St. Baldrick’s Day!

My husband Mike, at Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill, July 2010

Have you ever heard of St. Baldrick’s Day?  It is an annual event that is usually held at around the halfway point to the next St. Patrick’s Day.  Volunteers have their heads shaved in public to show support for kids with cancer who lose their hair due to chemo, and to raise money for childhood cancer research.

This year, my husband Mike will be participating in a St. Baldrick’s Day event, as a shavee.  As you can see, he doesn’t have much hair to begin with, but he’ll be growing it out for the event.

He is a part of Team Last Call, who will be getting “buzzed” at the Wild Rover Celtic Festival, to be held on Sunday, September 12, at the Wild Rover Pub in Manchester, NH.  The event also includes a 5K road race, which benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  And of course, there is the entertainment, many great bands and dance groups will be performing.

Admission to the event is free, but you have to buy your own food and beer at the event if you want any.  And hopefully, you will want to make donations to the charities involved.  Parking is free in the garage across the street from the Rover.  For more info, visit the event page.  They had the first annual Celtic Fest last year, and it was a lot of fun.  It looks to be bigger and better this year!

If you can’t make it to the event in person, you can always donate to Mike’s cause online, at his official St. Baldrick’s page.  There will be pictures of all head-shavings posted, so you’ll be able to see who really got shaved!  Thanks in advance!

1964 – The Tribute

How would you like to see what Rolling Stone magazine calls the “Best Beatles Tribute on Earth”?  And what if I told you that it is not only in very easy reach, right here in New England, but tickets are just $10, as well?

Yes!  It’s true!  1964…The Tribute will be playing on this coming Thursday, August 12, at MerchantsAuto.com Stadium, home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, in beautiful downtown Manchester.  The team is out of town this week, so now the grounds crew and other staff are busy gearing up for this exciting concert.  No, there won’t be any patio cushions or anything, seating will be in the regular seating bowl only.  Not on the field, as they did for the Bob Dylan concert that was there a few years ago.

All tickets are $10, and there was some limited reserved seating available; that might be sold out by now, you’ll have to check.  All other seats are general admission, which means you can sit anywhere you like, except for the reserved sections.  We have our regular seats that we do for the ball games, and no doubt we’ll have to kick people out of them.  And so it goes…

Anyhoo, this concert is a benefit for Manchester’s gorgeous Palace Theatre; if you have never seen a show there, you are missing out.  No, this concert will not be there, or course, it will be at the ballpark, but I’m sure you will be able to learn much more about the theatre at this concert.

So this concert is only a couple of days away, so if you want to go, get your tickets now, before they sell out.  Gates open at 5PM (4:30 PM for Fisher Cats season ticket holders), and no doubt the Sam Adams Bar & Grill will be open for your drinking and dining enjoyment.  The concert itself will begin at 7PM, and there will be an Atlas Fireworks show right after the concert.

Please visit nhfishercats.com for more info and to purchase tickets.

Mike and I have always loved the Beatles, and are greatly looking forward to this concert!

Yarmouth Clam Festival

Looking for something cool to do this weekend?  Why not take a trip up to Yarmouth, Maine, and enjoy the annual Yarmouth Clam Festival.  This takes place from Friday, July 16 through Sunday, July 18.  In addition to great food, there will also be live music, arts & craft shows, horse & wagon rides, trolley tours, and much more.  See the website for details.

And of course, there is the traditional Clam Festival parade on Friday night.  This event is so popular that people are already setting up their lawn chairs to reserve the best place to sit.

Admission to the Festival is free, and proceeds from parking and your purchases at various booths will go to support local community stuff.

So don’t spend another boring weekend at the computer, researching stuff like treatment for adult acne and the like. We’re supposed to get a halfway decent weekend, so come on out and have fun!

Learn Your Beer!

I know it’s only July, and both the Maine and New Hampshire Brewers Festivals are months away.  But it’s not too soon to order your tickets to either or both of these great events.  In fact, the sooner, the better, as they always sell out.  It’s usually best to get your tickets sometime during the summer, so you won’t be disappointed.

I actually pre-ordered our tickets to thew Maine fest at last year’s Maine fest.  Haven’t gotten my tix yet, but no doubt they will mail them out in plenty of time.  I think this year we might go to the Dinner With The Brewers event the night before the actual festival.  This will be held at the Portland Clarion Hotel on Friday, November 5.  I think we were planning to come up on Friday, anyway, and stay over for two nights at the Inn at St. John.  We would be going to the afternoon session of the festival on Saturday, November 6.  This weekend usually coincides with single game tickets for the Portland Sea Dogs going on sale.  From the Inn at St. John, we have to walk right past the ticket office at Hadlock Field to get to the Portland Expo, where the beer festival takes place.

The New Hampshire festival will be held the following weekend at the Manchester Radisson Hotel.  As with the Maine festival, there will be a Dinner With The Brewers on Friday, November 12, followed by two tasting sessions on Saturday.  I don’t think we’ll be going to the dinner for this one, because I don’t think Mike can take two Fridays off in a row.  I think we will just go to the evening session of the festival on Saturday, stay overnight, and go home the next day.  But that could change, it’s still a long ways off.

Although they will be offering special package deals which include lodging at the Radisson, I don’t think we’ll be taking advantage of that this year.  Since we always stay at the Hilton Garden Inn when we’re up for Fisher Cats game weekends, I’ve accumulated a boatload of HHonors points.  I got an email from them about “Point-Stretcher” periods, where I could redeem points for 40% less than usual at certain hotels and certain times.  I checked, and the Manchester HGI is not only included, but so is the weekend of the beer festival.  So that’s where we’ll be staying…you can’t get any better than FREE!  The HGI also has a free shuttle for guests, and last year, they were more than happy to take us to the Radisson…much appreciated since it was raining that night!

This will be the second year of the NH festival.  At this one, they have various beer tasting seminars, in addition to the regular tasting booths.  They promise to have even more of these this year than they did last year…but I wouldn’t look for anything too weird, such as the best face creams to use with your favorite beer. But they did have an interesting beer & chocolate pairing seminar, which was cool. Many people would not think about pairing beer and chocolate, but it definitely can be done, with very tasty results!

November will be here before we know it, so the time to start making plans is now!

4th of July at Old Sturbridge Village

Are you looking for an interesting way to spend Independence Day?  Don’t want to deal with the mob scenes that will no doubt be all over Boston, especially at the Esplanade?  Then why not come out to Old Sturbridge Village, where you can enjoy not one, but TWO special holiday programs?

Come for the day, and enjoy an 1830′s Independence Day.  Or come for the evening program, and enjoy entertainment, games, and to cap it all off – FIREWORKS!  Or choose to come for the day, and stay for the evening!  Please note that two separate admission fees are involved.  Daytime activities are regular Museum admission costs, a separate ticket is needed for the evening program.

Regular Museum admission prices are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors (65+), $7 for kids (3-17), free, for kids under 3.  Museum members are admitted free.  For the evening program, current prices are $10 for members and $12 for non-members.  Kids under 3 free.  As of July 1, all tickets will be $15.  This sells out every year, so get your tickets ASAP!