Midwest Weekend Getaway: The Perfect Long Weekend in Milwaukee

Ahh, Milwaukee: I can’t get back to this magical land of top-notch beer and mouthwatering cheese soon enough. When I visited Milwaukee last October, I felt like I had been let in on some amazing secret (but if you’re a local, you know how awesome it is already). Wondering what to do in Brew City? Here’s how to spend an incredible long weekend in Milwaukee — because with a city as great as this, having two days just won’t cut it.

Very few things can get me out of bed super early on a Saturday morning: avoiding long lines at Disneyland, unexpected parades down on the street below our windows, or overly excited cats demanding food. Turns out we can add one more crucial thing to the list: Circa Brewing Co.’s Passion & Pride IPA can release.

Circa Brewing Co. released their Passion & Pride IPA last Saturday, June 22, and we got an awesome sneak peak inside the canning process. Read on to find out what the beer tastes like and why you need to pick some up ASAP!

Game of Thrones madness is in full swing right now. The HBO show’s eighth and final season is currently airing, with an epic series finale scheduled for May 19, 2019. Sunday night socializing has ground to a halt for us as we huddle around our television set, hanging on every word and concocting new conspiracy theories.

But what if you’re itching to get your Westeros fix on the other six days of the week? Or what if your significant other keeps repeating “Winter is coming” and you think he’s crazy because it’s summer now, that fool? Whether you’re a hardcore fan or have no clue what a White Walker is, here’s why you’ll want to head to NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Museum Hack Game of Thrones-inspired tour.

Pacific Grove is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Sure, loving Pacific Grove is easy ’cause it’s beautiful, but it’s more than that. Pacific Grove is a small town with an even larger heart, where locals’ pride in their institutions and their history swells just like the ocean that surrounds it. It’s full of gorgeous coastal landscapes, creative cuisine, and charming Victorian-style houses. And, most importantly, it’s the one place where I truly feel at home.

From exploring its scenic beauty to devouring local food and drink, here’s how to spend an incredible weekend in Pacific Grove.

I’ll let you in on a secret: prior to this year, we didn’t have any New York City holiday traditions. Typically, Mr. Five O’Clock and I spend the last two weeks of December in California (and the first two rushing around wrapping up last-minute assignments and purchasing zany holiday gifts), so the festive air and holiday cheer tends to pass us by.

Not so this year. Our fabulous, NYC-savvy friends Lynn and Justin of Mad Hatters NYC invited us to carol the night away on Classic Harbor Line’s Cocoa and Carols cruise, and it was a true holiday offer we couldn’t refuse. Here’s why the Cocoa and Carols cruise is the perfect New York City activity for the holidays.

Listen, as your average New Yorker, the ritual of morning coffee (and, let’s face it, afternoon coffee) has become deeply ingrained into my everyday life. And just like airlines who proudly proclaim at the end of a flight, “We know you have many choices when you fly, so thanks for flying Airline XYZ,” I know that you have A TON of options when you need your cup o’ joe — whether you’re zipping into a coffee shop or purchasing it at the grocery store to drink at home.

I mean, I used to order at the Starbucks near my old office in Times Square purely out of convenience. (Nothing against ’em, I just found myself on autopilot after four years.) But now that I work remotely, we’ve started to up our coffee game in the same way that we care about cocktails, beer, and wine.

Enter RISE Brewing Co., whose nitro cold brew coffee has become my on-the-go coffee of choice. With its current roundup of coffee cocktail collaborations across the country and delicious products, here is why it’s going to be your next coffee obsession.

Jersey City is sometimes referred to as “the sixth borough of New York City,” and after visiting last fall, I finally understood why. With its stellar restaurants — Razza! Short Grain! — and no-nonsense watering holes, the second-most-populous city in New Jersey can hold its own when it comes to food and drinks.

My friend Erin of 10 Miles Behind Me took me on a thorough tour of Jersey City’s bars last fall, and hot diggity dog does this city have some incredible drinking options. To people who live there, that’s about as surprising as New Jersey-born Meryl Streep starring in yet another film, but to me, it completely blew my mind. Here are five fantastic bars you need to visit on your next trip to Jersey City, NJ.

I’ve always secretly wanted to be a spy. (Guess it’s not so secret any more, right, Internet?) Given the nature of blogging, though — I’m sharing my experiences for the whole darn world to read — I’m guessing I won’t be on any intelligence agency’s shortlist when it comes time to recruit new secret agents.

Still, I’ve done my fair share of reciting lines from James Bond films, examining John le Carré novels, binge-watching The Americans, and stealing French fries from my mom when she isn’t looking. Which, of course, means I’ve got a few spy skills up my sleeve.

So when I heard that a new spy museum called Spyscape was opening in Manhattan, my ears perked up. And when I learned that Spyscape hosts a special “Missions and Martinis” experience on Thursday nights, I was sold. Here’s the inside scoop on Spyscape, NYC’s new 60,000-square-foot spy museum and experience.

As beer-loving Brooklynites, it’s a complete mystery how we didn’t discover Coney Island Brewery until this April. (Seriously, how did this take a whopping five years of New York City living?!) Nevertheless, we’ve been happily sipping on their brews all summer long.

As summer draws to a close — although the weather gods may beg to differ — it turns out that the fall season is moving full speed ahead at Coney Island Brewery. They’ve got a stellar lineup of specialty beers coming your way during their annual Freak Week, which runs from September 17-22, 2018.

So what’s the deal with these new brews? And how can you join in on all of the fun? Here’s the 411 on everything you need to know about Coney Island Brewery’s 2018 Freak Week.

New York City has no dearth of incredible museums. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History to smaller institutions like the New York Transit Museum and the Tenement Museum, you could spend a whole week in the city just museum hopping from one place to the next and not get bored.

But museum fatigue is a bonafide problem. (You know, when your feet start to ache after standing in front of sculptures for a few hours and your brain goes, “Not another painting that a three-year-old could draw.”) And in mammoth-sized museums like the Met, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure about what’s worth seeing.

Enter Museum Hack. In an effort to get out of my cocktail bar comfort zone and into more of New York City’s cultural institutions, I signed up for their “Un-Highlights” tour of the American Museum of Natural History, not knowing what to expect.

It was wacky. it was zany. And it was the best time I’ve had in a museum in years. Here’s why.

Category: USA

Midwest Weekend Getaway: The Perfect Long Weekend in Milwaukee

Circa Brewing Co.: Passion & Pride IPA Can Release and Drag Brunch!

Winter Might Be Coming: A Review of the Museum Hack Game of Thrones Tour

How To Spend An Incredible Weekend in Pacific Grove, CA

Why Classic Harbor Line’s Cocoa and Carols Cruise Is The Perfect NYC Holiday Experience

RISE Brewing Co.: The Nitro Cold Brew Coffee Company You Need to Know

5 Fantastic Jersey City Bars You Need To Visit

Missions and Martinis: A Night Out at Spyscape, NYC’s New Spy Museum

Booze News: Coney Island Brewery’s Freak Week is Here!

An Unconventional Day at the Museum: The Museum Hack Tour of NYC’s American Museum of Natural History