My “The Office” Birthday Trip
For anyone to say that they are the “world’s biggest fan” of anything is about the most cliche thing that can be said. That being said, I’m a huge fan of the NBC series “The Office.” Let me explain a bit.
For those who don’t know, “The Office” aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013. The series was comprised of 201 episodes over nine seasons. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I have legitimately seen each of these 201 episodes over 20 times, though many of them I’ve seen a lot more than that. I firmly believe it is one of the greatest television shows that has ever existed, to the point where it actually makes me cringe a little when I see or hear a line misquoted. You’ve gotta respect it.
There was a point in my life when I watched at least one episode of the show each day for nearly three years, and I still watch it several times each week.
“The Office” is set in Scranton, PA and follows the lives of the employees of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. While the vast majority of the show was actually filmed in California, there were many moments of dialogue when actual Scranton-area locations were mentioned and scenes where the locations were actually filmed or fictionally portrayed. As my wife and I have repeatedly watched the series, I have often said to her, “I wonder if [insert place here] is a real place in Scranton?” And so for my birthday this year, she surprised me with a full-blown “The Office” experience, including, as the icing on the cake, a trip to Scranton to experience some of these places for ourselves.
Before the trip, the birthday surprise began with a t-shirt from Cooper’s Seafood. Cooper’s is referenced a few times in the show but is actually visually seen in an episode called “Business Ethics.” The shirt was accompanied by a super cool laptop decal of the four (arguably) main characters of the show: Michael (Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer). She had also told me that we would be taking a surprise trip the following weekend, but I had no idea where we were going.
A couple of days later, it was the day of the trip. I walked out to my kitchen to see a gigantic photo of my face, signed by each member of my family (from “Michael’s Birthday”) and while it was pretty shocking to see my face that large (especially first thing in the morning), it was awesome. To my left was a banner, plain white with black bold text that read “IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY” and half-inflated balloons on the table (from “Lecture Circuit: Part One”).


Also on the table were 3 envelopes and 3 brown paper bags, each of which had a time written on it. I was supposed to open each one at the specified time and each would have a clue in it (this may have been an unintentional reference to “New Leads”) related to our trip.
The first bag contained a purple bandana (from Prison Mike in “The Convict”) which confused me. I didn’t recognize it from the episode at the time.

The second bag had a DVD copy of the movie “Varsity Blues” (from “The Coup”). I forgot how good that movie was. Once I saw this clue I realized where we were going, and I put together that each thing I’d received all the way back to the Cooper’s shirt were Office-related. I know — it probably took me way too long to figure that out.

The third bag had a “medal” made from paper clips and a used yogurt lid (from “Office Olympics”).

Next, it was on to the envelopes.
The first envelope had a hilarious letter, written by “Future Jon” (from “Branch Closing”), informing me that I was being sent on a top secret mission by the CIA (from “A Benihana Christmas”).

The second envelope contained two things: an appointment reminder card from the office of “John D. Crentist” (also from “The Coup”) with a note that they would be bringing me in for a procedure using a new “quick-drying bonding” (again, from the same episode) with a handwritten note that mentioned that the only acceptable form of payment would be “Schrute Bucks” (from “The Job”), and of course, a Schrute Buck.

Inside the third and final envelope was a jury summons from Lackawanna County to be a juror in the case of Toby Flenderson, aka the Scranton Strangler. The Strangler was a storyline across multiple episodes, though he wasn’t Toby… that we know of, though Toby was on the Strangler’s jury (this was also a small reference to the episode “Jury Duty”). The address of the summons was the address of the hotel where we’d be staying.

To say that I was excited at this point would be a pretty big understatement.
That afternoon we set out for “The Electric City.” The area in Northeastern PA was beautiful, with towns nestled into valleys and mountains as far as the eye could see. After getting checked into the hotel, we were starving so we immediately headed for our first iconic location: Cooper’s Seafood. Of course I was a little biased just due to my overall excitement for the trip and my love of the place as a landmark in the show, but I can honestly say that it was some of the best seafood I’ve ever eaten.


After leaving the restaurant, we searched out the Steamtown Mall (now called “The Marketplace at Steamtown” and featured in the episodes “Women’s Appreciation” and “Counseling”) because we’d heard that the “Welcome to Scranton” sign, featured prominently during the opening credits of the show, was on display there. It wasn’t long before we came up the escalator and there it was, in all it’s glory. Yes, it’s a sign. But it’s not just any sign. It’s the “Welcome to Scranton” sign from “The Office.” I think this was probably one of the most exciting times someone has ever had just looking at a sign. But I’m fine with it.

The place was closing soon, so we headed to our next destination: Poor Richard’s Pub (from multiple episodes, featured in “Cocktails”) where we both got shirts and I sang karaoke. As we were leaving the pub, we spotted a Dunder Mifflin sign above the exit.



The next morning we went back downtown for some sightseeing. After a small diversion created by a flat tire (unintentionally referencing “Women’s Appreciation” again when Pam changes a flat tire on Meredith’s van) we decided to go to Lake Scranton (referenced prominently in “Beach Games” and “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”). We searched and searched and could not find a way to actually get to the lake. There was one parking lot we could find tucked back off the road but it seemed like it only led to hiking trails and we were certainly not prepared for a hike. We did try a road we thought might lead us to the lake, but we ended up on a private road and as we were turning around (on a road clearly not designed for three point turns), we got this shot that appeared that we were going to have a Michael Scott experience of driving the car into the lake.

Next we found the iconic “Penn Paper” tower downtown, also featured in the opening credits of the show, though one side of the tower’s sign has been changed, much to my enjoyment.


Our final stop on the trip was lunch at “Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe” (from “Launch Party”), which was incredible. The pizza was awesome and the atmosphere was really cool too.


We’ll definitely be back to Scranton in the future to check some more locations off the list: the Lackawanna Coal Mine (from “Health Care”), the Anthracite Museum (from the “Lazy Scranton” video Michael played during “The Merger”), the town of Dunmore (from a couple of different episodes, “Product Recall” and “Branch Closing”) and a couple of restaurants there, and Lake Wallenpaupack (from “Booze Cruise”) among a few other things. Overall, we had an unbelievably awesome time and the trip was something that every die-hard fan of “The Office” should definitely experience at some point!

Stay real Scranton, alright?
Peace.
