The GayWeddingGear.com Blog

May 20, 2010

Book Rehoboth Beach Hotels – Gay Rehoboth Beach Hotels

Book Rehoboth Beach Hotels Here.

If you live in the mid atlantic and you are gay, you know that we don’t need Fire Island or Key West. (At least not Fire Island in the Summer but Key West is always fabulous for the Winter) because although Fire Island is fabulous, we have our own gay beach and gay city called Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Not only is Rehoboth seriously easy to get to from any of the major Mid Atantic area cities like Washington, DC, Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia (Although Philly is perfectly in between Fire Island and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware), Pittsburgh, Wilmington and other cities, but it is an amazingly affordable and fabulous gay vacation.

The thing is that unlike in Key West or Ptown, you can book Gay Rehoboth Beach Hotels and Gay Rehoboth Beach Hotel Rooms for dirt cheap. I love it. Not only have I been able to do Summer trips down to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, but I have been able to find gay Rehoboth beach hotels for under $300 for the weekend by using some of the lesser known but still in my opinion trust worthy sites like the ones I am linking to in here. Sure you won’t find all of the independent gay Rehoboth beach hotels like the Shore Inn or the Canal Side Inn but you will find the gay and gay friendly Rehoboth beach hotels that are right in the middle of Rehoboth and by the gay bars and gay beaches of Rehoboth Beach.

The reason I am recommending you stay in the middle of the city is that most of the gay bars in Rehoboth beach are fairly scattered and if you are wondering around drunk when you leave you can get in some serious trouble so if you stay in the middle of everything by searching through some of the Rehoboth beach hotels right here, I think you may have a much better shot of not only finding your way back home from the bars and restaurants at night, but you will also thank me for making your life easier when you leave Poodle beach and also not have to walk or ride a bike 2 miles only to shower and have to head all the way back into downtown Rehoboth Beach just to find the restaurants and Rehoboth gay bars.

God I cannot wait for Memorial Day weekend in Rehoboth in a couple weeks. It is like the serious summer kickoff party and all of the Rehoboth Beach Hotels fill up quickly so if you want to join all of us at the Memorial Day Beginning of Summer Rehoboth Beach kickoff party, you seriously need to hurry up and book your gay Rehoboth beach hotels room quickly as there may not be any left and I think almost all of the Rehoboth beach beach houses are already all pretty much filled up. Memorial Day in Rehoboth Beach is like Memorial Day in most major gay beach towns, a giant party.

Not only does everyone come out from every major city nearby but all of the clubs, bars and stores reopen and the parties go on way after all of the bars close at 1am. Ya I know, that is the one thing that sucks about Rehoboth, the liquor laws about bars having to close down at 1am.

Everyone is in an amazing mood and all of the people that you have met over the years are all back for the Summer and everyone has a huge reunion. Unlike when everyone is back in their own cities where we have our groups of friends that are hard to become a part of or in cities where people are stuck up, Rehoboth Beach somehow gets rid of everyone’s attitudes and everyone has fun, builds friendships and has an amazing time.

The bars are fun, the food is great, the beach is fabulous and the hotels are not incredibly over priced. The problem is that if you want to go to one of the big beach weekends in Rehoboth Beach Delaware you have to book your Gay Rehoboth Beach Hotel Room early to get a good deal and just to make sure they have a room available for you. Sleeping on the beach is seriously trashy so prepare a head of time and book a Rehoboth beach hotel room now by clicking on this link and you’ll find the site that I am currently using to book my rooms for my trips to Gay Rehoboth Beach this Summer.

Anyway I am completely excited about beach season starting and instead of doing a beach house with my friends this year I am going to stay in a hotel instead because although I love the beach house parties I miss the alone and quiet time I can get in a hotel room. If you need to book a hotel room in Rehoboth or want to find a gay hotel room in Rehoboth beach Delaware, click here.

Comments (1)

October 4, 2009

Gay Travel Guide and Gay Travel Ideas.

Filed under: gay travel — Tags: gay travel, gay vacations — rollerbladerdc @ 7:17 pm

I just realized that I have been posting random trips and reviews of random gay vacations I have been on with everything from Gay Days at Disney World to Gay Days at Paramount Kings Dominion. Gay Clubs in Greece and Gay Bars in Barcelona. And one thing I forget to do is to actually include the links as gay travel here, so although there are over 600 pages to gay wedding gear, I am going to start to try and be better about posting about my gay travel by tagging it here at the gay wedding gear blog for gay travel and gay events and gay parties all over the world. You can also find gay hotels and gay friendly hotels as well as places I recommend you avoid like crazy as they are not gay friendly or hate the gays or don’t want gay business liek magnetstreetweddings and magnetstreet.com. I got an email saying gays aren’t part of their marketing plan so they don’t want me reviewing them…what pieces of crap!

Anyways, here are some of the reviews I have already done and I will try to tag up the rest of the pages with other gay travel ideas and hotels and places that love the gays and love when we come to visit….I’m also going to be doing a top ten gay destinations post soon so be on the look out for that one when you are planning your honeymoon for gay or straight honeymoons or even just a vacation. I’ll do everything from cheap hotel rooms and trips to rooms I stayed in that cost up to $2,500 per night at the Plaza or $795 a night at the Grand Del Mar or even $500 a night at the Majestic in Barcelona or more affordable ones that are sometimes even more fabulous like $100+ per night at the Blue Moon Las Vegas or an Atlantis Cruise which is roughly $100+ to $300 depending on the cruise you take per night but it also includes the parties and food and a ton of other things.

Anyways, gay travel is fabulous and I know you will love it too so keep reading and please feel free to send me your favorite travel places and I’ll post them here as well, or if you have a gay friendly hotel or gay friendly travel destination and want me to come visit and review your hotel or club or place as well, send me an email or leave a note on any of these posts with your contact information (I am the only one who can see your contact info so don’t worry about it going out to the public) and I’ll make a trip to come visit you and review your hotel, or city and get you some exposure to the Gay Community. BTW, you can also send me your own reviews, just make sure they are fare and you include pictures.

Las Vegas

Washington D.C.

Rehoboth Beach – Book Rehoboth Beach Hotels

Austin Texas

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

New Orleans

New York City

Orlando and Gay Days

Miami and South Beach

Comments (0)

Baltimore Maryland Gay Bars, The Hippo Nightclub.

Filed under: gay travel,Non Wedding — Tags: gay travel, gay vacations — rollerbladerdc @ 6:59 pm

So the other weekend a bunch of us drove up to Baltimore Maryland to get out of Washington DC and have fun for a change…instead of standing around in DC bars or going to the DC clubs where everyone is bitchy and catty and full of themselves…not that there is anything wrong with that as that is also fun. But Baltimore is actually a really good time. You should probably never move or live there, unless you like small towns and not much to do, or don’t mind doing the same things over and over again, however they do have some really cool things for tourists and it is the home of Charm City Cakes from Food Network with Duff and an amazing aquarium and the harbor is really cool with some awesome seafood fresh from the Chesapeak Bay and tons of Maryland Blue Crabs which you can also order fresh online here,I’ve actually had them from this place and they are seriously fresh and good….completely worth the money!

Anyways, most of the gay bars in Baltimore got shut down like the strip club from Pecker or the old dance clubs and bars, however Baltimore still has two major gay bars one is called Grand Central and the other is one of my favorite clubs in the world and is called the Hippo. That is actually saying a lot because I used to dj in college and traveled all over to Ibiza, Turkey, Spain, Canada, all over the USA and was in different nightclubs every weekend and so when I love a club and a bar, that actually does say alot. Sure it isn’t as big as Priveledge in Ibiza or Government in Toronto or even Boots when it was opened, and it isn’t as fancy as Halo or the Delano Hotel in South Beach but it does have things that are pretty uch gone from the rest of the world as far as clubbing and night life go, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Just make sure that if you go to visit Baltimore, you get the number for a cab or a cab driver since they are very hard to find and you really do need to call them.

Soo anyways, the first gay bar in Baltimore Maryland is Grand Central. It is multiple levels and they just opened a new one on the top of the club for dancing. It is more of a bar to go play pool at and sit down for drinks with friends and just not do much besides drink. They also opened it up to straight people but mainly only goths go for straight night and it is still a gay bar so don’t worry about the goths, they’ll be a few there but almost 100% gay still on goth night. The drinks at Grand Central in Baltimore Maryland are dirt cheap and the music is ok. The people are pretty friendly and there is a few things to do in there like pool if you want something to do besides drinking, just make sure you get in line for the bathroom before it is an emergency because the line does form fast and take forever if you need to go. Then when you finish at Grand Central Gay Bar in Baltimore Maryland, right across the street and down on the other side is the Hippo where everyone goes and is one of my favorite gay bars on earth.

Ok, The Hippo Nightclub and Gay Bar in Baltimore Maryland is absolutely one of the best nightclubs in the country. When we were there, there was actually a bachelorette party that flew in all the way from Toronto Canada just to have their bachelorette party at the Hippo and Dance all night long…I’m not going to post the picture with the sticker and name tag they gave me as it was pretty obscene but you can easily find penis stickers and name tags at this store online lol. Sooo anyways, when you go to the Hippo Nightclub in baltimore Maryland you should definitely follow this advice as you don’t want to get stuck in a million lines all night and you want to have a ton of fun.

When you first walk into the Hippo, you can either go to the right and find the bar where you can talk and then walk around that bar and go to the karaoke room or you can go straight and to the left to get to the dance club where the pictures I took below with my iphone were taken where everyone goes to dance. You should definitely go and pay the cover when you first get to the Hippo so that when you want to go dancing later on you won’t have to wait again in the huge line since you’ll already have your stamp. It actually doesn’t hurt to go to the Hippo before Grand Central to get your stamp so you can walk right in after you are done there.

The after you get your stamp, if you need a drink, the bartenders in the bar to the right when you walk in always pour a hell of a lot stronger than the bartenders in the dance club part of the building. The strongest is probably right by the pool tables by the windows and then the karaoke room then dance club. Then, if you like to sing and you like the 90′s head into the karaoke room since nothing has progressed from the 90s in the entire club…you’ll even probably see a couple people in vynil pants but you’ll also get to hear a ton of great 90s songs and even hard house and hard acid trance in the dance club before it gets packed. I love the early music at the Hippo it is seriously amazing depending on who the dj is that night,,,but I have never heard bad music there. Anyways, back in the karaoke room, you’ll hear a ton of people singing 90s songs and completely retro crap and they go crazy when you join in and even sing something new so definitely sign up and have fun with it. The worse you are the better they cheer so don’t even worry if you can’t sing. It is all about having fun and they do an amazing job with having fun at their karaoke nights in Batimore.

Then when you finish with Karaoke, btw you can always skip the lines in the other bars and go to the back bartender in the back corner of the karaoke room since noone ever goes there for drinks when the bar gets full so you don’t have to wait in line for drinks…but I didn’t tell you that lol. Anyways, when you finish karaoke, have a couple drinks from the bartenders in the main bar area and then get ready to dance all night long, well until 2 am in the nightclub and be ready to have fun.

Go early enough to hear the music if you like really good house music because when it gets packed around midnight, they start playing more pop music and less of the old fast hard house and fun euro trance music that I love. The thing that I love most about the music there is the sound system they have.

It is not only perfectly leveled sound and noise wise, but it is amazingly clean and clear. You don’t hear any reverb and the actual speakers are seriously perfect for the noise that comes out of them. They are also just loud enough so you can block out other people but also be able to hear when you are focused on your friends…but if you drank enough to go shake your butt on the floor, or on the stages and speakers,,,,chances are you couldn’t hear anyone talking anyways.

Ok, so here is the thing…if you have ever seen any John Waters Movies,,,especially the recent ones like A Dirty Shame, Pecker, etc… then you will love Baltimore because Baltimore is actually exactly like his films…even Cry Baby and Hair Spray (The Original One). People actually look, dress and act like that. Not everyone but there is a huge population there that fit his movies amazingly well and it is fabulous. Because they just do and dress and act exactly how they want to act, they actually have more fun and just don’t care what you look like or act like or what you are wearing. As long as you are having fun and can have fun with people who still wear vynil and get dolled up to go dancing in a gay bar, then you will fit in perfectly….btw, you can still wear whatever you want and noone will care and that is what I love most about Baltimore…I can wear whatever designers I want or I can wear a tshirt and still fit in and have an amazing time without anyone staring or caring what I am doing or how I am dressed or how I dance….they love it all and they love everyone in Baltimore so just go and have fun and you will have fun and everyone will join in. It seriously is one of the most friendly cities and clubs on earth as well. Just be careful because they do have nitrogen coolers and fog machines on the dancefloor so keep your balance if you are wearing high heels or any shoes that are hard to walk in because when they go off it is almost impossible to see.

The other thing I love at the Hippo in Baltimore is the lighting they have on the dancefloor. They seriously went overboard with their lighting but because they have a LJ there to control the lights all night it actually has one of the best light shows for an American Nightclub left in the USA. You’ll see when you get there how well they did with their lighting and you will love all of the effects and designs and lights they have there when you are dancing.

So anyways, when you are going to Baltimore wear shoes you can walk in or balance in, buy glow sticks and glow toys before you go out and make sure you are read to have an amazing time and dance all night log and then head over to the diner down the street afterwards for an awesome crab cake or steak and cheese sandwhich.

Baltimore is an amazing city to visit and I love going there to get away from the big cities and know that if you want to go have a good time around a ton of fun people who don’t care about anything, then Baltimore Maryland is the perfect place for you to go.

Gay Bars Baltimore

Hippo Baltimore

Hippo Nightclub Baltimore Maryland

Comments (0)

September 14, 2009

Gay Days – Paramount Kings Dominion Richmond Virginia

Filed under: gay travel — Tags: gay travel, gay vacations — rollerbladerdc @ 11:41 pm

So this last weekend we went to Paramount Kings Dominion amusement park for their annual Gay Days dance and festival sponsored by Brother Help Thyself which I think is another AIDS charity. It was great a few years ago when we all went and we were completely excited to be there again. We did remember though that a few things annoyed us but when we got there around 9 pm and saw how huge the crowd was that showed up for gay days, it had to be a blast.

We went and had our IDs checked for drinking wristbands and hurried into the amusement park. The rides at Paramount Kings Dominion are absolutely amazing. We started on this metal rollercoaster that seats for people across and does a ton of flips and turns and rolls every where and in every direction possible. The ride was incredible and everyone had a good time. We saw a ton of our friends in line as well and that made it even more fun, however there were also a ton of really loud trashy people there too which got old and annoying fast. However, it was our first ride so we decided to ignore them and just have fun.

When we finished with that ride, we hurried to the next one which was the grizzly bear and is a wooden rollercoaster since our one friend was afriad of the steel ones that go upside down. This wooden rollercoaster was amazing, especially since it was pitch black most of the ride, and the other good thing about gay days at Paramount Kings Dominion is that there are little to no lines at all for the rides. So when we pulled into the station, we actually just stayed in our seats and rode the Grizzly Bear Rollercoaster a second time. It was seriously fun.

After the Grizzly Bear we went on the Rebel Yell which is another wooden rollercoaster….hrmmmm a bunch of gay guys riding wood and bears….the joke makes itself work lol. This one is cool. It isn’t too bumpy and it is a racing rollercoaster where one train goes forwards and the other goes backwards so you have your choice on if you want to see what is coming and if you are winning the race or not know when the next hill is coming or who is in the lead. Either way it is a fun coaster and you will love it.

After we rode a couple more rides and made jokes about guess your weight and age, we made it to my favorite ride of the night and the last ride of the night. There is a picture of it below. It was a huge metal rollercoaster that you hang from the track on. You start by moving forward slowly then you get propelled around 70 miles per hour up the middle of this huge Mountain and start spinning around the track sideways and upside down. This rollercoaster was not only amazing and fun, but it was even better because you could not see the track so you have no idea which way you would flip or spin next. Everyone loved it and definitely was ready to go dancing after the ride got our adrenaline up….except for our friend who was scared of the ride. However, we did make one more pit stop on our way to the dance area.

We stopped at the deep fried Louisiana styled restaurant for snacks and margaritas,,,we couldn’t possibly show up to dance without a cocktail now could we. The food was actually good. My Shrimp PoBoy was actual large butterflied Shrimp and my friends corn dog was really fresh and smelled amazing. The Chicken Ceaser Salad though was really scary looking and my friend said it tasted like crap. The Chicken Fingers were completely standard but what really sucked was the Margaritas. They had no alcohol on them. the salt on the rim came off and didn’t even taste like salt and the Margaritas tasted like a 7-11 Slurpee and not a cocktail. They are seriously not worth ever ordering or drinking. They were aweful and unfortunately set the mood or should have been a warning for the rest of the night.

We get to the dance area (pictures below again) and the speakers were amazing. The base was clear and loud and the music wasn’t horrible. We also heard a cute remix of the new Whitney Houston song. So we got in line for drinks and watched all of the people with gow toys playing and hanging out and spinning their glowtoys and those stupid trashy people apparently can breed and grow by the hundreds in a matter of hours because we were stuck in a group of 1000 smelly loud trashy idiots yelling girl,,,ohhh hell no….b*tch please,,,,grrrlll I’m gona kick ya *ss, etc… and it was out of control because they were spilling drinks, stepping on people and just being obnoxious. This really made the beginning of the dancing get off to a bad start but hey, you can still find a good spot to dance and still have fun.

So we get to the bar and order our drinks…all none with top shelf since they didn’t have a bar, just lemonade, hurricanes, a rasperry drink and vodka cranberry with no real cranberry juice just fake flavoring and some serious sugar and watering down to try and fill them. The drinks tasted like crap and my jaw is still hurting from all of the sugar in these crap drinks. The only ones that actually tasted like liquor were the blue hurricanes and they were sooo loaded with sugar water that they hurt to drink to. The drinks were aweful so that didn’t help our mood, but at least the music was good, so we decided to dance.

We found a place by the steps to the dj booth and started dancing when all of the sudden we were surrounded by even more trash and when they kept bumping into us and everyone else, then grabbing random people when they were asked to stop and acting seriously stupid like they had never been out in public before we said f it,,,lets get the hell out of here and go back to DC and go to Town to go dancing instead. Anyways, the trashy people and crappy drinks ruined Gay Days at Paramount Kings Dominion and it is not worth going to. However the rides were fabulous so if you want a park with great rides and to enjoy some seriously cool rollercoasters, you should definitely go to Paramount Kings Dominion, however if you want to have a good time, do not go for Gay Days, go another day or time and you will not regret it. If for some reason you do want to go for Gay Days, I recommend you at least drink beer, the cocktails suck and if you want to fit in, buy yourself some lightup toys from the store in the banner ad in this post and bring them yourself…they have all of the same toys and sell them in small wholesale quantities so that you and all of your friends can have all the cool light up toys that they sell there but for 1/4 of the cost.

gay days kings dominion

gay days kings dominion richmond virginia

paramount king dominion

paramount kings dominion gay days

richmond gay bars

Comments (0)

September 12, 2009

Sun Dance – Gay Rehoboth Beach Nightclubs and Events Guid

Filed under: Beach,gay travel — Tags: Beach, gay rehoboth beach, gay travel, gay vacations, rehoboth beach — rollerbladerdc @ 4:36 am

Book Rehoboth Beach Hotels Here and Save.

Soo last weekend I went crazy and decided to drive from DC all the way to Rehoboth Beach Delaware for their end of the Summer circuit party which is also a charity event called SunDance.

Sundance is one of the biggest and hottest events on the east coast (Besides the straight electric zoo in NYC and Randalls Island….XM radio sponsored it this year and the music was freaking amazing) and it not only raises a ton of money for the Gay Rehoboth Beach Charity Camp Rehoboth, but it also gets you out of all of the bars in Gay Rehoboth Beach and into a fun and loud music event that not only takes place annually at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, but also lets you drink top shelf liquor and red bull for free all night at their open bar and because it is a private event, it is open and serving alcohol until 2 am instead of the normal 1 am time that all of the other gay bars in Rehoboth Beach have to stop and shut down at. However, if you plan on drinking, either ride a bike to the Convention center for sundance or have someone who can drive you as there are a million sobriety check points and they are very strict on drinking and driving which in my opinion is one of the best and smartest things to do.

So why would you want to go to sundance or a circuit party in Rehoboth Beach Delaware?

Sun dance is 100% different than most gay parties and clubs that you go to. There aren’t a million twinks running around on Crystal Meth and the group isn’t rude and all about excluding and being rude to older people and people who don’t have perfect bodies. Instead it is eveyone who actually lives in Gay Rehoboth Beach Delaware on the East Coast and all of the Peopl from DC, Philly, Baltimore, and other cities that are close by who just want to get away, have fun and not be their normal stuck up and overly rude personalities. Sure there are still a ton of twinks there, but you also have a huge bear and leather community, a bunch of preppy people, professionals, service people, and everyone else in between and all of them just want to have fun and celebrate the end of summer. I love SunDance in Rehoboth Beach and think that if you have never been there before, then you seriously need to give it a try. It is one of the last Parties left that is actually all about music and fun and raising money for the local AIDS charity and not all about drugs and being as assh*le. It is one of the only parties the we actually all look forward to every year on the east coast if you cannot get to Fire Island and it is always a good time. However, if you know you won’t want to drive home after the party is over, you may want to get a hotel room for the night. Here are my recommendations.

1. The Shore Inn – Run by Rick and Ed…I used to stay at this hotel for years and love them. However it is clothing optional so be prepared and Rick gets really weirded out by bringing people back to your rooms so remember to only sleep with hotel guests….that is an inside joke that you’ll get when you stay there. The rooms are cramped and old, but the service and the hospitality and the guests are absolutely amazing. If you want a good bed and breakfast feel when you are staying in rehoboth and a fun time, the Shore Inn in Rehoboth Beach is the best gay getaway hotel and destination for you. It is also a block up from the very popular leather bar (that everyone goes to anyways called the Double L)

2. The Canal Side Inn. The Canal Side in is a mixed hotel of straight and gay people and is off of rehoboth avenue. It is set back along the canal that goes under the main bridge so watch for the turn directly after the draw bridge to get there and offers a bed and breakfast feel in a new building and amazingly comfortable beds. However it is set off of the main strip, but not by far so be ready to walk 10 to 20 minutes to get where you want to go.

3. The Atlantis Hotel on Rehoboth Avenue is a run down but well kept hotel right in the heart of Gay Rehoboth Beach Delaware. It is not only affordable but clean and easy to get around from. I like this place if nothing else is available but if you are new and want to be in the middle of everything that Rehoboth Beach has to offer, this hotel is for you. You can walk to Partners, Blue Moon, Aqua, Double L, Zues and all of the other bars as well as the convention center for Sun Dance over Labor Day Weekend.

4. The Breakers Hotel. The Breakers Hotel is right next to the convention center. It is an older hotel but clean and right by the beach so you can easily walk to all of the gay bars and be at the beach within 5 minutes of walking and you will have access to all of the shopping on and near by rehoboth avenue and all of the food there. It is a pretty ok hotel and if you want something cheap that is clean and usually has open rooms, try the Breakers Hotel in Rehoboth.

5. Any Bed and Breakfast. One thing that people love about going to Rehoboth is that there are a ton of Gay Friendly or Run Bed and Breakfasts. They are cheap and affordable and you get to meet the owners and hang out with all of the other guests so if you want to meet new people or go by yourself, either stay at The Shore Inn or a Bed and Breakfast and you will always have someone to go out drinking with or to lay on the beach with….that is one thing I love about the town, there are always people looking for someone else to hang out with.

Rehoboth is a really cool gay beach on the East Coast and if you are looking for a new place to take a gay vacation, you may want to try Rehoboth Beach Delaware, especially the week before and during Labor Day weekend for SunDance which is the largest circuit party and gay bar in Rehoboth Beach. Here are some pictures I took with my phone to share with all of you and before I go, you should also stop and shop at these stores before making your trip to pick up beach toys, glowing toys for the beach and at night and circuit party toys for the actual parties.

FlashingBlinkyLights.com has the widest selection of ready-to-ship, quality body lights, glow sticks, party toys and more. We add new, exclusive body light styles weekly.

splash dance circuit party rehoboth beach

splash dance gay clubs rehoboth beach delaware

splashdance gay rehoboth beach nightclubs

splashdance Rehoboth Beach

Comments (1)

July 1, 2009

Chicago Gay Pride and Kathy Griffin Eating Cinnamon Buns…Huh???

Filed under: clothing and Lingerie,gay travel,Non Wedding,Uncategorized — Tags: gay travel, gay vacations, Kathy Griffin — rollerbladerdc @ 1:53 am

So this last week has been a crazy week. I have traveled a lot, seen a lot, laughed my a$$ off, met a really hot guy, began planning a move back to the east coast and still somehow had some time to actually sit back and relax. So here is everything in a nutshell of what went on this last week (I still can’t believe I survived it lol).

The week started out like any other week, except it was pride in Chicago and holy crap was it obvious it was pride. I went to the grocery store and in the liquor displays, they replaced all of the regular absolute vodka bottles with rainbow colored gay pride absolute vodka bottles.

gay pride rainbow absolute vodka bottles

Now this was pretty cool considering the grocery store isn’t actually in boystown, however they still sold rainbow gay pride absolute vodka bottles and not only that, they sold gay pride tshirts, flags and a heck of a lot more. I know it was to capitalize off of the gay community and us celebrating pride (our version of the 4th of July) or celebrating our freedom to be who we are, love who we love and be free to walk around with our lovers without caring what others think or fear that someone will attack us. However it is also amazing for me to see grocery stores carrying gay pride merchandise as you would have never seen that 20 years ago, heck even ten years ago. It shows how far the gay community has come.

So anyways, I was walking down broadway and although the bar in the picture (I actually removed this picture as I am using a ton of server space with all the pictures in the main gayweddinggear.com site) is a mixed gay/straight crowd, I did notice one thing, even the straight bars had signs saying got pride and the drunken straight men who I am normally afraid of at some of the Broadway bars were cheering on the gays and celebrating with us. It was amazing to see.

Sooo….anyways, before I got to have fun at Gay Pride in Chicago 2009, I ended up having to take a last minute trip to interview with a potential Client. So, although I had really wanted to party in Boystown I did get to do some other fun things.

The first thing is I saw one of the newer episodes of Kathy Griffin My Life on The D List (I know I am becoming obsessed) where Kathy gets to meet the fabuloud Divine Ms. M (i.e. for straight people Bette Midler) and in the beginning of the episode Kathy is havig repairs and remodeling done to her house so she needs a hotel to stay in since the noise is driving her crazy.

breakfast-at-the-holiday-inn-bacon-and-eggs

Bacon, Eggs and Muffins at the Holiday Inn Express in Florida

breakfast cinnamon buns at the H I E Kathy Griffin

Now unlike most other celebrities, well unlike the A listers to be exact, when Kathy Griffin has to stay in a hotel while her condo or house is being worked on, she stays at the H I E, or the Holiday Inn Express in LA. As Kathy calls it the HIE, and although it’s not The Beverly Hills Hotel or the Ritz or The Four Seasons, as Kathy points out, at least it comes with a free breakfast and apparently her favorite choice for breakfast at the H I E is the cinnamon bun. Yup, Kathy Griffin, the skinny B*tch eats cinnamon buns,,,well then again not really, you don’t see her eating it and when she gets up it looked like only a couple bits had been taken. Maybe that’s why the b*tch is soo skinny,,,,you know this b*tch ate the whole damn thing, then some bacon, then some eggs, then I realized I ate breakfast at the freaking H I E and,,,well,,, at least Kathy Griffin did too. BTW, I forgot to mention that that is the hotel that my Client’s fabulous assistant booked me in,,,,can I just say that the Client’s assistant is amazing,,,professional, punctual, smart and funny. He is a serious asset to any executive and I am sure anyone would be lucky to have him. (On a side note, my Client is straight, just gay friendly). Soo anyways, I actually loved staying at the H I E but only because of Kathy Griffin, I brought huge sun glasses, went for the celebrity entrance and definitely hid from the Papparazzi spies….love you Kathy and thank you for making it ok to stay at an H I E and be able to admit to it.

Ok, Anyways, back to Gay Pride Chicago Illinois 2009. It was an amazing time. I danced, I met a man, I had drinks with friends, got sunburned, got laid (by those necklaces,,,,ohh and a hot man) and got to see some fabulous floats at the Gay Pride Parade Chicago and danced my ass off in the bars on Halstead and even went to Big Chix and Cattle Call in Andersonville. The only thing that actually sucked during pride was going to a dissapointment of a bar called the Lucky Horseshoe…I used to recommend it as a friendly happy place to visit with friendly staff, if you ignore the gogo boys, however now I encourage everyone to stay away. After what I saw and the way the bartenders were treating guests, run like the plauge because guess what, if you step foot inside The Lucky Horseshoe in Chicago Illinois at Belmont and Halstead, chances are you will catch the plauge. Screw that place!

Soooo….it was an amazing week where we saw Deborah Gibson, Crystal Waters, Thelma Houston, Inaya Day, I think Martha Walsh was here and a ton more. Tens of thousands of queers screaming and singing, everyone drinking and dancing and everyone there to have an amazing time and to celebrate pride.

Ayways, the following pictures are all from pride and a few that I wanted to share with you. If I get permission from my Client’s assistant to share his picture with you all, I will completely show you a fun picture I took of him in Florida.