango. Yeah, because it's it's not an easy place to get to, but if you get to there it's great. There's also Craig. When I visit there's lots of hot springs around there too, of course, of course.
Speaker 2:That's the end of the thing. It's apparently it's really good for you being in the hot springs and you sweat and hot springs jump out, yeah, in the snow and your body goes and you know all your your paws freeze up and yeah although those hot springs, they do smell like farts. Well, that's the sulfur, so that has to happen that way.
Speaker 1:So, just just, I just want to warn anybody if they're heading to a hot spring, be prepared for farts now.
Speaker 2:If you're a father, then you're gonna be in heaven because you can be there and do it. Do it all you want and blame the actual that's just a soul for us, a soul Don't get him, or so far. So that's my last one. Josh, there you go. All said, all done, five for you, five for me.
Speaker 1:Well, there's there's our ten Christmas themed yeah travel locations and I'm just gonna put a call it action, a little C CTA, to our listeners. Listen to you. We want to know. We want to know what is your favorite Christmas themed destination? Yeah, that you can visit anytime of your or maybe is best if you visit during the holidays. Please write us, yeah, at treasures of our town podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it's not that hot, and what we'll do then from there Is we'll probably even write, write, read it out. Next next episode Josh, what do you think?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that'd be great, as long as they're not too long.
Speaker 2:This is true, I can condense them. I can condense them, for there we go. Meanwhile, josh, a merry Christmas to you, and also merry Christmas to our patrons out there.
Speaker 1:Yes, and happy new year. Yes, thank you for all your support. This is sort of the end of season one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. This. Is this the last episode of season once. Episode 21 Josh, the last yeah, episode of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we're not. We're not taking a break, you know, sometimes that season one. They're like we'll see you in seven months. No, we're coming back two weeks, two weeks. January 8th, yep, yep, and so we're gonna keep going. Season two starts right away, yes, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But but we do want to express a very special Thank you to our patrons that Got this podcast off the ground and I think, dare I say, our podcast here is thriving. It really is should we list them.
Speaker 2:Josh, should we say that. Give a shout out. I'll start off with with Jerry, niece Jerry names.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bianca Schmidt. Thank you a fan of 5w. Thank you Jesse Brown or shorty Nets. Thank you, jeff Cross. Thank you, mike. Smile makers from the from Australia no small makers and small Australian friends.
Speaker 2:No, he's my, he's a good, good friend of mine, but no he's near you, josh. He's near you, tom. That's Tom bees. Thank you, tom.
Speaker 1:Walter Hulk. He's a good friend from the Netherlands. Yes, yes, tim.
Speaker 2:Terrell, tim Terrell. Thank you, mike Garrett, a thank you. Tie your own shoelaces. I like that name.
Speaker 1:I Believe our not family is from Australia.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, cause on its, it's on it, not are not on its also on it on its. It's a biscuit brand, okay, well, cookie brand. You say Dailin bar from the space coast Geo store all the way down in.
Speaker 1:Florida. Oh, we're gonna see them soon. We will. Jeff Arbaugh Anteus from Texas.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Jeff. This one's a good friend of mine from Australia as well. Pipes down under. That's obvious and yeah, well, no pipes is. He's actually like bag pipes, so he plays as the bag pipes.
Speaker 1:There you go. Nice, tiva 28, which I believe is a van lifer sort of sort of.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I saw that as well. They've got a sweet van, Really sweet, and she does a lot of the trips away with a husband, different places at different locations. That's really cool. This one's from Australia. Well, gc jazz, gc jazz.
Speaker 1:Andrew Teebkin from Minneapolis area. Alison Bertman, thank you very much from Long Island on catch Can catch straight as well, james Everson.
Speaker 2:Thank you, mate Timothy.
Speaker 1:Minnesota boy Carson. Thank you, I have this next guy.
Speaker 2:I have to give this guy a shout out to the geocaching vlogger apparently one of our Patreons.
Speaker 1:I know I support our own pot. I put my money where my mouth is man, Literally exactly Right. Uh, the truck, the truck Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Yes yeah, great Great guy Again, another one from Australia. No angel from Australia. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:No angel and Jamie Levin Laven motorima.
Speaker 2:On Long Island so there you go. Josh. They're our Patreons, so thank you again and Merry Christmas and a happy new to all all our listeners, but also especially our Patreons as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we really appreciate your support. By supporting us, like all these great people we just listed, you'll be helping us to create even better content as we keep moving for season two. No annoying commercials, but Miller Highlife if you're listening, or Texas Roadhouse if you're listening, but till then? Till then. We are completely listener supported. So consider joining our team. We're gonna get golden nuggets of things. We, craig and I, talk Longer than one hour, can you believe it? And we give those. We give those little golden nuggets to our patrons. So all you have to do is go to patreoncom backslash treasures of our town, find us there and subscribe at whatever level you can.
Speaker 2:You can do yeah, because there's even a free level as well, josh. So if you want to try it out, there you go. You can do it for free as well for the time being. But until then, next episode, josh. We start season two, as you said before, we start season number two, episode one. And what are we gonna do? We're gonna do a ye in review a year in review.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because 2023 was a great year and we're gonna do a what we do know we'll do a preview of 2024, yes, of our travel, travels around this great country of ours.
Speaker 2:And that's gonna be. That's gonna be really really cool, very intensive actually. That one, josh, to be honest with you, because we've got a lot to talk about. We've done a lot this year and we had that. We didn't even start the full year, we didn't start back in january.
Speaker 1:I know we'll probably have more. Well, we will. We will have more episodes next year than this year and I just want to give a little bit of promotion because we got. We got a trip coming up soon, craig.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes we do, we're gonna and we're gonna do a live broadcast. Not live broadcast, but live recording. I should say yes, in Florida, josh, down in Orlando, florida.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we're going down to the Munzee Mecca mega event. It's a lot of m's.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of m's going on there.
Speaker 1:And so we're going to a big Munzee event again. If you're not a location based game player, it's Munzee's another location based game. We get together, have some fun and get a lot of points, and we're gonna be down there with the president of Munzee himself. We'll be. We'll be under the same roof as the press.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1:So I think we'll for sure get him on the podcast. I'm sure he'll be a guest in a couple episodes here.
Speaker 2:Yes, he definitely will, definitely will rob he's oh, when is it?
Speaker 2:It is, uh, january 11th to 14th, so there's five, five events over the four days. So, if you can try and get down, if you guys don't play Munzee but you're into location based games, check out Munzee itself as well the links are in the description and and have a look at what this, like gameplay, is about. This one here, josh, it looks like it's going to be a mega event because dylan barb are going to be there as well from the space coast geostore. They're really cool, they're lots of fun as well. So, yeah, get down, or lendo florida, you know what. And if you're just starting off, don't be scared, come and say g'day to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hi to josh you can? You can scan my referral code. Yeah and uh, you'll be forever tied to me.
Speaker 2:Like that's not a bad thing. They're like the thousand three, including me.
Speaker 1:That's not a bad thing. Just ask craig.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. So apart from that, josh, how can people find us if they want to contact?
Speaker 1:us. If they want to get a hold of us, uh, just email us at treasures of our town podcast at gmailcom, or you can visit us on facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube.
Speaker 2:So that's our show for today. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app and, as always, josh mayor travels old.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a way to end season. I'm gonna keep this in. I'll keep this one. Mayor travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing hidden gems around the world. See you next time. Merry christmas, happy new year Season one is out. Goodbye.
Speaker 2:I'll keep that in.