Episode 15 - Whisk(ey) in Gingerbread Traditions

Hello, and welcome back to the three hamster boys podcast. If you're new or unfamiliar with what we do or who we are, we are the three hamster boys, basically our father and his two sons. It's weird to say it in a third person way. My name's Alexander. If you're watching on video, to my right is my brother Nick. Hello. And to my left is our father, Jeff.

Jeff. Even in audio, onto your left.

Yeah. Even into the audio, you're into the left if you have surround sound.

I don't even know if it does. No, don't think it does. We could make it do that, but I don't know how that

would be. That would be an interesting experience. So yeah, if this is the first time checking out the podcast, thank you. We are kinda new in the podcast realm, so we wanted to find a way to spend more time together in like a weird way while also still being creative and doing something interesting. So this is a podcast where we just talk about things and do stuff while we are all it's kind of like a hobby all in one where we're learning like podcasting, editing, and also some mixology where we'll have different drinks of the day, typically three drinks per episode, which means it's very fun.

At least it gets funner as the day goes on.

Yeah. Enjoy it more.

As as we go, we may enjoy it a bit much. Today's topic I think, actually, you know what? Nick, I'll have you introduce the alcohol first, and then we can talk about the topic because I I wanna relate the alcohol to They were inspired by each other. Yeah. I will say.

So hello. I'm the local mix mixologist in town. And today, we are drinking something very exciting that I've been looking forward to for a while. We picked this up around Christmas time, a little bit before then. Yeah. And this is from a local distillery from the Virginia Distillery Company, and

we went to their one of their

It's it's their main shop.

It's where they actually do the the distillery. The main distillery. And we got an incredible experience. We got to try so many

We loved it. Oh my gosh. Very tasty. So this is what's crazy about this is when we started this journey so many of our podcasts ago, I was a big whiskey drinker. Whiskey and Scotch drinker. And so as we've done this, we've been exposed to a lot of different alcohols, but we've been exposed to a lot of varieties of whiskeys and stuff like that. And so I think that I don't think you would have appreciated this place as much if we visited it three months ago or four months ago.

No. I will say that when you and I visited Ragged Branch a while ago, I don't think I appreciated it as much Right. As I think, yeah, as as now. Yeah.

The the good thing so Ragged Branch was great. They had I think they had four or five different types of Really tasty. Really good. Really well well done.

And the episode that we did with it, also really good. Yeah.

Because we tried the rye. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Then but we went here, this kind of blew us away, the variety that they had there.

Yes.

It was just remarkable. And they did a bunch of creative things like what they did with this one, which is a limited batch.

So this limited batch is very odd. It is a stout gingerbread, single malt. And it so it basically how it's described, it's a single malt whiskey that was aged in a gingerbread stout barrel. Yep. So it's sort of infused with that that essence over time. We haven't tried it. It's it's the thing that caught our attention when we walked in. We're like, yep. Yeah. That's probably the one we'll bring home.

That one or the coffee one? Yeah.

There was a coffee one as well,

which Which is very good.

Yeah. Which I liked a lot. I mean but everything we had there was so good. And they had an award winning whiskey there as well that we had like a flight of. Yeah. It was. It was a part of the flight. Was

delicious. But

Sorry. We got distracted. No.

I love it. This is very exciting. And so we're having, based on the theming of this drink itself, it more desserty, more comfort more comfortable,

I would say.

Sweeter. So we're beginning, we had to sort of scramble to get this a little bit in the prime. We're beginning with a hot toddy. I was looking for a fun little way to have a very aromatic and kind of like warm and comfy sort of neutral drink that I like to begin with. Yeah. And I thought a hot coffee would work for it.

Yeah. So kind of what he said is that we try to get a drink that gives us the real essence of it without a lot of different flavors. Because the only thing in here is lemon, honey, and then Hot water. Hot water. Yeah. The clove whiskey. Clove and the cinnamon stick. Yeah. So

Yeah. Right? I will say it is very

Very aromatic. Well, it was the whiskey itself was very aromatic.

Yeah. When you opened it, you could you were hit by such a sweetness, and if you smelled it, it it was definitely a whiskey, but it had definitely, like, an additional sort of note at the end of it. Yeah.

Alright. Well, cheers. It's

still warm. It is still warm. I I was afraid it wouldn't be. Yeah. I I saw you put your lemon in there. Nick's leaving it as well.

I knocked the mic. Lot of

ink coming from the crowd here.

So, initially, it's a very mild taste. Yes. Probably due to the dilution. Due to the dilution, but you still get the whiskey in the back of your throat. Yeah. Mhmm. I don't think it enhance I don't think it showcases the flavor of the whiskey enough. No.

I think it's a bit too diluted. But I could drink this

for a long time. I agree. This is you've got this on the side in a hot kettle or hot pot, and you're playing games just drinking this rather than drinking tea

or whatever. Well, yeah, I think us going to Germany, the the hot toddy has really become more of a staple drink that I like a lot more.

Not so much hot toddy. But

Well, yeah, I like hot. I like hot toddy. Right. Well, like like hot drinks.

Yeah. Because, I mean, we tasted so many different ones Yeah. While we were at the Christmas market. So, I mean, I I can say that it's not as whiskey forward as I usually like things.

Yeah. That's true.

But it is very tasty.

Yes. Is.

It is very tasty and does still kind of hit that that comfort drink that we were going for.

Yeah.

I think it's a little lemony, which makes it kind of conflict in my mind a little bit with, like, oh, kinda like summer, but also it's like a hot drink where I wanted to be, like, with might have been better with, like, orange? May maybe orange may have been a better choice.

I don't know, I could play around.

Yeah. But I think it's okay. Alright.

So kind of with that as the backdrop, our topic for conversation today, typically we do a lot of like top three lists where we're going back and forth about our top three villains or heroes or whatever. Today I wanted to have more of a conversation in theme of gingerbread because it kind of made me think of making gingerbread houses and sort of that led me down a rabbit hole of family traditions and what people do because it's one of

my

favorite conversation topics to have with people is what what does their family do? What is the kind of fun family traditions that that they do that makes their sort of gatherings or get togethers or holidays a little different and special?

So I have a question about that. Yeah. So we never made gingerbread houses. No. No. Okay. We we have a

have a streamline of ginger allergies in the house.

Yeah. But, you know, we we didn't really ever make gingerbread houses together, but you know what we did used to is judge gingerbread houses.

Yeah. Still do. Yeah. We still do. So for we have a bakery, and that bakery sponsors a gingerbread house making contest for a local county. Yeah. And so we provide the prizes and we actually do some voting on it.

Do do some voting. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, but it it is a very when I think about making gingerbread houses, it might not be something that our family has done a lot because of, like you said, a string of ginger allergies. Yeah. But it is like a very comfort and like together activity that makes me think of family traditions.

Again, I think we talked about this earlier is that when I was in high school, both me and my brother worked, my younger brother also eventually worked. And we could work a hundred hours a week. Yeah. But on Sunday night, we had to be home for the whole family to eat dinner. Right. You know? And for us, it was, you know, we were just going, going, going, going to schoolwork and all that, and it just was the one time where we had to all be together.

Yeah. And I think you've kind of kept that tradition as you were starting a family. This is so weird saying this kind of in a

third person way. Outside perspective.

Yeah. An outside perspective. But, I mean, I think about it, there has always been a push for us to eat dinner together as a family as well, and talking to some of my friends, that is not always the case, or it hasn't always been the norm. It's not the priority. Yeah, yeah, for some families it's not the priority. And I'm not saying that's either good or bad, but

No, but we always felt like, we joke about it is that, you know, your mom and I talked about everything prior to having children.

Yeah. In a creepy way. Too much. It's like, we ask about this and both of you have the same exact same And

so part of what we said was is that the last thing we wanted our communication to be was not comfortable. We didn't want you guys to feel uncomfortable. And so we always said, when we got together for dinner, we'd always ask, how was your day? What did you do? Now, we didn't always get great answers, but we still

I mean, sometimes it feels like an interrogation.

Like, you're flipping the dining room light to point at us. What did you

do today?

Yeah. What did you do? But but we we always wanted it we wanted to to for you guys to be comfortable with with talking to us and talking about what we were what you guys did that day because we wanted to make sure we that you could always talk to us about anything. Right. And then, you know, me being dad is I would always crack jokes about it, whatever you were talking about.

That's

true. So that, you know, like when you were doing that dance thing in third grade. Yeah. Oh, oh god. Sorry, that's

a deep

cut. When you were doing that and you were about it to us, we were very supportive and you were the only guy that did that.

It's true. I didn't know that until I showed up. She did that or no for me. Well,

the bad part about that is you'd hurt your leg and that was kind of on top of

it. I always hurt my leg.

I don't even remember that part of the story. Yeah. But it was always because you at the time, you were like, I really wanna do this. Okay. That's fine. That's great. We think it's awesome that you're gonna do that. That's

true. I remember being like, dude, this sounds sick. Yeah. I don't know why, but I was like, bought in.

Yeah. And so it was it was awesome to see you. And of course, you were surrounded by eight criminals. You were the only guy there and you just had so much fun doing it. Yeah.

I was about to say Saturday nights feels like a difficult one

for us to all Well, I think that both of you are grown adults now, and and you have your own lives. And so we try to do whatever we get together whenever we can. Yeah. Yeah. You know? And we I mean, it's not a requirement that you eat dinner with us. But if you do but if you do, you know, we're gonna turn the light around and Yeah. Do the

air conditioning. Ask me a question. You do.

Yeah. But yeah. So I think I think that was one of those when when I grew up, my dad was in the Navy, traveled a lot. Mhmm. My dad and mom did not always get along together. And so the idea of all four of us

Yeah. I just spilled it all over my lap. It's fine. It's because the the lemon kind of, like, flopped into it and just kind of diverted it.

It's like the milkshake with the ice cream in

the bottom. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It it was one of those moments.

But, anyway, so I I think that because growing up that, you know, when we started separating out that we started doing the dinner thing, I think that when we got married, mom and I were like, we wanna make sure that you guys feel comfortable talking about us about anything.

Do you think there are any other kind of family traditions that you did growing up that you've either tried to implement or specifically didn't really want to implement because you didn't feel very connected to?

So growing up, we never went on vacation. We were just there was never enough finances to do it. Right. The first our first family vacation, and this is crazy, is that I was already in the navy for a year. My brother had moved out of the house, and we I was stationed down in Orlando at this time. We went to Disney World, and it was our first family vacation. Yeah. Yeah. So you were

19 at the time? Yeah.

I was 19 at the time. And that was our first family vacation. And what was crazy about it was one day my mom said, I don't I don't feel like going to Disney World. So the three boys and my dad ate around Epcot. Yeah. The dream. So we were like, we're gonna get something in every country. And so that was the first time that we'd ever done a vacation together. And so when we got married, your mom had always taken a vacation. They always went to the beach.

Well, you know, in Germany you can just take a train down to the Italian beaches.

Yeah, but since she'd been in America she always went to Nagsan. They went to Avon every year, or Duck. Went to Duck every year. Duck, North Carolina. And so they always did that every year.

We're going on a vacation. Yeah.

And so it was one of those things where we always went on vacation. Then when you guys were born, because you were born after five years of marriage. Okay. Congrats. What can

I say? So it was it

was five years, and it was in the sixth year that you that we had that you were born. And then so when you were one years old, we took you to Germany. And then when you I remember it vividly. You were, like, nine months old anyway. And then and then when you were one and you were three, we went back to Germany. Of course. And then three and five Like it was yesterday. Yeah. Five and seven. So we were going every other year to Germany.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The one in Germany. Yeah.

Yeah. The Renaissance Faire in Germany. You remember

I remember that mainly because of that one person that yelled at me.

Yeah. That's that's the only thing. I was, like, half awake. Yeah. Or looking half awake. Yeah.

And the guy turned

And the guy just, like, like a viking garb turned and screamed in my face.

Yeah. I I also remember the end when they charged them.

Yeah. Yeah. Where they had a reenactant. You know what I remember from that? I do remember them charging the end, but I remember The big guy.

Yeah. The one guy fell on top of

the other guy, and they were just laughing, and you could see them laughing as they were trying to be dead.

So at the Renaissance Fair, they had a fight scene. Yeah. Fight Fight reenactment, and these guys were all stunner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were all professional. You could see in the thing all the moves that they played in.

They had like a

playbill. It was very cool. And then this one guy was probably six eight, six seven, Massive.

It's big dude.

Yeah. And he fell on the guy who was like, five ten. Yeah. And so they both were dead except for the big guy who was laying on top of the

small And they were just both laughing.

Both laughing. So it was it was it was fantastic. But you guys, you know, things like that is what you remember. You know? We also have pictures so you can kind of remember. Yeah.

And I go, oh, that's yeah. That was a long time ago.

Or the picture of you two on the motorcycle in the BMW Museum. You just know the picture. But

Yeah. I was about

to say I I don't remember a lot about that trip, but I yeah. We took those pictures, and I'm like, wow. That felt so long ago.

Honestly, one of the most vivid memories it's funny for, like, Germany as, a whole for, like, all those trips is, like, waking up and you playing Melee Oh, playing Melee. Yeah. A game cube from our cousin's ex boyfriend.

It was the boyfriend at the time.

It was not the ex husband, but currently.

Yeah. It was the current the current boyfriend, not the current husband.

Yeah. Yeah.

But, yeah, they they brought a a GameCube and Melee over for for us. And I think that was our first kind of, like, real taste of smash.

It is, like, our first introduction to, like,

new console games. Yeah. That's also true.

Because like other than that, we the original PlayStation.

Yeah. And we played that that Activision, like, console. Yeah. That had like a bunch of like the Spider Man and, like, math games and stuff on it.

Wow. Anyway We're going down memory lane. That's, like, crazy. I wanna I wanna highlight a little bit more Okay. On the tradition side as we're really getting into this. Because vacations are are they're not as much. We're trying to bring them back. But the Germany has influenced a lot of the traditions that we did while growing up, like, primarily. I think the biggest one that's, like, the one that, like, I got amped up for Yeah. Was they they it was, the rule.

Well, not only that, but in Germany they celebrate the night before.

Yeah. They open presents like the night before.

True. So we always did the Germany gifts on Christmas Eve for us, then the American gifts on Christmas day.

Yeah. So we got a little sneak preview, a little excitement, which was very fun. It's really growing up.

The other thing is that for all of these holiday dinners, our dinners are A mixture of American. German and American because we always have red cabbage. Yeah. We always have canoodle dumplings. Yeah. Let's have dumplings. I said the German word. Sorry. Sorry. Because I grew up with them being canoodles. Krautoffen? Yeah. Krautoffen. But but, you know, it was always that was always a part of our dinners that there was always a Germany part.

Yeah.

And then up until the last ten years of Oma's life, of Dorothy's life, we always had everyone at

our house for Thanksgiving. It's true.

Yeah. And so we But everyone hasn't always been a very big number, like, comparatively.

Right. Right. But but I mean, was always there was Rita there, so they were always speaking Spanish.

Yeah. You

had Olma Nova there, which were always speaking German. Yeah. And so it it was one of those things where it was always a lot of different languages being spoken.

Yeah. So Yeah. I think it has kind

of been an

interesting time for us to look back and see how things have changed and how, you know, in the past we used to do certain things like that. That's kind of where I started talking to people is like asking people about their Thanksgiving, because a lot of times in America it's a very staple holiday where family comes together.

But it's so unique. Like it's regional, family based,

you I mean if you have a multi immigration family, you're always gonna get different pieces of that. Yeah. Right. Because if you came from South America there's gonna be tamales or there's going to be some sort of dish that's exclusive to that area. Yeah. Know? Because I know some friends of ours that are from Egypt, right? They always have a huge Egyptian spread for their Thanksgiving. Yeah. But they're from Texas, so they always also had barbecue Barbecue.

to me, Yeah. Sounds good to me.

Yeah. So this was a guy I worked with, John Bashar, and he would he would always say Name drop. Sorry. Just a guy that I worked with, and he he was always like, yeah. We we have this and we have this, and I'm like, that's just so cool. Yeah. You know, we were talking about so talk about a multicultural family. My brother's wife is Persian.

Persian. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

And so at their at their wedding, they had a lot of Persian food. Yeah. You know? And so whenever we go eat I remember. I was there. Whenever we we whenever we eat at their house, there's always Persian food there that's just fantastic.

Yeah. And Varsi being spoken as well.

Yeah. Varsi's spoken. So we're talking

about languages being thrown out there.

And then the other my other sister-in-law is from Missouri, so she speaks a different language. Yeah.

All over the world. What a say.

So what other traditions do you guys remember growing up? Because I think that because we traveled so much, we really

didn't have a lot of standard traditions. In terms of traditions, I think it's like oddities. We rarely celebrated your guys' birthday.

Right, your mom and never celebrated your birthday.

It was like, oh, happy birthday. And that's how you treated it. Since he and I are born very close Two days so far. Yeah. It's very close but so far. Two years, one day.

Yeah. Yeah. I I mean yeah. Because I I I loved it because we could have huge parties out in the yard. Yeah. Sure. We we did laser tag

quite a few times.

On the laser tag.

I think we did bowling one time. I'm sure.

We did a lot. Yeah.

But we we just wanted to do different things as we we did. We never did axe drawing, though.

Yeah. I think in my in

a place close enough.

At the very least, my friend group was like, oh, it's almost time for Nick's sleepover. You know? And I feel like that was a tradition that was like a sort of like my group thing. It's like, oh, it's getting close to November. Yeah. That means it's it's time to like go go like crash at Nick's with like five people. Yeah.

You know, attrition that I think about that we did in the past that we don't do a lot now is when we were working with Loving and, like, before Thanksgiving, like, making boxes and meals. And I'm not gonna lie. I kinda hated it as a kid. Like, I was like, oh, we gotta do this again. Yeah. But, like, as I got a little bit older, I really started to appreciate that a lot more. And, like, now I'm like, I wanna, like, be more active and things like that.

Yeah. I mean, I think that I think that's the same for for me and your mom too is that we had done so much nonprofit work. And as so Christine, my wife's mother, lived with us. And the last few years dementia was really

Really bad.

Taken a toll on us. And so we really were kind of locked into the house. We just could not leave her alone. We had to focus on her and what we did. And so a lot of the things that we were doing that were outside the house just kind of faded away.

Like, that's that's not the avenue. Yeah.

You you you wanna be because eventually, I'm gonna retire, maybe someday. Well, you're dreaming big here. But, you know, the hope is is that those things that we were doing were important to us ten years ago. Mhmm. And so they should they're still important to us. Now we'd like to get back to doing that.

Yeah. Well I think that was a great note to end on.

I was gonna say my drink is empty. I like another one, and that was traditions that we have done in the past. When we come back, we'll talk about traditions that maybe we're still doing Where

we've established now.

Yeah. We've established. We'll see you

in a second with the new drinks.

And we are back with a much darker alcohol in front of us here. Again, still has the cinnamon stick in it for those of you who are watching.

I think mine sunk. Live.

Yeah. Yours is gone now.

It's dissolved. But, Nick, what

are we drinking? So this is the dark delight. Goes with the name. Yeah. So it has our gingerbread stout whiskey in it. It has some contour. And for this lovely color, some stout.

It's it's extra stout. Guinness.

I was about say, is this Guinness? Okay.

Guinness. Delicious Guinness. You can smell it from here.

Yeah. I can smell Guinness, but I can also still smell the gingerbread.

Okay. Yeah. Alright. This should be just a complimentary drink. Maybe we taste the whiskey in a different facet. Yeah. We talked about how the hot toddy was very simple, but it might have been the cloves and cinnamon stick over sort of mingled too much with the spices already. Sure.

We'll see. Well, we're Well, the I mean, the the Guinness should enhance the style from the aging.

Woah. The smell is great.

That's such a interesting

wow. Okay. This is what I think is happening with this drink.

Tell me.

I think I can't taste Guinness per se.

I taste the Guinness. Full force. I hate to break it to you. It's mostly Guinness.

And I'll tell you what I Okay. Why why I say this?

Tell tell us what you are tasting.

What I'm tasting is is that the the Guinness tries to begin with, and it ends with the whiskey. So I think that the Guinness is enhancing the stout part of the whiskey, and I love the orange in it.

Yeah. I I think the contours look so much.

It is for for for just being a complimentary flavor. I think it's I think that I think there is a stout taste in the whiskey, and the Guinness is just enhancing the heck out of it.

That's that's really interesting. I think when I drink it, I taste a little bit of a little bit of Guinness in the beginning. I taste a very full contra flavor in the middle there, like that orange. And then it ends really with the Guinness for me, and I feel the the stout is just kind of or the the gingerbread whiskey is

kind of throughout. The the whiskey is, like, on my tongue. Yeah. But, like, nowhere else, that makes sense.

Mhmm.

Like, I can I know the whiskey is is there, but it's also, like, it might be so complimentary once Yeah? I feel like I'm messing this up.

That's what I'm thinking is I'm I'm thinking that the the the Guinness taste is less Guinness and more whiskey taste.

But, well, what I will say is this is delicious. I really like this.

It's really unique as well.

Yes. I I I This is gonna be a tough choice.

Yeah. I feel like when you first take a drink,

I think my not having any expectations for this, the first sip is a bit of a punch in the face because I feel like there are so many flavors kind of dancing on my tongue.

Well, they're all strong flavors.

Yeah. But drinking more and more of this, I'm like, oh, wait. This is nice. I like this.

The cinnamon is so delicate in there. Mhmm. You know?

And I also will say, is it just pure alcohol?

Yeah. Yeah. It is

just pure alcohol. It it is whiskey. Another great episode. Mince and Guinness. Yeah. Wow.

I mean And yet

So easy to drink. I was just about to say, that's

a lot of alcohol, and yet I could drink a lot of this.

Well, see, I so Stout is my favorite. I love a

dark beer. You like a dark beer.

So I can drink. Yeah. And we we always joke about when I go to a restaurant and get a dark beer. Yeah. I take that first drink and half the pint's gone.

Well, I was about to say, I was looking over at you and I was looking at Nick's after the first sip, and I was like, did you just have less, or did you just down most of it for that first sip?

Those soldiers are not sinking as much as are.

They're having trouble breathing, so I'm usually When you get their heads out of pool, I'm sure they can breathe.

Really thinking thinking thinking for that. I after them.

I agree. I I think that stout for me is something I take very large gulps of because I love the taste of it. I love the I love the mouthfeel of it. That's true. You know, I just I love the coating of it. I you know, you guys know. Scotch Yeah. And a and a dark ale, I'm in heaven right there. You know? And here's the oddity of it in a champagne. I love champagne.

Champagne. But you know what? It's not necessarily that odd because the three things that you've mentioned all have a very unique mouth feel. Right. They Which is something we don't talk a lot about on this show, but it is like, Scotch, you've got kind of like that that, like, burnt kind of Yep. Peat peatiness in your mouth. Obviously, we're talking about the the dark beer, the kind of feeling of that.

It kinda coats your mouth. Yeah. And and I love the the chocolatey kinda caramel Exactly. Beer to

It's a velvet blanket.

It is a velvet blanket. And then champagne, you just like the bubbles.

I love the bubbles. I like it so bubbly. And I do like a very dry champagne. So it's it's not only is it is it bubbly, it's just, like, parched on your tongue and you get just the alcohol of it. It's like you're sizzling. Yeah. Yeah. So that I mean, yeah, all three of them I like because they're not timid in their taste.

Yeah.

Right. This is why when you you guys drink a lot of cider Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cider to me is just too subtle.

Well Yeah.

I like to eat things with it.

Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, I I get that. You know? But

I also just like apple juice and cider.

It feels just like a logical next step. Yeah. It's a nope apple Yeah. That's right.

You know, it's sweet. It's hopefully, it tastes good. It's got some alcohol in it. It's not not that bad. Yeah. Alright. Next part. Yeah. Well, so here here's what I was thinking. The next part I I had kind of logically was logically was we're talking about, like, past traditions that we used to do. And then this section, we would talk more about traditions that we do do right now. And the the problem is we've kind of hit those already. We've we've already talked about the

Well, no. I can think of

kindness. Sort of. Kindness. I don't know.

I can think of one that we do now.

Yeah. Okay.

Which is the Thanksgiving dinner. I was

about to say, we we sort of springboarded into talking about Thanksgiving dinner. And since COVID, we've switched up our entire identity. You're right. Okay. That's fair. In the past, like we talked about with Thanksgiving dinner, we would have

a bunch of people over, and the food would be very German American, basically, Thanksgiving dinners. But now it has transitioned into something entirely different.

And what is that?

The vegetarian has selected Texas Day Brazil we've gone to for, I think, four years now.

Which is a Brazilian steak house. Yeah. And we would go we we go on Thanksgiving Day to a Brazilian steak house.

And there's there's a lot of reasons for that.

I was about say there's a lot of factors

for that. So number one reason is is that we own a bakery. Mhmm. And so up to Thanksgiving, we're we're working weekend before. We're we're just doing so much stuff. All hands. And so the idea of coming home on on Thursday

And baking. And baking and cooking and

cooking, cleaning up, and then having to go in the next morning early to open up the bake again, we just thought it was overwhelming and really didn't add any it it it was more of it was more stress than we really wanted to do. So one year, we said, look. Why don't we just go out to dinner?

Oh, and I think the other thing is that it's not really the big family anymore. Right. We're kind of Kinda flying solo.

Yeah. I wasn't gonna

say we're isolated, but we are a bit further away from the rest of the family. And

Well, so one sister-in-law moved up to Baltimore. Right. Yep. Oma and Opa passed away. Away. Yeah. Rita was married to her husband, and now her husband's passed away, but she has a house that's a few miles away. And then our cousin is with his girlfriend and also with Rita. A lot of times, they're go Rita and and Carlo are going up to Baltimore.

They're they're they're going their own ways.

Their with their family. So it really was that and then my brothers are nowhere close to us.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so it it was we looked around and said, well, if it's just the four of us, let's do something

special. Let's tear up the town.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean and there is a factor here that you both became of age because

21 specifically.

I was like, what are you We've

we've been we've been 18 for a while.

Yeah. But, I mean, when when you when you turned 21, then it allowed us to be even more adventurous at these restaurants It's true. To to try different cocktails or whatever, which kind of is the precursor to what we're doing now.

Yep. Oh my god. I just hit the mic so hard.

I'm so sorry. Doing it a few times.

And so I I think that and and it's been it's funny because this year, we're like, well, maybe we should go someplace different. And it was six weeks out, and no place was available. Everyone was so happy.

Well, also, like, I don't know. I still really love it if I'm gonna be honest. It's a good excuse to go eat

a ton of meat. It's true. And I think this sort of jumps into a tradition that I've been truly enjoying since I turned 21, where if we go anywhere, we look at the cocktail list. And if there's anything odd or unique, we'd probably get it. And if there's more than one, we get that too.

Well and and what's funny about that is that now we celebrate my birthday, but usually it's Woah.

Woah. Woah. Now we Now? That's We're about to Well, the ones

But we no. We the last couple of years

Oh, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Last couple of years for my birthday, we've decided that we're gonna go out, and usually it's to try a bunch of cocktails, and mom drives. Yeah.

Our mother, unfortunately, is on medication that prevents her from drinking a lot. Yes. So we have to take the the fall and drink for her.

And, like, when we went to the milk bar, that was fantastic. Yeah. We we went to

a cute little bar in town. And they not only do they have very expressive and unique cocktails on their own, you can also just sort of talk to the bartender, and they'll whip up something a little bit, like, fancy for you.

I loved it because I said, I like scotch. I like spicy. And so they had this smoked jalapeno Yeah. Scotch drink that had something else, and I can't remember. Is that the one

they lit on fire? Yes. Yep.

And Ed was it was incredible. Yeah. It was absolutely incredible. And, you know, my dad, when he when we were sitting at the bar with him the first time, he was like, I've waited all these years to be able to drink at the bar with you. And and I I feel the same way. I mean, I love being able to go these places and and do these kind of cool drinks and whatever with you guys.

Well, you know, the more we talk about it, the more I realize it is kind of becoming a family tradition to go to a place, order drinks, and then we do this fun little, like, hokey pokey where

we spin

it, take take a

little sip and pass

into the next person.

Which has been nice because we didn't we we didn't normally celebrate my birthday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although, you know, I was saying that, but I was joking with somebody is that we've had parties for my birthdays for the the decades.

Right? Yeah. The milestones.

The the the 40, 50, and 60. And the 60 is coming up next weekend. And so it's kind of that crazy thing where you go, we me and your mom don't like celebrating my birthdays.

Yeah. We're aware.

We don't like celebrating anything. I mean Yeah.

That's true.

We never give gifts to each other. We never have. Never you know? And so having these times I would much rather have these times be family times that we do things together. You know? And I love that tradition of us going out on my birthday and going to a bar and and just trying new great cocktails. You know?

Yeah. It was interesting talking to mom about this idea of talking about family traditions, and she genuinely seemed upset that we we didn't really have a lot of, like, big family traditions. And I a part of me is like, oh, you know, like, oh, I feel so bad. Like, I don't want her to feel bad that we don't really have things, but, like, every family is different, and I feel like our family still does have, like, weird tics and things that we do. Yeah.

Well, I think if if you go to the house in Germany where her brother lives Yeah. They they no. They're her brother's in her in his seventies. Okay? His wife is in her sixties. They can go down the driveway, and she'll go, that Christmas tree was when I was five.

Yeah.

Okay? And so I think that when you think about mom's family and their traditions, my grandfather came over with nothing but a shirt on his back.

Right? No pants. No pants. No pants. We need the boobs. And

so it's hard to have long traditions like that when you're so fresh in this country.

Yeah. I mean, you could say that about a lot of, like, American

A lot

of in general versus more of, like, longstanding European traditions.

But I don't feel like I'm missing something. Yeah. Is the thing. It's like, you know, I know mom felt bad, but I was just like, yeah. But, like, we've done what we we've done, and, like, I've been happy not having, I don't know, weird rules that we have to follow. You know, it's like, oh, you know, like, I don't have, like, an itinerary for for a holiday. Right? I'm just like, yeah.

We're just

we're just gonna enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, I

I love the idea that we're creating experiences together. That's that to me is a tradition that we've

always had.

Yeah. Like, when we went to London, we were just like, we're gonna do three days, and we're gonna walk up 600 steps Yeah. For the Oh my god. For that tower. Oh my god. But because it's there. Right? That that experience. Yeah. When we are in Germany, you know, mom's family was like, what else are you gonna do? We're just gonna go see 12 Christmas markets.

A bunch of Christmas markets. And if there's something along the way, we'll check it out too.

Yeah. I mean did not. We could go to an art museum. Yeah. We could.

She got so sick of it. She got the flu. But,

I mean, I think that I think our tradition is is that whenever we go somewhere, we're looking for that unique and different experience. Yeah. You know? I think

it's always trying to cultivate something new. Yeah. And I think, yeah, I think this is a tradition and it's sort of witnessing it on camera, you know, all the way going back to this cocktail or alcohol or just creating these moments. Right? We we are most of the things that we're talking about is, like, pre established stuff, things that we've enjoyed in the past. But all of this is creating and cultivating a brand new perspective while also trying

new drinks

Yeah. And and whatnot. So I think, yeah, it's I mean,

part of the part of the fun with what you guys all see with this podcast is us going to these new distilleries or breweries or whatever. Yeah. I mean, we always have a great time talking to the people behind the bar.

We there are such there are really genuinely great people around here that, you know, welcome us, have a grand time.

I just remember Star Hill, and all of sudden, we're talking to 10 people at the bar. Know? It's true. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, oh, yeah. I used to work here, but now I do this. And, you know, and and the lady behind the bar was just fantastic. And then we went to the the Virginia distillery thing.

Yeah. Yep.

They were just great all around. Ragged Branch was another one. Those guys were just

They were very, very chill and and talkative and and just hanging out. I think all of these places, they just cultivate a very welcoming and calm Yeah. Environment. And I I I hope that's I feel like that's what we're we're kinda doing. We're trying.

Like, an hour. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I but like I said, I think that the the tradition we have now is that we are cultivating new experiences.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think kinda going off of that, you mentioned in the past we were trying to travel a lot. And, obviously, with with Ooma, with with Dorothy, it was we weren't really able to travel a lot. We weren't able to go a lot of places. And recently, it has been kind of more of a mission for us to spend more time as a family by kinda going back to those original roots of of taking more more trips and vacations together. So, obviously, London happened.

It it was the first big trip after Dorothy, and it was also really the first big trip since we bought the bakery.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, yeah, because leaving the bakery is so difficult to

You can't trust anyone. Well, I mean, it's it's a it is a situation where it's just like, can we rely on our current employees to run the run the ship?

You know? Or do we just shut it down?

Yeah. Or or do you just close it?

And I think that's what we did in the past.

We did we did partial. Like, there's there's been times when we would go to the beach with, like, the first half of the thing.

Yeah.

Right. And that was very limited hours. We only took time off not to not to be gone on Saturdays. Yeah. So it was it was it was all that. But the last two trips, the the London trip and the Germany trip Mhmm. We were gone for ten or eleven days, which was fantastic. Yeah. Didn't seem like enough, but it was fantastic. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I

think I think I it was just right for me.

I was literally sick at the end of the journey trip.

So got sick during the journey trip. So but I think that being able to do that, having someone reliable to take care of the bakery, and us getting back to where we were I mean, your mom and I just traveled all

the time. Yeah.

Yeah. And there it it's a part of us that's miss that's been missing over the last few years.

I do wanna say the London trip, and I I mentioned this comedically all the time, was fun to an extent where I'm sitting in, like, conferences and meetings, and you guys are texting to me like, oh, just saw Phantom of the Opera. It was so good. And I'm like, I hate you.

I wanna get out of here. I will say this did all stem from I got out of school. Yep. I I came back here. You were still in school.

Yeah. Was still in school.

You were like, hey. I went to Amsterdam. Yeah. And I was like, man. I wanna go to Europe.

We we should go go to Amsterdam. I loved Amsterdam so

much. But

then you were like, I'm going to Europe.

And I was

like, I can't allow this. I can't allow

this. I'm missing

out on him exploring more places. So I was like, I haven't been to London before. This guy's been been to London Two times, three times, three times. And I I walked up to you and I was like, alright. We're going. Yeah.

Let's go. And and London is one of mom's favorite places.

I love London too. I thought it

was such a blast. And and once again, we went to random pubs.

Yep. Yep.

And we're like, oh, what's that? Oh, it's a red strawberry flavor or color. Yeah. Yeah. Let's drink that. Yeah. I'll do that. And I that is London is the place where I fell in love with the Tom Collins cocktail.

Right. Yeah. Oh, that's right.

I I had that for, like, one of the first times. I was like, this this is, like, delicious. And, like, that became my go to cocktail since then.

But it I mean, and it was great because once again, went to places like Burroughs Market and just tasted whatever we wanted to taste.

Oh my gosh. We had that that stuff on the street that Yep. That was spiked.

Do you remember what it

I don't know.

I know what you're saying,

but I don't remember what it was. Don't remember what was.

Anyway, delicious boozy drinks. I think but I I would be sad to say that if I didn't be like, we should do this, that we wouldn't reignite this sort of trip. You know?

I agree. I mean, I think that your mother was like, you know, we really can't do this. We can't afford this. Can't go. And so I kind of felt like her when we first got married.

To say it's like a it's like a flip.

It is a flip because because I was like, no. We're going. Yeah. We're we're going because I think me and Nick wanna go, so we're gonna go. Yeah. Know? And and I I I definitely missed being able to travel. Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think just us saying we're gonna do that reignited just as great.

That's what I'm saying. Well, I mean,

it feels like we've gotten back from Germany, and already you're like, alright. Plans for the next year? Where where are

we going next? And and part of it so part of it is is, like, we initially were looking at Gibraltar.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I love Gibraltar. Yeah. But I love Gibraltar because you could go across the straight and be in Africa.

I mean, I Morocco is a place that I wanna visit really bad anyway.

And and you could go north into Spain and see a different type of Spain because it's it's the southern tip of it. It's just fantastic. You're not that far from Portugal. Yeah. So I just I

yeah. I think I think travel now that we're sorry. Adult and I don't know. Just, like, more open. I think I think the thing that we we glanced over, but it's something that is always apparent, is that you raised us. I I think this is a tradition that not everyone follows is try new food. Yeah. And I think we didn't hone in

on that.

We're trying new drinks. That's great. That's like a more recent thing. Yeah. But the tradition within the Germany trips was you gotta eat what's what you're given.

And part of this would be alright. So put

on blast.

Yeah. You didn't put it. So the second time we went to Germany with you guys, Alexander was three. You were one. So you were just eating baby food.

What what? And But That's the formula.

Nick Nick was yeah. But Alexander was like, I don't like any of this food because it it it looked different. And so when we were there, Moogle, who is my brother in law's mother-in-law. That's a great aunt? Great aunt or something like that. Yeah. Anyways, she just believes that you should eat more butter. But if you don't eat butter, then she's gonna make sure you

Everything. She wants

you to eat every everything.

So she was getting hot dogs out of the freezer and chocolate pudding. And for ten days, that's what Alexander existed on.

Yeah.

And so two years later when we went, we said, that is not going to be the case. You have to try one bite of everything. And even if you if you don't like it, that's great. It's okay to not like it, but you have to you have to taste it. And I think by doing that, you've you did the one taste, and and sometimes you said, that's not really what I like.

You are getting put on a blast. Wait for that. And

he was arguing that he

wasn't both of those as those sides are coming up. In tandem. I'm not

I'm not gonna eat this. So finally, you taste it. And he turns to us and goes, hey. This is pretty good. And I thought my brother Steve was gonna go, I'm never happy. I'm never gonna have

children. I I'd like to say I'm much better now. Yeah. Well, I'll I'll say

whenever, you know, we're looking around obviously, have, like, our go to, like, oh, we're going to this place. Oh, okay. I'll have this. You know? Yeah. Do do do. Like, I I know what to order. But if we're going somewhere, like, new, we'll, like, peruse a menu Yeah. And, like, really see what it's got. It is very clear in my mind.

Yeah.

But if if we didn't have that, we would have walked into that restaurant being like

Hamburgers not the Yeah. There's nothing.

What do I eat? Yeah. Exactly.

Well, I I mean and even now, like, I talk about Saturdays. We usually get some takeout or whatever. Yeah. But I'm always looking for brand new restaurants. Yeah. Like, I'll say, okay. This is a this is a new Afghani restaurant. I'm just gonna get a bunch of appetizers, bunch of main dishes, and let's try everything.

Yeah. Yep.

I'll try a bunch of different things because, I mean, the the best part about being in the navy and traveling around is that I got to sit at a grill in Japan or I got to see be on Jaws. In a or I got to I got

to be Why isn't that our

next trip?

What's that what's

what I would say? Well, next or it was in a pier on Marseille. Mhmm. Eating fresh ketchup

on a

on a pizza. Or snails in Cannes. You know? Didn't like them, but I was on the I was in Cannes. Per picturesque moment. I was in Cannes looking on the Mediterranean, drinking white wine, and eating escargot.

I I was about to say, I actually did like escargot when I was in France, which is kind of a weird thing to say. I actually enjoyed that.

I have liked escargot not from France. I've had it in here in America, and I've been like, yeah.

It's not that bad. Yeah. I just it's not my thing. Yeah.

I mean, that's I think that's totally I think it's the same as muscles. Yeah. It's like a it is

a very similar texture

to muscles. And I like muscles. But Yeah. Well But, anyways but, yeah, so I think that I think that I love that you you think that's a tradition because I've we've always felt like Yeah. There's so many we know so many people, Americans, that are just like, I'm gonna go to France and go to McDonald's and get a get a get a burger. And it it always fascinates me why you would do

that. Right.

Yeah. I mean, I I will tell you one thing I did in the navy, me and this one guy, and I was on we we got on the boat the same time. So we did three years on the same submarine. Every time we visited a place, we wanted to get a pizza from that place.

Hey. That's not a bad idea. So so

it's like a baseline test for everywhere we went.

So who has the best pizza in the world?

This is gonna be crazy. The best pizza we had was in Haifa, Israel at the All American Pizzeria. Oh my god.

That sounds like it would not be the best pizza. That would be, like, the last place I would go to.

And the reason was is the the homemade crust was almost like a focaccia.

Oh. It was

a beautiful crust, and Haifa is considered the breadbasket of Israel.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It had all these fresh vegetables

on it.

So, like, the dough is already perfected.

Yeah. It was perfect. It was perfect.

Well, my drink is empty. So is yours. So is yours. I think it's time for another drink. We'll have some more drinks and some more stories when we get back. Don't go anywhere.

Yep. Hello.

Welcome back. I don't know why

I did that like it was

the intro to this video. We're on to drink number three, and I must say, team, I'm feeling a little bit. But in front of us, we have a very different color drink. I would like to say props to the mixologist here. We have had three very unique looking drinks going in.

They're not all the same color.

They're not all the same color, which is a miracle because sometimes it is just ending up

It's all yellow.

All yellow. Like, sometimes they do all kinda look the same. These three have looked very unique and at least the first two have had very different tastes.

Yeah. So I know you said that you were feeling a little you're feeling it. I'm feeling it little bit. So I've, I'm glad that we're ending on this. It's really tame. It's only got three different alcohols

in Perfect.

This is a very classic drink. This is the mudslide. Usually made with vodka as just sort of a vessel, but we're using the stout whiskey because I think it I think it would pair really well with all that's going on in here. This is has Kahlua, so a coffee liqueur in it, as well as Bailey's, the cream liqueur, and then some heavy cream just to give it that delicious milkshake looking sort of texture.

And this is unique drink to pick Yeah. For two reasons.

Okay. Two reasons.

One is because Nick has a bad story with Bailey's Irish

I have really bad bay story with Bailey's and coffee liqueur.

Yeah. Okay. Specific. And then for me, this used to be my go to drink until one night I was drinking with my brother. Oh, no. The youngest one. Oh. And we ended up I was drinking a bunch of these mudslides, and we ended with a golden margarita.

What is it? Golden margarita.

Is it just gold Gold tequila. And Okay.

Regular regular margarita stuff.

Okay.

But the problem was is that tequila will curdle cream immediately.

Great to know. Great to know. Great to know. Thank you. I'll write

that down. It's Great. And so my stomach was full of mudslide, and then I threw tequila on top of it. I'm good

with you, And then that was a mudslide of itself. For you,

was sake came down Oh god.

Afterwards. Yeah. I was I was drinking Baileys and and a coffee rum a lot, And then I topped it off with Jim Bean green apple, which is already a bad one. And then we did shots of sake to end the night. That sounds so bad. It just it was whatever was around. Right. You were just like, what's available? We were we went through bottles that night. Yeah. Yeah. We finished off the Baileys. We finished off the the rum. We finished we got the finished the sake. It was a good night.

You said,

why is that there? It is it's like a it's like a mantle. You know, it's like there to mock me.

So what is in a mudslide? Oh, you already went

through it.

And a

little bit of chocolate too. Oh, yes. So, yeah, a little little bit of a chocolate syrup. But, yeah, as as saving, it's the whiskey instead of a vodka, which is usually usually used. Kahlua, which is the coffee liqueur.

Right.

Some Baileys, and then some heavy cream just to dilute it and give it a little bit more texture.

I will say when these drinks were originally made about over an hour ago Yeah. The chocolate was more around the size of it. Yeah. And it's kinda just sunk to the bottom.

But, hopefully, it's been absorbed so we get a little bit of A little bit of that chocolate. Cuts a little bit.

Yeah. Alright. Cheers. Yeah. You get the chocolate.

You don't. Yeah.

I mean, this is this is just good.

This is just a chocolatey coffee drink. I think the only thing I'd want, if it was just a little colder.

Yep. And

then I know it's been sitting out in here, but, oh my gosh, if it was if it was chilled right then and there, I think it would be It'd make a great ice cream.

Well, it it makes me think it makes me think of the the milkshakes that you made for us

a bit ago. Yeah. I mean, they

like peanut butter. Yeah. It's peanut butter Nutella milkshakes.

Oh my god. Those might might make an appearance on the show. Yeah. Those were so good.

One of the few alcohols that we aren't going

in blind for. I I felt kind of I was just like, are you good too? Yeah.

A lot of the time for the show and I think for our our own kind of initial reactions, we like to go in blind for a lot of these. So we'll go to the distillery or the the brewery, and we'll drink some of them, but we'll save anything that we think is unique or interesting or something that we'd want to use during the show as like we'll buy the bottle without drinking it and we'll try a flight of something totally different.

And that does catch the bartender. Yeah. It does. Yeah. Because it'll they'll be like, oh, which one did you like the most? We're like, oh, this one. And and they're like, oh, so what bottle do you want? The one we haven't tried. And they're like, but you you haven't tried this. Do you wanna try it?

We're like, no. No. No.

It's worth it. Don't give

it to us. Yeah. Well, which is crazy because, like, the the meat, we we tried some other Meads that were so good.

I'm letting you know.

I think

we made a mistake.

Okay. So the Mead, as you could tell from that episode, it is a different way than we were expecting. It was not ideal. But the other meat that we had there, which wasn't bottled, unfortunately, was so delicious. Oh my gosh. We What? We had, like, four different types.

Yeah.

And they were all so unique and delicious.

We tried a coffee one. I had a dreamsicle, like an orange creamsicle.

I had a cherry.

Oh, I

had a cherry.

You had

a cherry.

You had a cherry. And then you had you had the oh, no. What what did you yours was really good too, but

I can't remember. Was it

don't know. I can't remember. I can't remember right now. It it was definitely a unique flavor, but I think yours was more closer to, like, a traditional meat. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You It was like a it was like a

Yeah. Hey. It's on it's on this. If you're asking me to remember, I'm halfway through a mudslide. Yeah. But,

yeah, this is so good. Like you said, you can still taste the chocolate even though it's kind of pulled at the bottom. You definitely get that coffee liqueur in the beginning there. But again, I think we have not really experienced the fullest taste of this whiskey. It has been such a good kind of

It's complemented each drink. Complementary flavor.

I I agree. I mean, I think you could taste that the there's whiskey in here.

Yes. Yeah. Because it

it it's always present on the tongue no matter what, which I think I'm sure vodka would have its own thing, but vodka is such a good vessel

Yeah.

To just disappear.

I was about say it's one of those vessels that's kind of like, I'm here, but, like, not really.

But, like, the whiskey, it just adds, like, a a whole it it's always, like, an ever present, like, additional layer

that you put in. And I think that if you you were putting, like, a Jack Daniel's in here, you would just get the burning of the the whiskey. Yeah. I think that whatever this gingerbread style is adding to the whiskey Yeah. It's just making it blend into everything.

Enhancing whatever we've got. Yeah.

It's like I said, when we tasted the Guinness, I was unclear with the Where

the Guinness started. Yeah. And the where the gingerbread bread began.

Yeah. Because it was such that the the whiskey smelled so stout. Mhmm.

Yeah. So much stout in it. It's certainly different than what we have been having because the last more, like, liquor that we've been having have been the herbal tequila and then the two ghost pepper ones.

The spicy ones, which were so good because it was such a strong flavor within itself Yeah. That it really complemented or like the other

things were complementary items to the flavor of it. All three of those items, they sort of shown through everything that I've Yeah. Like made. Like you when you tasted the tequila, you were like, yeah. I can taste the ghost pepper. It's right there. Yeah. Right? And same with with vodka. And then whatever that herbal Tequila.

Yeah. I mean, I think it I think it made the the drinks more cohesive also. Yeah.

Well, this is great. Hats off to you. I think when we talk about which one's our favorite I'm gonna

do this.

Gonna be tough. While we're talking, I'm gonna be thinking about which one because

these are really good. All of the drinks have been really good. So we've talked about past, present. Feel like it's only right to kinda talk touch a little bit about future.

Little bit of Christmas carol reference.

Little Christmas carol reference. And I I think we we've kind of touched it, but I think we can talk a little bit more about it. Obviously, the hope is that we will continue a tradition of having more trips, more vacations in the future Yeah. As long as, you know, money, time

permits that. I think that we're I love starting this because I think that and this is gonna scare the heck out of you guys. As you get older, you're gonna multiply in who is represented by you guys. Whether that means

That's such a weird way of putting that. Wait a minute.

Yeah. Wait a minute. You you you're gonna become two people, and then you could become three people or four people or whatever.

Can they be, like, mitosis? Yeah. It's just fun to say that.

But We're splitting? But so I think that starting this tradition now allows us to start saying, okay. When you guys have families or Yeah. Significant others, it's not gonna be a problem to add them onto the Right. To the crew. Onto the cart. Yes. And so I and I and the joke is is that, you know, I wanna sell the house and get an RV and go travel.

Is that a joke? I thought you guys were serious.

I don't know. There was a moment where you were exclusively watching videos on RVs. Like, yeah, he's gonna do it next week.

I I am I have I wanna do it, but there's a practical side of having an RV that's not always nice. It's true. Yeah. The maintenance of an RV doing you know,

going to place Having your house breakdown is not ideal. No.

The breakdown is not the part, but you go into a place. You gotta dump water. You gotta make sure you have enough

water. Sewer and steer. Yeah.

So there's there's all these pieces with it that is not very glamorous from an RV perspective.

It's true.

But I love the idea.

Yeah. Yeah.

I love the idea. And Which

I think is always so crazy, and I think it catches mom off guard every time because you're the same person that's like, just concrete the backyard. We don't need that green stuff out there.

You know you know we won the lottery when a a line of cement trucks are are pulling into our road. Yeah.

Yeah. And which is which is so crazy because, like, we've talked about when we talked about our our dream places to go to. Yeah.

It's true. The remote Madagascar island that cannot be approached by any motor vehicle. Only by rowing to You're off the grid.

Totally off the grid. No electricity and everything.

I kinda get it, though.

I think that, you know, you just once again, it's an experience that

I get the chocolate

out the car.

Trying to pick

up the chocolate. Because I I've lived in a place on a submarine where there is nothing natural there.

That's true. You are you've lived in, like, an an actual, like, metal Metal. You're in

a metal box. Right. You know? So I think that going to a place like that or what the other place was is going to Nepal. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that those are places that are just

So I I think what I'm gathering is you just wanna go to, to, like, the extremes of what nature has to offer to really see it.

I mean, if if you wouldn't have picked Antarctica

Yeah.

I would have picked Antarctica.

Okay. That's what I'm saying.

It's so cool. I'm anyway This goes back to kind of something a a tradition that we haven't really talked about, but we have been doing a little bit more, and and I'd like us to continue this, is watching media together. You know, we've kind of made it a big deal to try to sit down and watch sit down and eat dinner together, but also we've tried to make it more of a tradition for us to watch a movie or a television show together.

Or anime. Or anime. Yeah.

We we've like, we have almost finished delicious and dungeon together. You guys are,

like, in episode

21. 20 three or something.

My gosh.

Yeah. You're almost done.

I don't know. Yes. Somewhere in the twenties. We're almost done. We're only a couple episodes from finishing.

Well, I mean, none of that, but then, like, you and your group came up with the top hundred movies.

Is it on top hundred? I don't know if it's hundred, but, yeah, my my group is like, oh, you haven't seen this?

Yeah. Here. Yeah. We've realized that Nick hasn't actually seen a lot

of movies. Not seen a lot. As someone with a acting and theater degree, it's almost embarrassing because I'm gonna let you know, I've not seen any movies. I've seen even less plays. Yeah. But yeah, it's been a it's been a fun journey. Like, I finally being like, okay, what do I need to watch? And talking to all these people. And they're like, oh, you gotta watch this. Oh, you gotta check this out.

Yeah. And some some of them are surprising to me. Like, we watched Ladyhawk the other night. Yeah. And, I mean, I saw that in the eighties. I mean, to me, you see Rutger Howard. I'm always thinking Blade Runner. Yeah. But and then I you see Ferris Bueller in there too, which is about the same time. Not

yes. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Matthew Broderick. Matthew Broderick. Oh, okay. I didn't realize you were trying to look for the actor. The actual yeah. No. No. I wasn't like, oh, Ferris Bueller food Ferris Bueller's what? Yeah. Sorry.

So, you know, I I think that we're seeing like, we watched this thing the other day, which is a movie from the seventies. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so we we watched and then

then we And then hundreds of fevers. Yeah.

Yeah. And so we've we've gone back and forth between your film group's list and the the rents list. And Or

or we jump around from, like, movies like Old Boy, which is like a surreal, crazy, cinematic Drim and gritty Yeah.

Drama to to 50 dates and Adam Sandler movie.

Which was not not one of the parents' favorite movies.

That was a coworker's.

Coworker's favorite movie. And then we saw but kung fu Kung Fu Hustle. Kung Fu Hustle. Yeah.

Again, a crazy movie. Yeah.

I I've been I've been enjoying the heck out of this, like, movie journey where everyone's like, oh, you gotta see this. And I'm like, alright. I'll check it out. I'm like, I guess so. And I mean, that this is like a tradition that I'm beginning where I'm like, I've spent the majority of my teenage years, usually what people use to absorb media or learn hobbies, to just play a bunch of different video games and watch anime.

But we I mean, we've been kind of branching into that because you've been trying to show us different anime. Yeah. Yeah. But then we've also gone to Ghibli movies. So there there is a there is a movie component that we've started watching also.

Yeah. And we we've shown you anime movies that we thought are so important value. Right. Because we watched Boy and the Beast, which isn't a Ghibli.

I I

think we watched Sword of the Stranger Stranger. Yeah. Which is incredible. Like, we we we wanna show you the things that we really think are highlights of anime that have really, really spoken to us.

I I'd really like to sit down and watch A Silent Voice with y'all. But, again, like, it's one of

those serious movies. That's one of those movies where it's like, you can't just think of it and watch it.

You gotta be in the right mind. It's a little heavy.

Well, I mean, we've talked about there's there's there's movies on your list that we said, great movie. We should watch it. But you're not gonna watch Schindler's List unless you're in the right mindset.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You you can't just watch a movie

like Schindler's List or, like, the boy in the striped pajamas being like, oh, we're gonna have a fun night tonight.

I'm ready to relax. Yeah.

I mean, we watch that movie, then we finish it with Strange Fruit because you you have to have that counterpoint.

You have to have a a cleanser with these kind kinds of movies and and, like, Awakenings. Right? Like, mom was like, oh my gosh. I was crying through the whole movie. I'm like, I'm sure it is such an important movie to watch. Yeah. And I really do wanna watch it. But, like, I gotta figure out how to, like, cleanse it afterwards. Like, I gotta, like, prime, like, oh, I need to be watching Shaolin soccer right after

that. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I I think I think that it is because, you know, there's there's a lot of movies on that that we set up very consequential, like Saving Private Ryan. Yeah. That's such a thing. But you just can't watch that movie and walk away. No. I can't. You know? That movie I was about to say we

also gotta find a night where mom isn't there because I know she does not wanna watch things.

She does not like war movies, and it is also it just doesn't it hurts her heart to watch these movies.

Yeah. I mean, Saving Private Ryan is, like you said, not an easy one. Yeah. Like, it it is kinda rough.

Which is so different because, like, the one movie I recommended to you was The Longest Day.

It's true. We talked about it previously on this podcast.

And The Longest Day is not as tragic as that movie Right. At Saving Private Ryan. But you go halfway through there and you go see you see Apocalypse Now or you see Deer Hunter, which were in the seventies right after Vietnam. Those movies were that step toward what's saving the

right. Yeah.

Those are tough movies to watch.

Yeah. I I think I'm I'm integrating slowly to this sort of tradition that, you know, going back to the root of this. Excuse me. You know? But I'm I'm taking it off of vibes only. Right? If I if I feel like, yeah, I could watch something a little more intense, I'll do that. But, like, oh, I'll I'll watch something fun or experimental. Right? Like, I I think I am just enjoying my weird, like, twists and turns of, like, what I'm absorbing.

If I see blood, I'm not gonna get any feeling from it.

Right? And it I think it's the same shots. Like, but but at the same time, if you watch Spielberg's catalog, you're experiencing such a huge range. Yeah. Right? And and I would say you would also get such an appreciation if you did, like,

a a Hitchcock day. Mhmm.

Right? Where you see, like, the foundation of suspense. But, also, I I'd be afraid that you're like, yeah. I've I've been suspended. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I think Spielberg's probably the only one that I can think of where there's such diversity in it. Because if you think about ET, Raiders of the Last Art, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan.

Ugh. Yeah. Jaws. Jaws. Ugh. It's just that's such a Gatsby. That would

be a a movie marathon for sure.

Right? And I I think it would be very interesting. But I I do wanna do a Bong Joon Ho Day. Okay. Which would go into memories of murder, Parasite, and then Vicky 17. I don't know if they

Oh, is that

the new one coming up? With Robert Pattinson.

Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. It's Robert Pattinson. Yeah.

We love Robert Pattinson.

I love Robert.

Ever since The Lighthouse. I love him so much. But, I mean, at the same time, you could I mean, we're we're sort of going off in just more of a movie appreciation. But, like, the lighthouse has become my absolute favorite movie. That's one of the first series movies that I watched after getting out of acting Yeah. School. And I fell in love with it. And Robert Edgar's Edgar's, you know, no Sperato. Mhmm. And I feel like I need to watch that.

little nephews. I I worry that I feel like Nosferatu has hit a very like, this might be a weird worry, but I worry that Nosferatu has hit a level of, like, public, like, awareness and, like, appreciation that the lighthouse never really hit

Mhmm.

That I think that, like, the weird, wacky kind of, like, craziness of the lighthouse will not translate over.

You think it might have been, like, dissolved a

little bit or diluted? I I think it might be a little diluted.

So it I don't think any of us have seen it. No. So you're you're thinking it might be it might be slightly more Populous. A pop like, It's it's more it's more digestible.

Yeah. Because I think The Lighthouse is not a movie that many people will go into or that everyone will go into and be like, wow. That was an incredible movie. Like, I think a lot of people will walk into that and be like, what the heck did I just watch?

I I heard like a mixed review. It's like four people went in and like two people thought it was a masterpiece. Yeah. And two and the other two people thought it was made no sense. Was bad and a waste of time. Yeah. And I I think I love that.

Yeah. I was about to say, think that's kinda like the fun part about art of being like for some people, it's like their favorite thing ever.

And for other people, it's like

So weird.

What is this?

Yeah. Why did I even spend time on this?

But, I mean, the other thing that's going on another tangent is that we love eight twenty four. Oh my god. They just take the chance on it. 24. They they take the chances. And whether you like it or not, you know you're gonna get something unique.

You're gonna you're gonna see something that you wouldn't see. And I think that's this goes back to it all. Not to, like, sound like, you know, epiphany or whatnot. But I think I think our tradition as a whole is just experiencing life from brand new lenses every time. Yeah. I think we we really appreciate when someone or something offers a new part to experience. Whether it's good or bad, I think we are just appreciating the experience to try it.

Yeah. I mean, we joke. I always say, I get a new job after I'll do three years. But after three years, what's next? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that kinda makes me think of the tradition that Nick and I have kind of started here. Not necessarily a family tradition, but last year, you and I almost went to a concert every single month That's true. Of the year Yeah. Which I feel so fortunate that we were able to do that. But it was I new venues, old venues, familiar places, unfamiliar places.

One band we know. One band we know nothing about. Yeah.

And and this is something me and my brothers did when we were

younger. Right.

We loved it. We would go Yeah. If there was a band playing, we would go. It used to be two places in Charlottesville, Two small places. You're getting all these small bands in. They're like, that hasn't changed too much, actually. But you would have you would have three bands coming in on a weekend. Yeah. And you could go see them, and good or bad, you were seeing live music.

Exactly. Yeah. I think that's how we felt. Yeah. Like, we we intentionally went to these concerts because there was a band or an artist that we were like, oh, we should we need to see them.

Yeah.

But, like, we also were like, oh, who's their opener? Or, honestly, who's their headliner? You know, sometimes we're like, oh my god. They're opening? What? You know? Like

That is so true. I I love the feeling of going, and sometimes the band that we came to see was not the band that we left talking about. No. And I think that's so fun. Not to say that we've seen like, I I've enjoyed every concert that we've been to. I don't think I can say that we went to a truly terrible concert.

Mhmm.

But I think that there have been times where the headliner has been like someone that was like, oh, yeah. We know them. And then we hear their opener and we're like, oh, wait.

The opener? Wait a second. Yeah.

We've managed it a lot. They just kinda go crazy.

I used to go see a group called the alarm. They were never the headliner. They were always an opening band. Yeah. So with the alarm, I would I saw Pat Benatar. With the alarm, I saw an Otter in English, which you guys all know. Met with you as their song that got popular. But, anyways but they were never the headliner. Yep. I went when I saw Pat Benatar, Pat Benatar sucked, but it was because of the audio system.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we've had experiences where, like, they were, like, the venue just didn't fit. The alarm

was great. It was done in William and Mary. The alarm went great. I loved them. Yeah. It was, like, the second time I'd seen them in concert, and Pat Benatar was horrible because

the audio system was terrible. I feel like normally when we have, like, audio issues, it's because the yeah. It the the headliner is fine, but the opener

Yeah. Something because they're adjusting to the headlines versus setup.

Anyways Yeah. I was about

say we're running out of time. My drink is done. Your drinks are finished as well. I really like this episode. I feel like we had a lot of time to just talk and and share stories, but now is the time at the end of the episode where we talk about which one of these drinks were our favorite. And I will say, most of the episodes, one drink rises one or two drinks rise to the top and one kinda ends at the bottom. I think all three of these drinks were

really good. They're really banging. Yeah.

So I'm gonna Nick, you look like you're still thinking.

I'll go first. Okay.

Alright. Perfect. Dad, you

I love the mudslide. It's all it was one of my favorite drinks for many years, but that second one was so banging. I love Stout.

The Dark Delight.

The Dark Delight. The Dark Delight. It was just it hit all the right notes

for me. It was delicious. And you know what? I feel like I could've guessed that. You just love your your darks. Yep.

Alright, Nick. I think I'm gonna also go with the dark delight. I think I really loved the new taste of contour plus a stout, plus just the whiskey texture Yeah. And just enhancing the style. Yeah.

Well, it was good. I'm really torn. I did like that second one a lot, but you know me. I love chocolate. I love dessert drinks. I think the mudslide is gonna steal it from me. It was so good. Yeah. Thank y'all so much for watching. That's gonna do it for us.