Save 20% - Select Weekends at Extended Stay Hotels
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 05/25 through 05/28) and next weekend (stays 06/01 through 06/04) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Denver, Orlando, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and many others.
For Arrival Dates 05/25/2012 and 05/26/2012
* Denver, CO - Rates from $30.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Boston, MA - Rates from $59.99/night
* Minneapolis, MN - Rates from $51.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $39.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
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For Arrival Dates 06/01/2012 and 06/02/2012
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $53.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $31.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Salt Lake City, UT - Rates from $39.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $47.99/night
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May 23, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Rates from $30.99 /night - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 05/18 through 05/21) and next weekend (stays 05/25 through 05/28) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, Orlando, Minneapolis, Dallas, Seattle and many others.
For Arrival Dates 05/18/2012 and 05/19/2012
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Minneapolis, MN - Rates from $39.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Seattle, WA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 05/25/2012 and 05/26/2012
* San Francisco, CA - Rates from $51.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $30.99/night
* Miami, FL - Rates from $55.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $43.99/night
* Boston, MA - Rates from $59.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* See all locations >
May 16, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Save 20% - Select Weekends at Extended Stay Hotels
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 05/11 through 05/14) and next weekend (stays 05/18 through 05/21) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Boston, Houston and many others.
For Arrival Dates 05/11/2012 and 05/12/2012
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $49.99/night
* San Diego, CA - Rates from $55.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $31.99/night
* Boston, MA - Rates from $59.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 05/18/2012 and 05/19/2012
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $31.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $30.99/night
* Fort Lauderdale, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $35.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Richmond, VA - Rates from $43.99/night
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May 9, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Arcade Museums: The Next Best Thing to a Time Machine
Those of us in our thirties and forties who spent our childhoods in video-game arcades may not think about those dimly-lit oases from the world of adults all that frequently anymore. But when we do, we think of them fondly—remembering a simpler time when all that mattered was the clink of quarters in our pocket and the ring that our favorite games made when we were winning.
There are fewer arcades now than there were when we were young, due to the popularity of vastly improved home-gaming systems, and those that are still around tend not to feature the classic games we nostalgically remember. Luckily, though, there is, on the East Coast, an arcade museum that features the legacy games that bathed us in their glow in the 70s, 80s and 90s. And on the West Coast, there is an arcade museum where our parents and grandparents can relive their youths (which is still kind of hard to imagine them ever having).
· The American Classic Arcade Museum
This museum housed in Laconia, New Hampshire’s Funspot, the Guinness-certified largest arcade on Earth, is dedicated to the history and preservation of a fast-fading feature of popular culture, but it is also dedicated to fun, fun, fun. An arcade museum is really a misnomer—even though the room does have display cases containing things like antique video-game catalogs and gamer magazines along its walls. The main exhibits at this “museum,” more than 250 classic video games, are there to be played—just like when we were young—not to be gazed upon and discussed.
And just like when we were young, the sounds of 80s hit makers, like Madonna, Pat Benatar and Van Halen, provide the gaming soundtrack—along with the charming bleeps, bonks and booms from games like Galaga, Double Dragon, Spy Hunter, Tetris, Pong Doubles and Punch-Out! The only thing that would make this pleasantly dim room (they put red gels over the florescent lights, just like a lot of the old arcades used to do) seem like more of a time machine is if the gamers were all wearing Hammer pants and the room was full of cigarette smoke.
This museum, at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, has games and mechanical attractions going all the way back to the late nineteenth century. Originally housed at San Francisco’s legendary Playland, which was demolished in 1972, the Musée Mécanique has many 1950s, 60s and 70s arcade games—such as 1973’s Upper Deck, a mechanical baseball game in which you hit an actual ball to make your little men physically run around the bases, and 1961’s Sharpshooter, a game in which you shoot hard plastic bullets at animal targets. It is the perfect place to bring back memories of childhood for members of the Baby Boomer Generation.
When you walk into the game-filled room, the first thing you encounter is Laughing Sal, a giant female dummy with a missing tooth and a very lifelike-sounding wheezy laugh. She is the iconic figure that greeted visitors in Playland from 1940-1972. Walking further into the room, you hear the sounds of the seagulls outside on the San Francisco Bay and antique player pianos playing songs that were popular in the early twentieth century. As the Musée Mécanique is evocative of old-time San Francisco, it is the perfect destination for Road Warriors, who are looking to relive their youths for an afternoon, or for history buffs, who are curious about the important history of popular amusement.
You’ll remember, if you’ll think back to your childhood, that play can be just as exhausting as work. After playing for the afternoon at the American Classic Arcade Museum or the Musée Mécanique, you’ll need a place to rest and relax. Luckily, there are affordable hotels with kitchens, laundry facilities, and free Wi-Fi within driving distance of San Francisco and Laconia.
May 7, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Road Warrior Goes to Hollywood
If you’re a big movie and television-show fan, a fan whose love of the movies and TV cannot be contained by the screen, you want to go see where the movies are made, and you want to get the lowdown on them—the real story of their creation. Universal Studios Hollywood holds some interest for the film buff. There are exhibits, such as the actual set of the Bates Motel used in the film Psycho, but Universal Studios is at base a theme park. If you want to spend your time learning about movies, not learning about which antacid works best to calm your stomach after an unsettling roller-coaster ride, you want your destination to be all movie studio, no filler. Luckily for you, the legendary Paramount Studios and Warner Brothers Studios offer regular tours of their facilities. The tour guides at both of these studios are very informative. If you want to know the stories behind the stories, you won’t be disappointed.
Walk Through the Other Arc de Triomphe—Paramount’s World-Famous Bronson Gate
Paramount is the only major studio still located in Hollywood. (Warner Brothers is in Burbank.) Paramount is truly 100% studio. While Warner Brothers stages exhibits, Paramount does not. What you see on your tour are working studio backlots, such as their famous New York City backlot, where parts of Ally McBeal and Frasier were shot (on the Greenwich Village and Brooklyn sets respectively), and the somewhat surreal blue-sky-wall backlot (a giant mural of a clouded blue sky, which is set outside so that you can see the actual sky above and on either side of it) where Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments.
Paramount allows you to photograph, unless there is a production in process. So you should be able to get a pic of yourself on Ally McBeal’s stoop or in front of the blue-sky-wall, which stands on a parking lot next to the famous Paramount water tower.
Walk in the Footprints (and Paw Prints) of Such Greats as Bugs Bunny and Bogey
Tours of Warner Brothers Studios are more intimate than tours of Paramount. The VIP tours only take on twelve guests. If walking is an issue for you, Warners’ VIP tour is the tour for you. While the Paramount tour is all walking, a good portion of the WB tour is spent riding in a long cart with your tour mates and guide. WB Studios has, in addition to a museum (which has the piano from Casablanca on which Sam played it again), many immediately-recognizable backlot locations. While you cannot photograph in the museum, you can in the backlots, so you can put yourself into the movies. You will see the French street from Casablanca where Humphrey Bogart told Ingrid Bergman that they would always have Paris as well as the Midwestern Street where parts of The Music Man, The Pajama Game, Bonnie and Clyde and Gremlins were shot.
Just as at Paramount, there is a fun, surreal sight at WB Studios: In one backlot, one side of the street is New York City buildings and the other is San Francisco buildings. You can cross the country by crossing the street. That seems to be an appropriate symbol for the Hollywood fantasy that viewers have been enjoying for the last hundred years. Crossing the country, because of film cuts, is as mundane in movies as is crossing the street in real life.
Kicking Back in Hollywood
After exploring Hollywood’s movie history and its present (make sure to keep your eyes open for stars on these studio tours), you’ll want to kick back and maybe even watch a movie. Luckily, there are a number of Extended Stay Hotels in and around Los Angeles that feature comforts like flat screen TVs and free in-room Wi-Fi.
May 4, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
20% Off - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 05/04 through 05/07) and next weekend (stays 05/11 through 05/14) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like Los Angeles, Denver, Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas and many others.
For Arrival Dates 05/04/2012 and 05/05/2012
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $49.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $30.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $33.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 05/11/2012 and 05/12/2012
* Sacramento, CA - Rates from $31.99/night
* Fort Lauderdale, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* Salt Lake City, UT - Rates from $39.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
* See all locations >
May 2, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
20% Off - Weekend Stays at Extended Stay Hotels
Last minute deals for new bookings this weekend (stays 04/27 through 04/30) and next weekend (stays 05/04 through 05/07) at select Extended Stay Hotels(sm) locations. Visit our Weekend Deals section by clicking here. From there, you can book and save at least 20% on stays this weekend or next at your favorite destinations, like San Diego, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Philadelphia and many others.
For Arrival Dates 04/27/2012 and 04/28/2012
* San Diego, CA - Rates from $51.99/night
* Denver, CO - Rates from $31.99/night
* Fort Lauderdale, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Atlanta, GA - Rates from $33.99/night
* Philadelphia, PA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Dallas, TX - Rates from $31.99/night
* See all locations >
For Arrival Dates 05/04/2012 and 05/05/2012
* Los Angeles, CA - Rates from $47.99/night
* Orlando, FL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Chicago, IL - Rates from $39.99/night
* Memphis, TN - Rates from $34.99/night
* Houston, TX - Rates from $37.99/night
* Washington, DC Area - Rates from $43.99/night
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April 25, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
