Category: Connecticut Travel

Get up, turn off your electronic devices and come on down to Stepping Stones Museum for Children for a free day of play on Saturday, September 17. In honor of Nickelodeon’s 13th Annual Worldwide Day of Play, BooZoo™, the museum’s fictional puppy mascot for early childhood learning and literacy, is hosting an action-packed day with free museum admission and activities throughout Mathews Park. The event will feature outdoor field games, interactive sports and fitness demonstrations, awesome educational activities and amazing live performances – all for free and guaranteed to keep your family moving.

Join Stepping Stones to celebrate what we do best – play. There will be a fun magic show and a special gymnastics performance. Children can take a martial arts or Pound® for Families class, get your groove on at our rocking dance party featuring local bands in the Celebration Courtyard and participate in their favorite lawn games on the Great Lawn at Mathews Park. There will also be a park-wide book walk where visitors can exercise their bodies and their brains as well as a “Fish Parade” with artist James Grashow and our neighbors from the Center for Contemporary Printmaking. There will be plenty of experts on hand from the community and other sponsor organizations to provide ideas on ways families can take charge of their health. Additionally, all canine friends, accompanied by owners, are welcome to take part in special Worldwide Day of Play pooch programming that will take place in the Celebration Courtyard and Community Garden.

Now in its 13th year, Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play is an entire day dedicated to active play. The day is part of a larger movement to reduce childhood obesity and reinforce lessons about the tremendous benefits of healthy lifestyles among children. Stepping Stones is proud to serve as a local host of this event for the ninth time.

“We are thrilled to be hosting the Worldwide Day of Play here at Stepping Stones for the ninth time,” said Robert Townes, Director of Community Advocacy for Stepping Stones Museum for Children. “As a children’s museum, we recognize and value the important role of play in a child’s development. We are dedicated to helping the families that we serve maintain their commitment to healthy living. With our focus on our Healthy Children, Healthy Communities® initiative, our status as a Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens institution, our increased emphasis on healthier options in our cafe, our tremendous array of special programming and our beautiful park location, Stepping Stones is truly the perfect stage for a spectacular day of health-based family fun.”

Make the most of this day-long worldwide movement all about the power of play. For more information, call 203 899 0606 or visit www.steppingstonesmuseum.org/dayofplay.

Important local support of the Worldwide Day of Play at Stepping Stones Museum for Children is being provided by Silver Medal Sponsor Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital; Bronze Medal Sponsors People’s United Bank and Subway® and Blue Ribbon Sponsors Coastal Orthopaedics, The Golf Performance Center, Melissa & Doug and Outdoor Sports Center.

This special day of free play is a component of the museum’s Open Arms Accessibility Initiative. For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

In the 17th century European travelers to the Middle East collected examples of marbled paper and bound them into alba amicorum, which means “books of friendship” in Latin, and is a forerunner of the modern autograph album. Eventually the technique for making the papers reached Europe, where they became a popular covering material not only for book covers and end-papers, but also for lining chests, drawers, and bookshelves. The marbling of the edges of books was also a European adaptation of the art.

This fall, the Wilton Historical Society is offering a marbling workshop for children ages 6 – 12 on Saturday, September 17 from 11:00 – 12:30. While swirling inks, and dipping paper into solution, they will learn about the history of marbling, which has been practiced for hundreds of years. Putting their freshly marbled paper to good use, kids can make a book cover, either for a book they bring, such as a journal, or for a book provided by the Society. And for a snack – marble cake!

Wilton Historical Society Members $10 per child, maximum $25 per family; Non-members $15 per child, maximum $35 per family. Please register: info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257. Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897.

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Waterbury’s cultural gem, the Palace Theater, located on 100 East Main Street, is presenting “Weird Al” Yankovic: The Mandatory World Tour on September 18 at 8 pm. Following his wildly successful 2015 tour, four-time Grammy-winning artist “Weird Al” Yankovic has announced the continuation of his Mandatory World Tour in 2016. The tour follows Yankovic’s Grammy-winning album Mandatory Fun, which was the first comedy album in over 50 years to hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and the first comedy album in history to debut at the top spot.

Yankovic is the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history, earning four Grammys and fifteen career nominations. He is best known for his hilariously irreverent parodies of hit songs by the biggest stars in the musical universe, including “Eat It,” “Like A Surgeon,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise,” “White & Nerdy,” and “Tacky.”

Tickets may be purchased online and range from $25 to the Czar VIP Experience that sells for $269. This experience includes: • One (1) Premium Reserved ticket in the first ten (10) rows • After-show Meet & Greet with Weird Al • Invitation to pre-show party in the Mandatory Lounge with our Minister of Propaganda/DJ and cash bar. Meet fellow comrades. Enlist in entertaining games and contests. Consume snack provisions. Engage in large quantities of Mandatory Fun* • Exclusive Weird Al CZAR Merchandise Gift
• Personally signed Limited-Edition Mandatory World Tour Flag • Special Collector’s Edition of MAD Magazine featuring Al as Guest Editor • Souvenir Tour Laminate and Lanyard • Crowd-free merchandise shopping and • On-site concert host.

The The Mandatory VIP Experience that may be purchased at $139 includes: • One premium reserved ticket in the first 20 rows, • Invitation to pre-show party in the Mandatory Lounge with our Minister of Propaganda/DJ and cash bar. Meet fellow comrades. Enlist in entertaining games and contests. Consume snack provisions. Engage in large quantities of Mandatory Fun.* • Limited-Edition Mandatory World Tour Flag • Special Collector’s Edition of MAD Magazine featuring Al as Guest Editor • Souvenir Tour Laminate and Lanyard • Crowd-free merchandise shopping and • On-site concert host.

For more area event information and where to stay and dine www.litchfieldhills.com

On September 23 something sweet is going on in Thomaston Connecticut at the Railroad Museum of New England located on 242 East Main Street. Haight Brown Vineyard, Fascia’s Chocolates and the Railroad Museum of New England have teamed up and are offering the “Chocolate Decadence Sunset Tour” that is a sure way to indulge in locally made wine and chocolate. This event promises to be an unforgettable experience, because the only other place in the world where you can take a “chocolate” train is in Switzerland.

The event kicks off at 6 p.m. at the Thomaston Station off of Rte. 6 with a reception featuring hor d”oeurves, live music, wine and even wine tastings. The train departs the station at 7:15 p.m. and at 7:30 p.m. there will be a bubbly toast on the face of the scenic Thomaston Dam. Don’t forget to bring your camera or cell phone for photo opportunities.

The trip continues as you pass lovely scenery while savoring fine wines from Haight Vineyard, Connecticut’s first farm winery and chocolates from Fascia’s, a chocolate company in Waterbury that has been making delectable chocolates for more than 50 years.
At 8 p.m. guests arrive for a private tour of Fascia’s Chocolate Company. A visit to Fascia’s gives you the chance to see how these delicacies are made, take a tour, taste treats, even try your hand at making your own custom bar of chocolates, and of course, load up on freshly made chocolates at the factory store. A freshly baked chocolate lava cake will also be served.

Guests depart Fascia’s Chocolate Company at 9:15 and arrive back at the Thomaston Station at 9:30 p.m. The ticket price is $75 per person and includes a scenic train ride, wine, hor d’ oeurves, Fascia’s chocolates, your very own custom bar of chocolate, and dessert.

To reserve your ticket visit http://www.rmne.org. For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

The award winning museum, Institute for American Indian Studies located in Washington Connecticut is hosting a Earth and Sea Clambake and Drumming fundraiser on September 17 at the River Walk Pavilion, 11a School Street in Washington Depot from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Participants of this event are invited to savor indigenous foods traditionally enjoyed by Native Americans such as: lobster, clams, corn, and potatoes amid a festive atmosphere.

A highlight of this event is the music and dances performed by Thunderbird American Indian Dancers. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten Native American men and women descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas tribes. They founded the troupe to keep alive the traditions, songs, and dances they had learned from their parents, and added to their repertoire from other Native Americans living in New York and some who passed through.

Don’t forget to bring your own beverages, drums and rattles to join the fun. Reservations and prepayment to attend this event is required by September 13th.

The cost is $50 for adults; $40 IAIS members; and $10 Children 12 & under (hot dogs, chips & lemonade).

For more information about the Institute for American Indian Studies visit their website for a list of ongoing programs and events. For more area information on what to see and do and where to go www.visitlitchfieldhills.com