July 14, 2023 • 24 mins
Has someone ever asked you, "What is there to do in Fresno?" Well, we came up with a list of hidden gems to take them to. If we missed any, leave us a comment and let us know other spots!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Freaking summertime and Fresno we never gotyou know what it is. We always
tell ourselves to mentally prepare for itbecause we've lived here for so you've lived
here all your life. I've livedhere for almost twenty years that we've dealt
with this Every year when Fresno summerscome, we know what's coming, but
(00:20):
we never really get used to it. What I will say about this year
is it came a lot later.Do you notice that it didn't really hit
until we got into July? AndI know in previous years it always came
in even June, But I meanjust the recording of this podcast today at
twenty two this weekend one fourteen onefourteen, Are you crazy? And then
(00:44):
it's actually gonna be triple digits.Well, actually I'm just going through and
I can only go for like twoweeks and it's all triple digits, which
again, see how we're saying it. We're almost saying it like we're shocked.
But it happens every year. We'veseen one twenty year before the last
years, and I guess that's whatI mean by we try to mentally prepare
for it, but when it comes, it's just brutal. What do you
(01:07):
do to stay cool? Um duringthis time? I just stay indoors.
So I think we brought this upbefore where we love just staying in the
studio because it's free air conditioning hereat work. Yeah, and we work
at a radio station, so it'syou know, it's like a social thing
for us here. Yeah. Soyeah, a lot of the time spent
here, but yeah, indoors.I just stay indoors the same here.
(01:30):
I mean, I cranked my acslike up high at and when I get
home, and I crank it hereat work, and I don't really go
outside. I hit to the gym, but the gym's indoors and they got
the fans in the AC blowing inthere too. So yeah, it's it's
definitely that time of year where westay inside moost. I don't ever like
go swimming lay anything like that,but I know the pools and all the
(01:52):
you know, the pools around townget really packed around this time of year.
Two. I'm surprised we have friendswith pools, and I'm surprised they
haven't like hit us up to likego swimming parties. But no, not
even pool parties. Just like yo, we're gonna go swimming at the crib.
Sometimes do you ever feel that it'stoo hot to even go swimming?
Sometimes? Yeah, I feel likethat too. I even have a friend
who has a pool. This wasyears ago during the middle of summer and
(02:16):
the water was warm. Yeah,and that was yeah, yeah for sure.
But yeah, we're here for anotherFresno summer. I always say,
come on, let's just knock thisout three months. It's tough, man,
and right now we're in the midstof it. Just started. Yeah,
so hopefully things will cool down,but usually doesn't. Just could give
(02:46):
me fire podcast? What up?I'm just of that as John Magic,
and we are back today's episode Fresno'sHidden Gems and a few reasons why we're
doing this episode. We always likedtalking about just current things that's happening in
our lives and um one of myTikTok's um has broken my personal post records
(03:07):
of views. The highest one previousto that was my restaurant episode where I
talk about, Hey, I owna restaurant, this is what my restaurant
is, and that one was upto thirty two thousand views and I even
show you like, hey, look, it's thirty thousand going crazy because we're
not. I'm not used to thatthat numbers. I'm sure some people are
(03:29):
like, that's nothing. I getthat all the time, but I'm not
used to it. And my recentone where I posted about a hidden gym
in Fresno, the for Steer undergroundgardens. It's to right now and it's
going up every second. But asof right now, we're basically at basically
(03:49):
at three hundred thousand views. Yeah, um, so many common hundreds and
thousands of comments likes. Um,so I guess that's viral for me.
I don't know. And you wentto this like what a week ago?
A week ago? So the backgroundis the girlfriend was visiting and we were
supposed to go to Yosemite. Thatwas the plan, which we've talked about
(04:12):
on the podcast, that that's abig thing to do when you have visitors.
Take him, Neil, it's notfar. What do you say,
like a two hour drive, twohour drive, hour and a half you
get to the gate, the fenceto the entrance. But to drive around
Yosemite is another yet thirty to anhour. So yeah, two hour drive
easy. So that was the originalplan. I mean, since this is
(04:33):
a podcast, it got Maybe somepeople are thinking, so why didn't you
guys go? She arrived super latethe night before because of the fire.
There was fires at the grapevine.The mountain went on the five And I've
seen this too. I've experienced this. I don't know if you've ever seen
it where the whole mountain is onfire. I've seen where like a little
(04:54):
piece of the mountain was on fire, and I was like, well,
that's kind of crazy, and butit was on the other side when I
was coming down. But yeah,I've never seen like the whole mountain on
fire. So she was stuck inthat for a few hours and got to
Fresno late. Hence we didn't wecouldn't wake up at five am to go
to Yosemite. And then she said, so let's do something. What can
(05:15):
we do? And I was andI don't know, you could back me
up on this. I think thereason why I was stuck on what to
do in Fresno, there is alot to do because Fresno, Central Cali
has so many events, but youhave to wait for those certain dates.
Yeah, and now if it's justlike a random day, do we have
any touristy spots? I think that'swhere it's hard to kind of tell somebody.
(05:39):
Yes, usually we'll direct them towards, you know, some of the
shopping centers that we have out here, or maybe some of the nightlife spots.
But yeah, you're right, it'sit's mainly when of those big events
come around. But we've come acrosssome hidden gems and we wanted to talk
about them. And it was firstwith this this place that you were at
that I've actually never been to alot of the comments where that actually not
(06:00):
only never been to, never evenheard of it. And I'm born and
raised in Fresno, all bad.I've seen it on social media from Fresno,
people talking about it, and I'vepassed it many times, so I
knew where it was. It's nearSeawan ninety nine. It's like right there,
um in I don't want to saythe hood, but I mean that
(06:23):
side of town. Yeah. Um. So it is a hidden it's like
a perfect example of a hidden gem, and it was my first time going.
It's twenty three dollars for adults.It's a one hour tour and without
going through the whole story, justa quick explanation of what it is basically
in the eighteen hundreds. Um aguy named I forgot his name now,
(06:46):
but his last name is for steer. All bounces are moved to Fresno.
He was he wanted to plant gardens. Uh what is it called crops?
Yea through a yeah, And hebought eighty acres and when he started digging
to you know, grow plants inthe garden, he hit rock and it
(07:08):
was just a bunch of rock thathe bought. And it got so hot
in Fresno. His background was like, um, as a cave tunneler,
why don't he makes caves essentially,so he decided to use his skill.
He made a little tunnel to staycool in the hot summer night. But
(07:30):
by the way, we're just talkingabout the hot summer days. And next
thing, you know, he justkept going. Just imagine just digging a
tunnel, making a tunnel just forthis one purpose of staying cool. So
he built he did it underneath theland that he had bought, yes,
okay, and then he just keptgoing and made a fucking house, a
(07:51):
mansion underneath the ground. So thisunderground mansion he had built to basically essentially
keep himself cool, and that's whatthe tours now right, Yeah, you
see his architecture. Architecture. Yeah, the plants he grew in there.
That's why it's called the underground Gardensbecause he found soil under the ground,
(08:11):
so he was able to build agarden underground exactly. So he like grew
trees oranges. He even does thisthing called grafting where he combined different branches
of different fruit plant trees and sothe tree grows with those different branches,
and one tree is growing multiple fruits. It's grapefruit, an orange, grapes,
(08:35):
limes, and it's crazy. Itwas so interesting to see in just
the story. He made a fewbedrooms in there where it still has his
bedroom set in their sill. Essentially, he had this whole living space underground
and he lets shit live down there, and now it's become like a tourist
spot. Yeah, it sounds cool. Actually, you kind of sold me
(08:58):
on it when I came to talkto you about it and you're explaining like
the history of it. The storyitself actually sounded kind of cool, and
now I kind of want to seewhat it looks like. Yeah, definitely,
So I hidden Gym the Forest TyreUnderground Gardens. If you're ever in
the area. Go look for that, all right, you got another one
or I mean, I know yougot the list there, so I was
(09:20):
I was this, I'll go backanother older one, just because when we're
going through this list of things inFresno, I remember doing this as a
kid and I haven't did it ina long time. I actually went for
it was a field trip. Itwas called the Mukes Home, and the
Muks is the last name of thisfamily. It was a rich family.
It's like a Victorian mansion. Ibelieve it was in eighteen eighty eight when
(09:43):
they had first lived there at thetime. And it's downtown Fresno, and
they have tours of it, butyou just kind of get immersed in that
era in that time of you know, what the furniture was like during that
time, what decorations were like duringthat time, with that architecture of this
home was during that time, andthey have even like clothing of what they
wore during this time, and youtake like this tour inside the house outside
(10:09):
the house. I just remember oneof the things that like always stood out
to me for some reason when whenwe were going through this tour. I
might have been like, honestly,second third grade. But this was during
an era when women would wear thosethose corsets that they would squeeze into,
you know, like what was itlike on Titanic Room and Titanic and she
was like tightener in the back.So one of the things that stood out
(10:30):
to me as they had this areawhere women would get into these corsets and
there was this like little like alike a like a bed but not as
big as a bed, and itwas there for women just in case they
passed out from getting squeeze into thesecorsets so much that they would lose their
breath and pass out. But theyhad this like bed that they could like
land on. That always stick inmy mom for some reason. But that
(10:52):
was cool growing up, just tobe kind of like immersed in that late
eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds era ofhow people lived and how they decorated.
So that's the Muke's home. That'sa downtown Fresno. That's pretty cool.
Something that I've always seen in picturesas well, but I've never been to
is the Japanese Gardens. I thinkyou have the exact name. Did you
(11:13):
write it down? Shin's in Yeah, Friendship Japanese garden. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and that's inside Woodward Park, which we've been to Woodward Park,
but it's a section with a bunchof um the Japanese um, what
is not the what did mister Miyagimake with those? The Bonzai trees?
O Bonsai trees. There's supposed tobe koi fish there, um, the
(11:35):
little Japanese garden bridge and on picturesit looks super cool like Instagram moments that
you could take And I've always wantedto go there, but that's a probably
a hidden gem that you could takesomeone just you know, to walk around
crazy enough. I live pretty closeto Woodward Park and it's actually something I
(11:56):
never go to. It's a nicepark. Um. I know people go
there for Easter. Um, there'sa lot of events to take place there.
It is a nice park. ButI've actually never visited that garden.
Yeah, I think, if I'mnot mistaken, I drove past by it
because I remember looking and I waslike, whoa, what what is that
area? Yeah? Yeah, andI think that was the area. But
(12:18):
there are different things in the park, and you're right, it's it's a
popular park. It's an amphitheater there. Yeah, people bike ride, there
walk there, but that's our likebig park some towards if you pass Woodwork
Park, you hit Millerton Lake.Yeah, and that's something that I haven't
done in a while. But that'sbecause we had friends who had boats.
(12:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, and likeshouts out to DJ Dizzy, but he
had a boat and he would takeme out years ago. My mom just
recently bought like a huge boat andshe's bought like all these things that are
on the boat, and she goesto the to the lake all the time.
Matter of actually just text me thispast weekend that she was at Milton
and she had like hot a fishand she keeps trying to get me to
(13:01):
go out there to the lake.But kind of like what we were talking
about earlier. I hate going outside, man, I hate going outside,
and she wants me to go andjump on the vote. Now. I
definitely got to at some point thissummer. But Millerton is definitely popular,
especially during like Fourth of July weekendson Royal Day weekends, a lot of
people like to get to go hopon the road up to Millerton, but
(13:22):
not far from Millerton table Mount CasinoResorts. That is something that I forgot
about. Yeah, that if youhave friends that like gambling, We have
some pretty cool casinos out here.Yeah again not too far from me.
They recently re renovated, No,not even renovated, because it's a whole
new building. Oh yes, soit's a whole new casino. It's it's
(13:43):
it's a resort vibe now because theyhave where you can stay. I've actually
posted videos of my stay there.Um, they put me up like an
executive room. Mind you, it'sonly been there for a year, so
literally like everything's brand new, brandnew casino. The layouts, ice,
all the rooms are nice. Soif you're like a gambler, it's eighteen
(14:03):
and up. They do events thereall the time. Matter of fact,
Pitt Bull is like going to beperforming there this month. So if you're
a gambler. Table Mount Casino Resort, it's definitely dope. It's new and
that whole area, like you said, the lakes right there, you know,
the casinos right there actually, umthe woodwork parks actually not really far
from there either. Um would askme, guys, well, just with
(14:24):
the casinos. If you want themore outdoors outdoorsy woods cabin vibe that you
chancey resort casino that's another one that'son its way to Yosemite not too far,
and that's a super nice hotel.Is an hotel casino too, and
it's that it's like a big cabinvibe. Yeah yeah, yeah, and
(14:45):
that's super nice. And then wehave the one in Lamore Tatchy Palace that
has a super nice hotel too bythe way, So yeah, casinos,
that's something you could do if youhave friends or family that like to gamble.
So how about this one. Thisone's big because I know people that
are not from Fresno that I endup talking to and they've telled me like
(15:05):
that they've passed through Fresno. Onething that they always bring up I've noticed
is our zoo. I think peopleactually really enjoy our zoo. We actually
do have a really nice zoo.Yeah, we brought that up before.
They have a new area called Kingdomof Asia that when I went, I
went the week that it opened,which was maybe like a month or so
ago. They were still kind ofworking on things, so I'm not sure
(15:28):
what the progress is. It isopen to like walk through, but when
I went there, like I said, not all the animals were there yet.
But we have a really nice zoo. It's big. We have like
this African safari area that's really nice. They had they had rebuilt that years
ago. Yeah, real quick,just because I've experienced that. Just imagine
them making like a mini Serengetti likejust safari. It's a big area and
(15:52):
all the different animals are all inone area. They roam around, but
the way they like kind of sectionedit off with like the water, the
animal can't cross in like mingo,because some only certain animals commingle with each
other. Other ones would eat eachother. But just like you said,
just by looking at it, lookslike they're all in the same area.
You got the lions, the elephants. There's not an actual cage. Yeah
no, no, it's just likethis open area. So it's really cool.
(16:15):
There's a restaurant like right next toit that you're kind of kind of
looking over oversee everything we were eatingthere, and a fucking rhinoceros just walked
right pastes. Like what the fuck? I did this really dope experience.
They don't do it anymore because theydon't have those elephants anymore. But where
the elephants originally used to be,they had this thing called Breakfast with Elephants,
(16:37):
and I actually got to do thatand I got to go, you
know, before the zoo even opened, and I sat right there to like
overlook where the elephants were, andI got to feed the elephants. I
got to learn some information with theelephants. They do this cool thing where
the elephants does a painting for you. So the elephant knows how to grab
the paint brush with its trunk andlike the trainer will hold the canvas and
(16:57):
it will just paint I mean randomobviously, but it's cool that like they
know that they're painting something and thenyou get to take home the painting.
That was like a really cool experiencethat that I got to experience at that
time. They don't do it anymore, but I do know that they have
specific like little VIP things that youcan do. But the yeah, the
Fresno Chappie Zoo is it's a populardestination in Fresno. Man, wish I
(17:18):
had like these wish I had thislist. When she asked me, what
is there to do? I know, we got this nice list. Right
now, what else you got onthe list? So we covered casinos?
You covered the lake? What aboutoh before we get there, antique shopping.
We got good, Yeah, wegot good shopping here, but specifically
yeah, like little old school antiqueshops. Yeah. So we have Clovis,
(17:41):
which is the neighboring town next toFresno. I mean it's just like
right there and Clovis Avenue where theydo a lot of big events like Big
Hat Days and Clovis Fest, theseevents where people go out there and they
sell like their crafts that they've made, and there's tons of food boots.
But anyways, that street right there, they have a bunch of antiques stores
(18:03):
there and I actually go there quiteoften, and man, there's some really
cool gems there. Some if youlike to collect things, I mean they
have everything from collecting old clothes tocoins to even collectibles. I find some
of my stuff there. Uh,there's tons of them just on that strip.
And even if you don't buy stuff, it's always cool just to like
walk in there and be like,man, this is how it's like a
(18:25):
phone used to look like, orthis is like you know some of those
antiques. So that's old town Clovis. That's really cool. There's some in
Tower. Near downtown is a districtcalled a Tower District. Yeah, that's
also the hip Well they like ahippie vibe, but they also have some
cool antique record shops there, likeantique cool like clothing. So I've always
(18:48):
wondered, what is Tower District?What is that area like considered as in
what do you mean? I don'tknow, like what would you consider that
area? It's just really that isit just that area that's cold? Like
what because it's not downtown? No, yeah, so what would you consider
that if you had to like compareit to like somewhere else or a different
city, like what is that justlike a I don't know, Yeah,
(19:10):
just the district is that's just whatit is? Like. Well, see,
I don't know if anyone will getthis reference, but there's like these
little towns in La Silver Lake andEagle Rock. It's like that kind of
street. Yeah, it's the hipster. Yeah, I guess what it is.
Right, Like they've done parades downthat streets. Uh, that's where
(19:30):
the pride parades. The Pride paradesdown there. Um, I know if
they close it down for other events, but just on that strip, there's
you know, there's shopping centers,there's places to eat, there's bars,
and the nightlife actually in the areais not bad because there's a few bars,
Yeah, a few nice like clubsthere, so people will kind of
like bar hop in that area.So yeah, I guess it's a little
bit of all that. Yeah.I mean, let me just plug too.
(19:52):
If you've ever, if you guyslisten to the podcast and follow me
on social I post about this Rand B night that I do on Monday.
That's where it's at Tower District.Um, all right, so what
else we got here? Oh,since since we're on the topic of summer
and it being hots we got acouple of cool water parks out here.
We've talked about this before, butagain, Um, when you drive past
(20:15):
one of them, which is calledWhat's off Saw Island Water Park, when
you're driving on the ninety nine,you actually see it. You see it
off the road, but what yousee is just dirt, dry up what
are those the dry plants? Iforget what those plants are called, but
they're just off the freeway. It'sjust a field. Ye, It's it's
(20:37):
super gray and there's just nothing,and then you just see some big slides.
It almost looks like it could beabandoned from that outside. Yes,
that's a perfect way of describing it. Yeah, it looks like it's an
abandoned water park, but then that'sactually that's actually the back of it.
Yeah, when you drive to theentrance and go inside, which we've we've
(21:00):
done many events at the Island waterPark, it is it's pretty cool.
And then yeah it's actually it's thenewer water park. But yeah, from
the freeway it's bad angle, sodon't judge it from that. Um.
The other one, it's in Clovis. This was more of the old school.
This one's been around forever that youspeak, called Clovis Lakes back in
the day. Fun fact, I'venever been there. Oh really, I've
(21:22):
never been to wild Water Adventure Park. Now it's called wild Water Adventure Park.
It's it's bigger, it has more. Um, I've always personally liked
it a little bit more. Butto like what you said, I haven't
been there in a long time.You haven't been there at all. But
yeah, that's another fun water park. That's uh, like I said,
in Clovis so kind of like theopposite end of this water park. Yeah,
so you got two to choose from. Uh yeah, so those are
(21:45):
two two cool water parks to hangon at, especially during the summer when
it's really hot. I don't knowif you have anything on your list.
The thing that I wanted to bringup was a thing that we do living
in Fresno. That's why when someonesays what is there to do, a
common thing is we go out oftown. But when we say out of
town, just a quick three hourdrive to San Francisco, a quick three
(22:08):
hour drive to Pismo Beach, whichis a popular If you go to Pismo
Beach, guaranteed you'll meet someone fromFresno there, the Fresno Beach. Yeah,
it's just it's a common thing tokind of drive to La or so
that's like what we do sometimes.Yeah, we're in that that middle area
where you know, people will say, you know, we're not a big
(22:29):
city, and of course you've gotlike the people that live here that hate
on it, but really we're ina perfect area, meaning we got three
hours up north, we're in SanFrancisco, you know, three and a
half hours south we're in LA andwe're surrounded by a lot. You know,
there's a lot to do in Californiaitself. We're not far from like
the beach, we have mountains,we have la we have the Bay,
(22:51):
we have you know, we're notthat far from Vegas. I'm going to
San Diego next week. We're notfar from San Diego, which means we're
really not that far from Mexico.So like you, Yeah, there's a
lot of surrounding areas that it couldbe a couple hours or a few hours.
But when it comes to in town. Yeah, we said this in
the beginning. I'll kind of wrapit up with what we said in the
beginning. There's so many things todo here, but on certain dates,
(23:15):
you we wait for those events,which we have a lot of. Yeah,
a lot of that's ard Hop,the Taco Truck throw Down, it's
a big event that's coming later thisyear. Yeah, every weekend, they
the Fresno Street Eats do something.Yeah, almost every day. But even
just their new location at River Parkdowntown, there's always events going on down
the brewery district is our brewery districtis beautiful with all the bars down down
(23:40):
there, but usually it's more livelierwhen there's an event. So I think
we're we're kind of in that modewhere wait, there's a bunch of stuff
to do, but on this certainday, not much going on. Yeah,
but I'm glad we found this listof So these are things that you
could actually do a randomly. Yeah, well maybe not the water parks,
but summer they're popping. So thereyou go. If you emissed anything on
(24:03):
the list, maybe you guys canleave us a comment on the podcast where
they have a comment section, oryou guys can find us on social and
messages there. All right, untilnext time. This could give me for our podcasts
Freaking summertime and Fresno we never gotyou know what it is. We always
tell ourselves to mentally prepare for itbecause we've lived here for so you've lived
here all your life. I've livedhere for almost twenty years that we've dealt
with this Every year when Fresno summerscome, we know what's coming, but
(00:20):
we never really get used to it. What I will say about this year
is it came a lot later.Do you notice that it didn't really hit
until we got into July? AndI know in previous years it always came
in even June, But I meanjust the recording of this podcast today at
twenty two this weekend one fourteen onefourteen, Are you crazy? And then
(00:44):
it's actually gonna be triple digits.Well, actually I'm just going through and
I can only go for like twoweeks and it's all triple digits, which
again, see how we're saying it. We're almost saying it like we're shocked.
But it happens every year. We'veseen one twenty year before the last
years, and I guess that's whatI mean by we try to mentally prepare
for it, but when it comes, it's just brutal. What do you
(01:07):
do to stay cool? Um duringthis time? I just stay indoors.
So I think we brought this upbefore where we love just staying in the
studio because it's free air conditioning hereat work. Yeah, and we work
at a radio station, so it'syou know, it's like a social thing
for us here. Yeah. Soyeah, a lot of the time spent
here, but yeah, indoors.I just stay indoors the same here.
(01:30):
I mean, I cranked my acslike up high at and when I get
home, and I crank it hereat work, and I don't really go
outside. I hit to the gym, but the gym's indoors and they got
the fans in the AC blowing inthere too. So yeah, it's it's
definitely that time of year where westay inside moost. I don't ever like
go swimming lay anything like that,but I know the pools and all the
(01:52):
you know, the pools around townget really packed around this time of year.
Two. I'm surprised we have friendswith pools, and I'm surprised they
haven't like hit us up to likego swimming parties. But no, not
even pool parties. Just like yo, we're gonna go swimming at the crib.
Sometimes do you ever feel that it'stoo hot to even go swimming?
Sometimes? Yeah, I feel likethat too. I even have a friend
who has a pool. This wasyears ago during the middle of summer and
(02:16):
the water was warm. Yeah,and that was yeah, yeah for sure.
But yeah, we're here for anotherFresno summer. I always say,
come on, let's just knock thisout three months. It's tough, man,
and right now we're in the midstof it. Just started. Yeah,
so hopefully things will cool down,but usually doesn't. Just could give
(02:46):
me fire podcast? What up?I'm just of that as John Magic,
and we are back today's episode Fresno'sHidden Gems and a few reasons why we're
doing this episode. We always likedtalking about just current things that's happening in
our lives and um one of myTikTok's um has broken my personal post records
(03:07):
of views. The highest one previousto that was my restaurant episode where I
talk about, Hey, I owna restaurant, this is what my restaurant
is, and that one was upto thirty two thousand views and I even
show you like, hey, look, it's thirty thousand going crazy because we're
not. I'm not used to thatthat numbers. I'm sure some people are
(03:29):
like, that's nothing. I getthat all the time, but I'm not
used to it. And my recentone where I posted about a hidden gym
in Fresno, the for Steer undergroundgardens. It's to right now and it's
going up every second. But asof right now, we're basically at basically
(03:49):
at three hundred thousand views. Yeah, um, so many common hundreds and
thousands of comments likes. Um,so I guess that's viral for me.
I don't know. And you wentto this like what a week ago?
A week ago? So the backgroundis the girlfriend was visiting and we were
supposed to go to Yosemite. Thatwas the plan, which we've talked about
(04:12):
on the podcast, that that's abig thing to do when you have visitors.
Take him, Neil, it's notfar. What do you say,
like a two hour drive, twohour drive, hour and a half you
get to the gate, the fenceto the entrance. But to drive around
Yosemite is another yet thirty to anhour. So yeah, two hour drive
easy. So that was the originalplan. I mean, since this is
(04:33):
a podcast, it got Maybe somepeople are thinking, so why didn't you
guys go? She arrived super latethe night before because of the fire.
There was fires at the grapevine.The mountain went on the five And I've
seen this too. I've experienced this. I don't know if you've ever seen
it where the whole mountain is onfire. I've seen where like a little
(04:54):
piece of the mountain was on fire, and I was like, well,
that's kind of crazy, and butit was on the other side when I
was coming down. But yeah,I've never seen like the whole mountain on
fire. So she was stuck inthat for a few hours and got to
Fresno late. Hence we didn't wecouldn't wake up at five am to go
to Yosemite. And then she said, so let's do something. What can
(05:15):
we do? And I was andI don't know, you could back me
up on this. I think thereason why I was stuck on what to
do in Fresno, there is alot to do because Fresno, Central Cali
has so many events, but youhave to wait for those certain dates.
Yeah, and now if it's justlike a random day, do we have
any touristy spots? I think that'swhere it's hard to kind of tell somebody.
(05:39):
Yes, usually we'll direct them towards, you know, some of the
shopping centers that we have out here, or maybe some of the nightlife spots.
But yeah, you're right, it'sit's mainly when of those big events
come around. But we've come acrosssome hidden gems and we wanted to talk
about them. And it was firstwith this this place that you were at
that I've actually never been to alot of the comments where that actually not
(06:00):
only never been to, never evenheard of it. And I'm born and
raised in Fresno, all bad.I've seen it on social media from Fresno,
people talking about it, and I'vepassed it many times, so I
knew where it was. It's nearSeawan ninety nine. It's like right there,
um in I don't want to saythe hood, but I mean that
(06:23):
side of town. Yeah. Um. So it is a hidden it's like
a perfect example of a hidden gem, and it was my first time going.
It's twenty three dollars for adults.It's a one hour tour and without
going through the whole story, justa quick explanation of what it is basically
in the eighteen hundreds. Um aguy named I forgot his name now,
(06:46):
but his last name is for steer. All bounces are moved to Fresno.
He was he wanted to plant gardens. Uh what is it called crops?
Yea through a yeah, And hebought eighty acres and when he started digging
to you know, grow plants inthe garden, he hit rock and it
(07:08):
was just a bunch of rock thathe bought. And it got so hot
in Fresno. His background was like, um, as a cave tunneler,
why don't he makes caves essentially,so he decided to use his skill.
He made a little tunnel to staycool in the hot summer night. But
(07:30):
by the way, we're just talkingabout the hot summer days. And next
thing, you know, he justkept going. Just imagine just digging a
tunnel, making a tunnel just forthis one purpose of staying cool. So
he built he did it underneath theland that he had bought, yes,
okay, and then he just keptgoing and made a fucking house, a
(07:51):
mansion underneath the ground. So thisunderground mansion he had built to basically essentially
keep himself cool, and that's whatthe tours now right, Yeah, you
see his architecture. Architecture. Yeah, the plants he grew in there.
That's why it's called the underground Gardensbecause he found soil under the ground,
(08:11):
so he was able to build agarden underground exactly. So he like grew
trees oranges. He even does thisthing called grafting where he combined different branches
of different fruit plant trees and sothe tree grows with those different branches,
and one tree is growing multiple fruits. It's grapefruit, an orange, grapes,
(08:35):
limes, and it's crazy. Itwas so interesting to see in just
the story. He made a fewbedrooms in there where it still has his
bedroom set in their sill. Essentially, he had this whole living space underground
and he lets shit live down there, and now it's become like a tourist
spot. Yeah, it sounds cool. Actually, you kind of sold me
(08:58):
on it when I came to talkto you about it and you're explaining like
the history of it. The storyitself actually sounded kind of cool, and
now I kind of want to seewhat it looks like. Yeah, definitely,
So I hidden Gym the Forest TyreUnderground Gardens. If you're ever in
the area. Go look for that, all right, you got another one
or I mean, I know yougot the list there, so I was
(09:20):
I was this, I'll go backanother older one, just because when we're
going through this list of things inFresno, I remember doing this as a
kid and I haven't did it ina long time. I actually went for
it was a field trip. Itwas called the Mukes Home, and the
Muks is the last name of thisfamily. It was a rich family.
It's like a Victorian mansion. Ibelieve it was in eighteen eighty eight when
(09:43):
they had first lived there at thetime. And it's downtown Fresno, and
they have tours of it, butyou just kind of get immersed in that
era in that time of you know, what the furniture was like during that
time, what decorations were like duringthat time, with that architecture of this
home was during that time, andthey have even like clothing of what they
wore during this time, and youtake like this tour inside the house outside
(10:09):
the house. I just remember oneof the things that like always stood out
to me for some reason when whenwe were going through this tour. I
might have been like, honestly,second third grade. But this was during
an era when women would wear thosethose corsets that they would squeeze into,
you know, like what was itlike on Titanic Room and Titanic and she
was like tightener in the back.So one of the things that stood out
(10:30):
to me as they had this areawhere women would get into these corsets and
there was this like little like alike a like a bed but not as
big as a bed, and itwas there for women just in case they
passed out from getting squeeze into thesecorsets so much that they would lose their
breath and pass out. But theyhad this like bed that they could like
land on. That always stick inmy mom for some reason. But that
(10:52):
was cool growing up, just tobe kind of like immersed in that late
eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds era ofhow people lived and how they decorated.
So that's the Muke's home. That'sa downtown Fresno. That's pretty cool.
Something that I've always seen in picturesas well, but I've never been to
is the Japanese Gardens. I thinkyou have the exact name. Did you
(11:13):
write it down? Shin's in Yeah, Friendship Japanese garden. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and that's inside Woodward Park, which we've been to Woodward Park,
but it's a section with a bunchof um the Japanese um, what
is not the what did mister Miyagimake with those? The Bonzai trees?
O Bonsai trees. There's supposed tobe koi fish there, um, the
(11:35):
little Japanese garden bridge and on picturesit looks super cool like Instagram moments that
you could take And I've always wantedto go there, but that's a probably
a hidden gem that you could takesomeone just you know, to walk around
crazy enough. I live pretty closeto Woodward Park and it's actually something I
(11:56):
never go to. It's a nicepark. Um. I know people go
there for Easter. Um, there'sa lot of events to take place there.
It is a nice park. ButI've actually never visited that garden.
Yeah, I think, if I'mnot mistaken, I drove past by it
because I remember looking and I waslike, whoa, what what is that
area? Yeah? Yeah, andI think that was the area. But
(12:18):
there are different things in the park, and you're right, it's it's a
popular park. It's an amphitheater there. Yeah, people bike ride, there
walk there, but that's our likebig park some towards if you pass Woodwork
Park, you hit Millerton Lake.Yeah, and that's something that I haven't
done in a while. But that'sbecause we had friends who had boats.
(12:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, and likeshouts out to DJ Dizzy, but he
had a boat and he would takeme out years ago. My mom just
recently bought like a huge boat andshe's bought like all these things that are
on the boat, and she goesto the to the lake all the time.
Matter of actually just text me thispast weekend that she was at Milton
and she had like hot a fishand she keeps trying to get me to
(13:01):
go out there to the lake.But kind of like what we were talking
about earlier. I hate going outside, man, I hate going outside,
and she wants me to go andjump on the vote. Now. I
definitely got to at some point thissummer. But Millerton is definitely popular,
especially during like Fourth of July weekendson Royal Day weekends, a lot of
people like to get to go hopon the road up to Millerton, but
(13:22):
not far from Millerton table Mount CasinoResorts. That is something that I forgot
about. Yeah, that if youhave friends that like gambling, We have
some pretty cool casinos out here.Yeah again not too far from me.
They recently re renovated, No,not even renovated, because it's a whole
new building. Oh yes, soit's a whole new casino. It's it's
(13:43):
it's a resort vibe now because theyhave where you can stay. I've actually
posted videos of my stay there.Um, they put me up like an
executive room. Mind you, it'sonly been there for a year, so
literally like everything's brand new, brandnew casino. The layouts, ice,
all the rooms are nice. Soif you're like a gambler, it's eighteen
(14:03):
and up. They do events thereall the time. Matter of fact,
Pitt Bull is like going to beperforming there this month. So if you're
a gambler. Table Mount Casino Resort, it's definitely dope. It's new and
that whole area, like you said, the lakes right there, you know,
the casinos right there actually, umthe woodwork parks actually not really far
from there either. Um would askme, guys, well, just with
(14:24):
the casinos. If you want themore outdoors outdoorsy woods cabin vibe that you
chancey resort casino that's another one that'son its way to Yosemite not too far,
and that's a super nice hotel.Is an hotel casino too, and
it's that it's like a big cabinvibe. Yeah yeah, yeah, and
(14:45):
that's super nice. And then wehave the one in Lamore Tatchy Palace that
has a super nice hotel too bythe way, So yeah, casinos,
that's something you could do if youhave friends or family that like to gamble.
So how about this one. Thisone's big because I know people that
are not from Fresno that I endup talking to and they've telled me like
(15:05):
that they've passed through Fresno. Onething that they always bring up I've noticed
is our zoo. I think peopleactually really enjoy our zoo. We actually
do have a really nice zoo.Yeah, we brought that up before.
They have a new area called Kingdomof Asia that when I went, I
went the week that it opened,which was maybe like a month or so
ago. They were still kind ofworking on things, so I'm not sure
(15:28):
what the progress is. It isopen to like walk through, but when
I went there, like I said, not all the animals were there yet.
But we have a really nice zoo. It's big. We have like
this African safari area that's really nice. They had they had rebuilt that years
ago. Yeah, real quick,just because I've experienced that. Just imagine
them making like a mini Serengetti likejust safari. It's a big area and
(15:52):
all the different animals are all inone area. They roam around, but
the way they like kind of sectionedit off with like the water, the
animal can't cross in like mingo,because some only certain animals commingle with each
other. Other ones would eat eachother. But just like you said,
just by looking at it, lookslike they're all in the same area.
You got the lions, the elephants. There's not an actual cage. Yeah
no, no, it's just likethis open area. So it's really cool.
(16:15):
There's a restaurant like right next toit that you're kind of kind of
looking over oversee everything we were eatingthere, and a fucking rhinoceros just walked
right pastes. Like what the fuck? I did this really dope experience.
They don't do it anymore because theydon't have those elephants anymore. But where
the elephants originally used to be,they had this thing called Breakfast with Elephants,
(16:37):
and I actually got to do thatand I got to go, you
know, before the zoo even opened, and I sat right there to like
overlook where the elephants were, andI got to feed the elephants. I
got to learn some information with theelephants. They do this cool thing where
the elephants does a painting for you. So the elephant knows how to grab
the paint brush with its trunk andlike the trainer will hold the canvas and
(16:57):
it will just paint I mean randomobviously, but it's cool that like they
know that they're painting something and thenyou get to take home the painting.
That was like a really cool experiencethat that I got to experience at that
time. They don't do it anymore, but I do know that they have
specific like little VIP things that youcan do. But the yeah, the
Fresno Chappie Zoo is it's a populardestination in Fresno. Man, wish I
(17:18):
had like these wish I had thislist. When she asked me, what
is there to do? I know, we got this nice list. Right
now, what else you got onthe list? So we covered casinos?
You covered the lake? What aboutoh before we get there, antique shopping.
We got good, Yeah, wegot good shopping here, but specifically
yeah, like little old school antiqueshops. Yeah. So we have Clovis,
(17:41):
which is the neighboring town next toFresno. I mean it's just like
right there and Clovis Avenue where theydo a lot of big events like Big
Hat Days and Clovis Fest, theseevents where people go out there and they
sell like their crafts that they've made, and there's tons of food boots.
But anyways, that street right there, they have a bunch of antiques stores
(18:03):
there and I actually go there quiteoften, and man, there's some really
cool gems there. Some if youlike to collect things, I mean they
have everything from collecting old clothes tocoins to even collectibles. I find some
of my stuff there. Uh,there's tons of them just on that strip.
And even if you don't buy stuff, it's always cool just to like
walk in there and be like,man, this is how it's like a
(18:25):
phone used to look like, orthis is like you know some of those
antiques. So that's old town Clovis. That's really cool. There's some in
Tower. Near downtown is a districtcalled a Tower District. Yeah, that's
also the hip Well they like ahippie vibe, but they also have some
cool antique record shops there, likeantique cool like clothing. So I've always
(18:48):
wondered, what is Tower District?What is that area like considered as in
what do you mean? I don'tknow, like what would you consider that
area? It's just really that isit just that area that's cold? Like
what because it's not downtown? No, yeah, so what would you consider
that if you had to like compareit to like somewhere else or a different
city, like what is that justlike a I don't know, Yeah,
(19:10):
just the district is that's just whatit is? Like. Well, see,
I don't know if anyone will getthis reference, but there's like these
little towns in La Silver Lake andEagle Rock. It's like that kind of
street. Yeah, it's the hipster. Yeah, I guess what it is.
Right, Like they've done parades downthat streets. Uh, that's where
(19:30):
the pride parades. The Pride paradesdown there. Um, I know if
they close it down for other events, but just on that strip, there's
you know, there's shopping centers,there's places to eat, there's bars,
and the nightlife actually in the areais not bad because there's a few bars,
Yeah, a few nice like clubsthere, so people will kind of
like bar hop in that area.So yeah, I guess it's a little
bit of all that. Yeah.I mean, let me just plug too.
(19:52):
If you've ever, if you guyslisten to the podcast and follow me
on social I post about this Rand B night that I do on Monday.
That's where it's at Tower District.Um, all right, so what
else we got here? Oh,since since we're on the topic of summer
and it being hots we got acouple of cool water parks out here.
We've talked about this before, butagain, Um, when you drive past
(20:15):
one of them, which is calledWhat's off Saw Island Water Park, when
you're driving on the ninety nine,you actually see it. You see it
off the road, but what yousee is just dirt, dry up what
are those the dry plants? Iforget what those plants are called, but
they're just off the freeway. It'sjust a field. Ye, It's it's
(20:37):
super gray and there's just nothing,and then you just see some big slides.
It almost looks like it could beabandoned from that outside. Yes,
that's a perfect way of describing it. Yeah, it looks like it's an
abandoned water park, but then that'sactually that's actually the back of it.
Yeah, when you drive to theentrance and go inside, which we've we've
(21:00):
done many events at the Island waterPark, it is it's pretty cool.
And then yeah it's actually it's thenewer water park. But yeah, from
the freeway it's bad angle, sodon't judge it from that. Um.
The other one, it's in Clovis. This was more of the old school.
This one's been around forever that youspeak, called Clovis Lakes back in
the day. Fun fact, I'venever been there. Oh really, I've
(21:22):
never been to wild Water Adventure Park. Now it's called wild Water Adventure Park.
It's it's bigger, it has more. Um, I've always personally liked
it a little bit more. Butto like what you said, I haven't
been there in a long time.You haven't been there at all. But
yeah, that's another fun water park. That's uh, like I said,
in Clovis so kind of like theopposite end of this water park. Yeah,
so you got two to choose from. Uh yeah, so those are
(21:45):
two two cool water parks to hangon at, especially during the summer when
it's really hot. I don't knowif you have anything on your list.
The thing that I wanted to bringup was a thing that we do living
in Fresno. That's why when someonesays what is there to do, a
common thing is we go out oftown. But when we say out of
town, just a quick three hourdrive to San Francisco, a quick three
(22:08):
hour drive to Pismo Beach, whichis a popular If you go to Pismo
Beach, guaranteed you'll meet someone fromFresno there, the Fresno Beach. Yeah,
it's just it's a common thing tokind of drive to La or so
that's like what we do sometimes.Yeah, we're in that that middle area
where you know, people will say, you know, we're not a big
(22:29):
city, and of course you've gotlike the people that live here that hate
on it, but really we're ina perfect area, meaning we got three
hours up north, we're in SanFrancisco, you know, three and a
half hours south we're in LA andwe're surrounded by a lot. You know,
there's a lot to do in Californiaitself. We're not far from like
the beach, we have mountains,we have la we have the Bay,
(22:51):
we have you know, we're notthat far from Vegas. I'm going to
San Diego next week. We're notfar from San Diego, which means we're
really not that far from Mexico.So like you, Yeah, there's a
lot of surrounding areas that it couldbe a couple hours or a few hours.
But when it comes to in town. Yeah, we said this in
the beginning. I'll kind of wrapit up with what we said in the
beginning. There's so many things todo here, but on certain dates,
(23:15):
you we wait for those events,which we have a lot of. Yeah,
a lot of that's ard Hop,the Taco Truck throw Down, it's
a big event that's coming later thisyear. Yeah, every weekend, they
the Fresno Street Eats do something.Yeah, almost every day. But even
just their new location at River Parkdowntown, there's always events going on down
the brewery district is our brewery districtis beautiful with all the bars down down
(23:40):
there, but usually it's more livelierwhen there's an event. So I think
we're we're kind of in that modewhere wait, there's a bunch of stuff
to do, but on this certainday, not much going on. Yeah,
but I'm glad we found this listof So these are things that you
could actually do a randomly. Yeah, well maybe not the water parks,
but summer they're popping. So thereyou go. If you emissed anything on
(24:03):
the list, maybe you guys canleave us a comment on the podcast where
they have a comment section, oryou guys can find us on social and
messages there. All right, untilnext time. This could give me for our podcasts
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