Travel to Stars Hollow
I have a good excuse for why I only recently discovered the amazing town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut.
Yes, I’m 16 years late to the party.
I have a good excuse though. When Gilmore Girls debuted in 2000, I was just out of grad school. I was transitioning full time into the world of management consulting. Traveling weekly and staying at the office until 10 pm left me no time for network television. I saved my VCR programming for important shows like The Apprentice.
Yes, I really wasted good video tape on Donald Trump. What I can I say? I liked hearing him say “You’re fired!” every week.
Watching a regular show was a major commitment I was unwilling to make. As a result, I missed the early years of Melissa McCarthy and all the other kooky townsfolk of Stars Hollow.
Fortunately thanks to my Netflix subscription and a lot of time working from home, I’ve managed to get up to speed with all of the Gilmore ladies. Along the way, I fell in love with the magical Connecticut hamlet of Stars Hollow where they live. (Ironically map makers put the fictional town squarely in central Connecticut. The approximated site is within a couple of miles of the actual project I was on during the fall of 2000 when the show premiered.)
My Johnny-come-lately status notwithstanding, I’m excited about all things Gilmore now. Tomorrow I’ll get the real-life chance to travel to Stars Hollow – or at least a little slice of it. Luke’s Diner (an important location from the show) will appear in my town – and in dozens of others across the United States. This promotional event is a precursor to the long-awaited release of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life set to be released on Netflix at Thanksgiving.
Over 200 local coffee shops will transform on Wednesday, October 5 into Luke’s Diner for the morning. The first 250 customers at each will receive free coffee. It will be served with a commemorative coffee sleeve offering a fun Gilmore Girls surprise for fans. The event will run from 7 am to noon. While there are no promises of Rory or Luke sightings, perhaps you’ll be able to exchange some rapid-fire banter with other fans.
You can check out the list of locations here at this new Town of Stars Hollow site with more content set to go live tomorrow. While I’m lucky to have a neighborhood coffee shop on the list, I was pleased to see I would have been able to enjoy a cup in most of the cities I regularly travel to. There is at least one in every state as well as a few in the District of Columbia and Canada.
As a travel junkie, I’m hoping that the Dragonfly Inn appears soon too for a weekend getaway. If not, I’ll just have to settle for my sofa on Thanksgiving weekend when I get another Stars Hollow fix.