CHALKIN' IT UP
Calling Artists of all ages! You are invited to participate in "Chalkin' It Up" at the 12th annual SPRING FEVER IN THE GARDEN Festival this coming April 13th & 14th, 2013
Draw and design your own sidewalk chalk masterpiece at "Chalkin' It Up", April 13th, in front of Winter Garden's beautiful City Hall.
EXCITING 3-DAY 2013 LINE UP!
Friday, March 15, 2013 – Irish Spring Break Pre-Party
OUTSIDE TENT OPENS AT 5 P.M.!
5:00pm IRISH BUSKERS
8:00pm BAGPIPERS
9:00pm FUNK BAND “BLACK HONKEYS”
TTreasure Island’s Master Cup Sand Sculpting Competition and Music Festival has arrived. November 15 – 18, 2012 the beaches are full of people, bands, and a whole slew of fun things to do, and last but not least Sand Sculptures! The Artists will be competing for cash prizes from $3000 for first place, $2000 for second place, etcetera. They are from around the world – and YES for any of you young brave Artists out there growing up in these changing times – they MAKE A LIVING with their art.
$10 All day Parking on the beach at 112th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard.
Many think our troops are returning home and that the war is over. To the contrary, there are still 101,000 troops in Afghanistan alone. While approximately 30,000 of them are scheduled to be withdrawn by December of 2012, which will still leave close to 70,000 men and women in an increasingly dangerous war zone.
The University of South Florida, in collaboration with Student Veterans Association and Circle K International are coordinating the “Remember Our Heroes Concert and Field Day” charity event on Sept. 8th 2012 to benefit the nonprofit organization, Soldiers Angels and therein the military personnel serving overseas and their families.
Baseball season has returned, and so will the Humane Society of Pinellas fundraiser Bark at the Ball Park. At their first event of the season on May 2nd, owners are allowed to bring their dogs to a Clearwater Threshers game at Bright House Field, 601 Old Coachman Road, Clearwater where the Threshers will face the Daytona Cubs at 1:00 p.m.
In earlier issues I reported on my first skydiving adventures out of Vandenberg Airport, now known as Tampa Executive Airport. I felt cocky with the first of my training jumps under my belt, and wasted no time practicing for my second. That too being uneventful, I took no break and rushed to get my third and fourth jumps in before calling it a day. And what a day! There is something to skydiving, maybe the adrenaline, that by the end of the day has you dropping from exhaustion. I set up my tent and turned in early.
On March 27th and 28th, local, national and international artists converged on Safety Harbor to turn the sidewalks of Main Street into a colorful canvas. The Second Annual Bloom N Garden N Chalk Fest provided an exciting showcase for temporary sidewalk masterpieces to be created with pastel chalk.
The Friends of Island Parks, a non-profit which supports Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin, will hold their annual event, Island Earth Days, on April 17th and 18th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on both days.
“Pets on Cleveland Street?” you say. “You must be barking mad!” Au contraire. An estimated 600 people brought their pets to downtown Clearwater. There were dogs of all kinds and sizes, cats, hedgehogs, ferrets and even iguanas. They came to participate in the 5th Annual Pet Festival, an event put on by the Clearwater Downtown Development Board.
The Humane Society of Pinellas (HSP) will be holding their signature event, the Mutt Strut on beautiful Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin, FL on Saturday, March 20th from 10 am until 3 pm. This event offers a fun and relaxed environment with plenty of vendors, games and hundreds of participants for the mile long strut along the Osprey Trail at noon - on the nose.
Clearwater Downtown Development Board’s Fifth Annual Clearwater Pet Festival will bring some of the community’s most competitive pets, owners and animal lovers to Clearwater’s Cleveland Street District, March 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The 18th Annual Easter Egg Hunt will take place on Easter Sunday, April 4th at 12:00 noon until 2:00 p.m. The hunt itself starts at 12:30 p.m. sharp, so be there early!
For one night, the Museum of Science and Industry’s (MOSI) rule of “food and drink prohibited” was broken. MOSI’s Einstein on Food and Wine fundraiser offered samplings of food and wine throughout the museum from local restaurants, including Tinatapa’s, Whole Foods, The Melting Pot, and The Raw Food Fairy. In addition to the food and wine tasting, a silent auction was held.
On February 6th, The Humane Society of Pinellas held the adorably named Ultimate Tailgate Pawty to provide Super Bowl-friendly entertainment for man’s best friend. Crest Lake Park was crowded with families and their dogs, all looking like they were having a good time, with vendors hawking everything from funnel cake to feathered hats.
The Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza on January 23rd allowed kids and families to let out their inner pirate – in a safe, family friendly and alcohol-free environment.
I was determined to continue skydiving after the thrill of my first jump, so less than three months passed before I was again at Skydive City, trying to cram all of AFF, or Accelerated Free Fall training, into a two-day stay. The seven-jump course, conducted by professional skydiving instructors, is the first step toward a skydiving license.
The Florida State Fair, which is always in Tampa and always in February, offers a wide variety of entertainment, offering something for everyone.
The Human Society of Pinellas will be celebrating the “big game” and the join in on the fun of tailgating in their own unique way – with the Ultimate Tailgate Pawty to be held in Clearwater’s Crest Lake Park on February 6th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is beginning to take shape. Set to open in the Spring of 2010, the Orlando attraction based off the popular books and movies, will take people on a journey into the fictional world first created by J.K. Rowling.
The pirate invasion of The City of Tampa by pirate Jose Gaspar and his men will be celebrated for the 106th consecutive year on January 30th with the Gasparilla Pirate Festival.
On January 23rd, the Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza will provide alcohol-free family friendly entertainment and celebrate the return of Gasparilla in Tampa Bay. The event will take place on Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa the week before the Gasparilla Pirate Fest, held in the same location on January 31st.
4th Friday Clearwater has gone to the dogs! This January, GPA of Tampa Bay, the organization who finds homes for retired racing Greyhounds, will be the benefiting charity at the downtown Clearwater street party, encouraging owners of the famous greyhounds to bring their furry four-legged friends to interact with the crowd for a doggone good time! The event will take place this Friday, January 22nd from 5:30-10pm at the 500 & 600 blocks of Cleveland Street. The live entertainment will be by Kenny McGee and the event is free to the public.
The 15th annual Einstein on Food & Wine will take place on February 20th from 7 to 10. The event, hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), will bring a bit of the Italian Renaissance to the Tampa Bay area with the silent auction fundraiser for MOSI’s educational programs.
A week had passed since my first visit to Zephyrhills. The sky was cloudy but the forecast promised clear skies, and both my buddy and I were too dead set on getting this jump in.