Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania + Kyiv, Ukraine
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Alison is obsessed with hair braiding designs she’s finding on Pinterest. Basically she is flashing back to her youth spent braiding hair with friends at slumber parties. Just kidding, she doesn’t even know how to braid. So her obsession is looking at pictures of braids. Lulu wished several episodes ago for a way to dispense and apply coconut oil with ease. Shout out to our producer Ash, who found these CocoTube Set of 3 Dispensers that can handle coconut oil when its solid or liquid! Inexpensive, easy to travel with, and just plain awesome!
Alison is wishing for Ketones Drink Mix Packets. She could get those, but she is also open to suggestions from people in the keto-lifestyle that have done their research, and is not just being paid to influence her to buy a specific brand. So if you have some suggestions please DM her or send an email!
Lulu is wishing for an unlimited money fund to pay for virtual audition recordings in a professional setting. Doing it all yourself creates a lot of self-consciousness that inhibits her performance flow. Having professionals take care of everything but acting out the scene was a game changer. Shout out to Book From Tape!
Alison is headed to the mountainous region of Pennsylvania known as The Poconos. This tourism hub for getting some R&R is a draw year-round, whether its for snow sports in the winter or waterparks in the summer! Alison was feeling the h2o fun after hearing about Lulu’s “visit” to the world’s largest indoor wave pool at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada a couple of weeks ago. Alison is booking the Big 5 Suite at the Kalahari Resort. This 5-bedroom accommodation is more like a party house then a suite, with five bathrooms, large kitchen and dining table, laundry room, a sprawling deck, a pool table, and nine TVs. This home is approximately $2,000-$2,500 per night depending on the season, once you account for taxes and fees, and that includes admission to the water park for the up to 22 guests that can fit in this house!
With over twelve dining options, this resort can satisfy any craving! Alison is going to start her day off at the Ivory Coast Restaurant with an order of their s’mores french toast, a BLT with egg sandwich, and lots of coffee. She’s going to need the energy to tackle the main attraction of her day…
Now it’s time for some fun in the 220,000 square foot water park. Barreling Baboon, Rippling Rhino, Screaming Hyena or Cheetah Race, anyone? Tanzanian Twister, Sahara Sidewinder, Zimbabwe Zipper? Hot tubs and cabana parties? Surfing Simulator or Swim-Up Bar (there are two!)? There is something for everyone here, and you could spend days wildin’ in the water and not do it all. Alison sure will try though! We’re thinking she should start with the “become a mermaid” or “become a shark” experiences…or a lemon drop and the lazy river.
Also located in The Poconos is the Mount Airy Casino Resort & Spa. They have over 1,800 slot machines, and Alison plans to give them each a spin with $1 each. Here’s hoping that leads to a big payoff, or at least enough cash to get her some souvenirs from her next stop, Callie’s Candy. A family run-business since 1952, they offer all things sweet, and Alison is angling for a sugar fix.
Alison is headed to the Pocono Auction Gallery to take in her very first auction. She is going to give herself $1,000 to spend on whatever art, antique, or oddity suits her tastes in the moment. She’s never been to an auction, so to get on the same wavelength with the fast-talking auctioneer, she dons this “Going Once” T-shirt she found on Etsy. Really, she’s just here for the experience of raising her paddle, and beating someone’s bid with prowess!
For dinner Alison heads to the Willowtree Inn for prime rib au jus and chicken Francaise and salmon Provençal and pasta primavera…usually you choose just one of those options but considering Alison bought a 20-person plated dinner, she can have a few helpings of each!
Lulu had always heard and read Kiev, but it is actually Kyiv. She is looking forward to exploring this city that serves as an educational, and cultural hub of Ukraine and of Eastern Europe. She is basing her exploration from the Vozdvyzhensky Boutique Hotel, where she is staying in one of their Executive Suites, with a soaking tub among other luxury decides to explore in style - and comfort! - with black car service from our favorite, Blacklane.
Lulu’s first stop is a restaurant whose name translates to “Favorite Uncle”, offering a smorgasbord of brunch-like items with the flair of Mediterranean and Eastern European flavors. She wants to take in everything there is to learn about this country, and she’s got an interesting day ahead of her.
On her tour of familiarizing herself with all things Ukraine, she heads to the Museum of Unnecessary Things which houses over one million discarded items. How interestingly random! In case you didn’t know, Kyiv is about 100 km from the epicenter of the Chernobyl Explosion that occurred on the 26th of April 1986. To learn more she heads to take a tour of the Ukranian National Chernobyl Museum, the entrance of which features the names of every village affected by the explosion, and whose slogan translates to “there is a limit to sadness, anxiety has no limits”. She takes a tour of the Chernobyl site, taking a two hour drive from the museum, time she’ll spend getting acquainted with a dosimeter she bought off of eBay. It’ll monitor radiation, because while guides only take you to health-non-hazardous places and trails, you want to make sure you don’t get exposed to more radiation than is equivalent to a four hour flight.
Next is a visit to Kachalka, an outdoor gym made of scrap metal created in the 1970’s by a gymnast and a professor. Some might be inspired to get a workout in, but to Lulu, this “gym equipment” looks terrifying and like it’s trying to give you a scrape or cut, or worse. So she decides to create a tetanus treatment station at this gym. She buys a hot water washing system, Castile soap towelettes, antibiotic ointment and band-aids… and also posts a list of nearby doctors.
Lulu finds herself six hours away from Kyiv in Dnipro to visit the Tree of Happiness. Hopefully it’ll be worth the massive detour. Like many a wishing star or love story location, there is rumor surrounding this tree, that if you tie a piece of cloth to it while making a wish, it’ll come true. Lulu buys 93 vintage ties off of Poshmark, and will make a wish for the first few people to DM her their wish.
To conclude her day Lulu heads to Kanapa, which features pre-revolutionary Ukrainian recipes with a focus on molecular gastronomy. After a couple rounds of oysters she indulges in caviar, chardonnay, and the obligatory chicken Kiev.
One more stop at Palata No. 6 bar, inspired by a novel about a psychiatric ward, the staff wears medical uniforms and you drink some unique cocktails from a hospital bed. This feels a bit reductive and a lot creepy, but according to some TripAdvisor users it is a “must-visit”.
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