Archive for the 'Festival' Category
Coeur d’Alene to the North Pole: An Idaho resort goes all out for Christmas
November 21, 2009 6:49am
When not in Vegas, 1.5-million lights can only mean someone’s putting on one heck of a holiday party. Northern Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Resort, which claims to hold the world’s tallest living Christmas tree, puts on a family-friendly Holiday Light Show annually on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. This year, the event runs Nov. 27 to Jan. 1.
One of the show’s highlights is a “Journey to the North Pole” boat cruise, which includes a visit with Santa at the North Pole Toy Workshop. And that towering tree? At 161 feet, the green giant beats, in height, the 76-foot Norway spruce in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. What’s more, each ornament on the Coeur d’Alene tree will be 10 feet tall.
The following accommodations package offered by the resort makes a Christmas-themed trip easy.
Deal: The “Holiday Light Show B&B” package, which starts at $145 per night (pre-tax), includes your room, two tickets to the “North Pole” and breakfast for two. Read the rest of this entry »
Newport Beach’s Christmas Boat Parade: Plan ahead to cruise in its midst
November 18, 2009 3:21pm
If you’re not going to be in the popular Christmas Boat Parade in Newport Beach, then one of the next best places to see the lights and action may be aboard a Hornblower yacht.
On five consecutive nights, Dec. 16-20, the Christmas Boat Parade Dinner Cruise, put on by Hornblower Cruises & Events, sails “right through the middle of the entire parade,” said the company’s director of marketing, Sara Copping.
And if you want one of these prime lookout spots, you’d better plan ahead. These cruises sell out every year, usually one or two weeks before sail date, said Copping.
The cruises last from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and cost $115 per person (pre-tax). You’ll get a glass of champagne upon boarding, a four-course seated meal and live entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »
Marriott New Orleans and other hotels offer ‘Papa Noel’ deals
November 16, 2009 5:59am
With sleigh bells ringing –– and surely an appetite for etouffee –– Papa Noel (that’s Santa Claus to us out-of-towners) is readying himself for a holiday destination guaranteed to be brimful with festive cheer.
Boasting a full holiday calendar in December, New Orleans will be offering its visitors free jazz and gospel cathedral concerts; caroling; themed meals and free cooking demonstrations; and the nightly Celebration of the Oaks tour in City Park.
And, as has become tradition, numerous hotels about town are offering “Papa Noel” rates for December stays. For a full list of participants, see the Christmas pages on New Orleans’ tourism site. One such deal, by New Orleans Marriott, is detailed below.
Deal: This Marriott, located on Canal Street in the French Quarter, is offering “Papa Noel” rates from $89 to $159 per night (pretax) for stays Dec. 1-24, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Yosemite: Bracebridge Dinner begins Dec. 13 [Updated]
November 13, 2009 11:47am
Squire Bracebridge and his household request your attendance at a most unusual feast this holiday season, but you’d better book a seat soon. The famous and long-running dinner at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee hotel, though pricey, is always popular. Last year, most of the eight evenings sold out. [Corrected at 11:53 a.m. Nov. 17: Previous versions of this post, along with the headline, said the dinner was in its 80th or 84th season. It began in 1927 but missed some war years.]
In recounting her experience at a 2008 Bracebridge Dinner, L.A. Times staff writer Sharon Bernstein called the tradition, which has been going since 1927 (it took a two-year hiatus during World War II), “part corny, part historical, wonderfully musical, very California and perfectly Christmas.”
[A scene from last year's Bracebridge Dinner is shown above. Click here for a related photo gallery.]
For the event, the Ahwanee’s Dining Room transforms into the Great Hall at Squire Bracebridge’s manor, where guests are treated to a four-hour, seven-course Christmas feast and pageant featuring more than 100 performers. Read the rest of this entry »
Halloween events, from fun to frightful, in Southern California
October 25, 2009 6:00am
What are you doing for Halloween? Don’t be the last one left indecisively standing (or you might turn into a pumpkin). Here, we treat you to a bagful of Southern California options to consider for super-spooky good times. Some are great for the little children; others—like, perhaps, Scareview Farms, from where the above image originates—are not.
Balboa Park, San Diego
Museums at Balboa Park are going all out for Family Day on Oct. 31. Attractions include costume contests and parades, as well as museum-specific activities such as a science-themed pumpkin contest at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center; craft sessions to build paper pumpkins with parachutes at San Diego Air and Space Museum; and a scavenger hunt at the San Diego Automotive Museum
Queen Mary, Long Beach
Ongoing most evenings through Nov. 1, “Shipwreck: 15 Nights of Terror” at the Queen Mary seems set to scare the wits out of you (just have to look at the event website for a taste). The nighttime event —not recommended for mortals younger than 12— features vampires and ghosts, among its ship full of creepy creatures, and mazes on board and onshore. Read the rest of this entry »
Santa Barbara: Family-friendly Halloween fun with Boo at the Zoo
October 21, 2009 2:25pm
You might hear howls and growls among the boos and hisses, but Santa Barbara Zoo’s Halloween event promises to be more merry than scary. Boo at the Zoo, Oct. 23-25, is designed for adult-accompanied children, ages 2 to 12, and this year the theme is “Wild Wild West.”
Cowboys and cowgirls —as well as pirates, princesses, fairies, trolls and mermaids — will be among the more than 75 characters running rampant during the festivities, which will happen from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. each day. Mother Goose will be on hand to tell stories. Attractions will include a haunted mine and a nighttime train ride. And mazes and games and candy and prizes will all be part of the fun.
Of course, the setting itself offers its own attractions. There will be opportunities for animal encounters, and zookeepers will be giving talks. At the California Trails exhibit, which opened this year, attendees can see endangered or threatened animals, including four rare California condors.
This is a kid-centric event, and costumes are most definitely encouraged. Read the rest of this entry »
Halloween: Family-friendly haunt at Calico Ghost Town, near Barstow
October 16, 2009 2:10pm
Where better to rustle up old ghosts than a ghost town. The erstwhile silver-mining destination of Calico, six miles northeast of Barstow, is hosting its annual Ghost Haunt for two weekends beginning Oct. 23.
The ghost town — which was developed in 1881, booming till 1896 and deserted by 1904 — is a year-round attraction for its 19th century mining-camp sites, some original and others reconstructed. But this bit of the Old West apparently gets even more spirited for Ghost Haunt, when the attraction is set to inspire excited spooks and shivers from Halloween aficionados of all ages.
Family-friendly features include a haunted mine and a ride in a real coffin, as well as activities like trick-or-treating, costume and coloring contests, pumpkin carving, panning for gold in “bloody” water and a reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hotel deals for Ojai-Ventura film festival, Nov. 5-8
October 8, 2009 11:57am
What’s better than watching a few good independent films? Seeing them in conjunction with a relaxing weekender, perhaps. It may be no Sundance; in fact, you may not have ever even heard of it. But the Ojai-Ventura International Film Festival, with lauded documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America” among its features, is coming up Nov. 5-8 and is the perfect excuse to give yourself a little getaway to the charming small town of Ojai, in Ventura County.
Most of the festival’s screening venues are in Ojai, though films are also being shown at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, 15 miles southwest of Ojai.
See indie and classic flicks by night and/or day, and, out of the theaters, take in the area’s other offerings, which include good food, great hikes, day spas, a mellow vibe and spectacular sunsets. Following are a few festival-related packages being offered by hotels in the region. Contact venues directly for more details, cancellation policies, etc.: Read the rest of this entry »
‘National Parks’: Screenings, events and travel deals related to the Ken Burns documentary
September 25, 2009 2:26pm
On Sunday, the new Ken Burns documentary “National Parks: America’s Best Idea” will begin its 12-hour trek (in two-hour segments) through the wilds of American living rooms, coloring TV screens everywhere with the sights and ’scapes of our public lands.
The documentary may have — even before you’ve set eyes upon it — gotten you itching to visit a national park. And that’s likely just fine with Burns. As Times writer Mary McNamara put it in her review of the “gorgeous and exhaustive” film: “The main goal of Burns and his co-creator Dayton Duncan appears to be launching people off their backsides and into the wilderness.”
At the more popular parks, you may want to prepare for lots of company on the trail. But thankfully, since the U.S. is home to 391 national parks, there should be enough love to go around. Below are details to plan a viewing — or better yet, an inspired trip, so you can see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
Where & when to see it
The documentary will start airing on PBS on Sunday at 8 p.m.
And there are plenty of opportunities to see portions of it out and about. Read the rest of this entry »
Moon cake alert: Mid-Autumn Moon Festivals in L.A. and beyond
September 24, 2009 1:19pm
It’s about time for the Mid-Autumn Festival, an important harvest event for Chinese and Vietnamese communities internationally. Every year, for about 3,000 years now, people come together to celebrate, dance and eat — among other traditional foods — moon cakes, which are dense pastries filled with red bean, lotus seeds and salty egg yolk.
The annual holiday occurs on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which this year is Oct. 3. San Francisco’s Chinatown is ahead of the game, having already celebrated the popular cultural event this month. This coming weekend, you can partake of the festivities in Chicago or San Jose (both on Sept. 27), among other places.
But for the Los Angeles celebration, you’ve got a little more time to ready your taste buds. The free, annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3, 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m. at Central Plaza in Chinatown. Read the rest of this entry »
