Travelsmartplanet

If you like to dip your toes into casino waters, head to the Hollywood Casino Perryville, the first gaming facility to open in the state of Maryland. Smaller in size, not too noisy  and a friendly atmosphere makes for a pleasurable experience.

With over 850 slots, there is a good mix of classic favorites and some of the newest technology. including the Ellen (Degeneres) video slot machine. There are also 20 tables highlighting classic casino games. They also offer off-track betting.

If you’re like us and prefer to do a little shopping instead of trying your luck, step inside the Rodeo Drive Gift Shop for a good selection of Maryland souvenirs, collectibles from Hollywood’s classic movies , unique gifts and souvenir Hollywood Casino items.

As for eats, the Celebrity Bar and Grill, casual dining venue, features a variety of entrees each with its own special flair. Celebrity Bar and Grill offers FREE live entertainment every Saturday night and weekly trivia contests and karaoke nights.

Guests must be 21 Years or older to enter the Casino, restaurants and shops.

Location: Hollywood Casino, 1201 Chesapeake Overlook Pkwy, Perryville, MD 21903
Hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Tel: 410-378-8500
hollywoodcasinoperryville.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: seececil.org

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If you are an animal lover, this show is for you. Popovich Comedy Pet Theater is a family-oriented blend of the unique comedy and juggling skills of Gregory Popovich, and the talents of his furry costars.

Featuring European-style circus extravaganza including physical comedy, juggling, acrobats from the Moscow Circus, along with mimes, contortionists and jaw dropping juggling by internationally acclaimed award winner Gregory Popovich. There are more than 30 pets in the show, including highly intelligent dogs, house cats, a variety of birds and a miniature horse, each one has been rescued from animal shelter. The animals show off their dexterity in a variety of unbelievable stunts and skits, including “The Dog Classroom,” “The Amazing House-Cats,” and “The Animal Train Station.” 

Popovich, a fifth generation circus performer who learned early on how to develop strong bonds with animals, has rescued a majority of his performers from shelters all over the country, and has transformed them into Las Vegas stars. He is a gold medal winner in Paris, France and a special award winner in Monte Carlo. Gregory and his pets were finalists on “America’s Got Talent”, were guests on TV shows with Jay Leno, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson and was a feature on Animal Planet. Do not miss this opportunity to see this unique family-friendly show featuring this legendary circus entertainer and his furry friends.

Location: Carolina Civic Center Historic Theater, 315 North Chestnut St., Lumberton, NC 28358
Date: Thurs., Feb 2. 2017
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Tel: 910-738-4339
carolinaciviccenter.com/event/popovich-comedy-pet-theater/#.WEg1Rn2rHfc
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: lumberton-nc.com

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Monster Jam® brings high-octane entertainment to fans around the country, offering a most action-packed live event on four wheels.

Celebrating 25 years of adrenaline-fueled family amusement, Monster Jam combines spontaneous entertainment with the ultimate off-road, motorsport competition.   World-class drivers compete in front of capacity crowds in both monster truck racing and freestyle competitions.

Monster Jam features some of the most recognizable trucks around including Grave Digger®, Max-DTM, El Toro Loco® and Monster Mutt®, Bad News Travels Fast, Aftershock,  Krazy Train and Mechanical Mischief.

These Monster Jam scenes leave you on the edge of your seat, with competitors performing jaw-dropping displays of gravity-defying feats,  thrilling fans with freestyle, racing, donuts, wheelies and exhilarating action.

For the ultimate Monster Jam® motorsports experience, consider the Pit Party which provides unprecedented access to the Monster Jam trucks and drivers – you can meet the drivers, get their autographs, take photos and see the trucks up close. Pit Passes are sold separately in addition to your admission ticket and is available for the Saturday, February 4th 1 pm performance only.

To buy tickets: ticketmaster.com/venueartist/114999/1542376?brand=florencecc&camefrom=cfc_florence_website_MonsterJam17

photo credit: Feld Entertainment

Location: Florence Civic Center, 3300 West Radio Dr., Florence, SC 29501
Dates & Times: Friday, Feb 3rd: 7pm, Sat, Feb 4th: 1 pm & 7pm
Tel: 843-679-9417
florenceciviccenter.com
monsterjam.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: visitflo.com

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This year marks the 55th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The competitive 24-hour continuous sports car race executed on the track’s 3.56-mile road course is a perfect battle between machine, driver and time. This race inaugurates the three weeks of race action for Budweiser Speedweeks with great racing, carnivals, car show and live bands and other entertainment.

Since 1962, racing legends from around the world have come to Daytona to compete in a grueling 24-hour marathon. The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is infamously relentless on both driver and machine as sleep-deprived crews perform mechanical phenomenons. From sunrise to sunset, fans will watch drivers compete against a brigade of  adversaries that span the auto racing universe in the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race of the season.

Each team is comprised of four drivers and no drivers are allowed to be in a car for more than four hours during a six-hour time frame. However, each driver must drive for at least four hours and 30 minutes throughout the 24-hour period. Crew chiefs and crew members will also rotate throughout the event.

When the 24-hour time span concludes, the team that has wheeled the most miles in each class of cars – Prototype, Prototype Challenge, GT Daytona, GT Le Mans – will win their respective divisions. The race begins at 2:40 pm on Saturday, Jan 28 and concludes on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2:40 pm, giving it the name “24 Hours of Daytona.”

For Schedule and Tickets: daytonainternationalspeedway.com/Events/2017/Rolex-24-At-DAYTONA/Schedule.aspx
Photo Credit:  Barberstock

Location: Daytona International Speedway, 1801 W. International Speedway Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL 32118
Date: Sat, Jan 28 – Sun,  Jan 29, 2017
Time:  Jan 28th -6:30AM Fanzone Opens – Jan 29th 2:40PM FINISH – 55th Rolex 24
Tel: 386-253-7223
daytonainternationalspeedway.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: daytonabeach.com

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Why not stay at a hotel that has embraces a piece of Southern history –   Inn at Mulberry Grove. Mulberry Grove was the name of the plantation where Eli Whitney arrived as a tutor for widow Mrs. Nathaniel Greene’s children. Her hubby was 2nd in command to Washington, and had been given The Mulberry Grove Plantation as a gift from the spoils of the Revolutionary War.

Whitney was no average tutor. A Yale graduate, he tinkered with inventions, and recognized the need to speed up the process of separating cotton seeds from cotton fibers. He gained worldwide recognition for inventing the cotton gin, which revolutionized the South’s cotton industry. During the Civil War, General Sherman burned down Greene’s original house, but now you can stay in this Inn on the same land.

There’s a touch of European elegance here, with gilded mirrors and dark wood furnishings. The hot breakfast with sausage, biscuits, grits and waffles can be taken in the courtyard. There’s a guest laundry, and it’s budget friendly.

Location: Inn at Mulberry Grove, 101 O’Leary Road, Port Wentworth GA 31407
Tel: 912-965-9666
innatmulberrygrove.com
For Regional Information, Restaurants & Attractions: visitsavannah.com

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It’s been a local favorite for almost 25 years, Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival still has legs; frog legs that is. Bring your family and friends and enjoy live music, crafters, midway rides, games, bull riding, petting zoo, pony rides and the main event – the Frog Legs and Gator Tails. 

Fellsmere has been proclaimed Frog Leg Capital of the World and The Frog Leg Festival holds 2 Guinness Book World Records for The Most Frog Legs served in the course of one business day and the Largest Frog Leg Festival in the world. With over 80,000 attendees serving over 7,000 pounds of frog legs and 2,000 pounds of gator, the Frog Leg Festival has come a long way from its humble roots of 400 dinners.

There’s something for everyone. Money raised at this event goes towards the recreational needs of the children of Fellsmere.

Free Admission. Free Parking. Free Shuttle Parking at MESA park Saturday 1pm – 11:30pm and Sunday 1pm – 6:30 pm.

Location: Fellsmere City Complex, 22 South Orange St., Fellsmere, FL 32948
Dates: Jan 19th – 22nd, 2017
Hours: Thurs, Fri 4pm – 11pm, Sat 10am – 11pm, Sun 11am – 6pm
Tel: 772-571-0250
froglegfestival.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: indianriverchamber.com
sebastianchamber.com

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If you’re a fan of architecture and design you’ll want to check out The Gropius House. Walter Gropius, the founder of the highly influential Bauhaus School and one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century designed this striking home in 1938 after moving from Germany to Massachusetts to teach at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Modest in scale, the house was revolutionary in impact. It combined the traditional elements of New England architecture — wood, brick, and fieldstone, with innovative materials rarely used in domestic settings at that time: glass block, acoustical plaster, and chrome banisters, along with the latest technology in fixtures.

At the Gropius House, Bauhaus ideals remain alive, and throughout Gropius’s life, he and his wife Ise continued to add newly designed furnishings that reflected their belief in the marriage of design and industry.  In keeping with Bauhaus philosophy, every aspect of the house and its surrounding landscape was planned for maximum efficiency and simplicity of design. 

Two years after Mrs. Gropius’s death in 1983, the Gropius House opened as a historic house museum. The house contains a significant collection of furniture designed by Marcel Breuer  and fabricated in the Bauhaus workshops. The house also contains works by Eero Saarinen, Joan Miró, and Herbert Bayer that were given as gifts to Walter Gropius. With all the family possessions still in place, the house has an cohesiveness rarely found in house museums.

All images are “Courtesy of Historic New England.”

Location: Gropius House. 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, Mass. 01773
Dates: Sat and Sun, until May 31
Hours: 11 – 4pm, Tours on the hour
Tel: 781-259-8098
historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/Gropius%20House
For Regional Information, Restaurants & Attractions: merrimackvalley.org

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Need a fun place to entertain the little ones for a few hours? Take them to Fascinate U Children’s Museum and Amusement Center.

This children’s museum was designed to be a hands-on experience, all scaled to the size of children,  in which they try to connect young minds to their future through interactive experiences. Children can explore their world the way they learn best-through creative role-playing, and interaction with each other and their environment.

The museum is arranged as a “mini-city” where children can pretend while learning about jobs in the community. Some of their exhibits include: the Farm, the Army Fort, the Fire Station, the Post Office, the Grocery Store and a Stage Area.

In addition, they have a toddler room specially designed for children four and under , constructed as a mini-house, where little ones can develop their cognitive skills.

This is a special place that makes learning fun.

Location: Fascinate U Children’s Museum, 116 Green St, Fayetteville, NC 28301
Hours: Mon: CLOSED, Tues: 9- 5, Wed: 9- 7, Thur: 9- 5, Fri: 9- 5, Sat: 10- 5, Sun: 12- 5
Tel: 910-829-9171
fascinate-u.com
For Regional Information, Restaurants & Attractions: visitfayettevillenc.com

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How appropriate to house an aviation museum at the oldest continuously operated airport in the world, The College Park Aviation Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The first person to greet you is Wilbur Wright -who else? This animatronic man tells you how he came to this airfield in 1909 to teach military officers how to fly. The gallery contains historic and reproduction aircraft associated with the history of the airfield, highlighting the display of unique aircraft and artifacts and tells the story of the airport’s many 1st in flight to today.

College Park Aviation Museum is family-friendly and filled with hands-on, interactive exhibits for children of all ages. Touch, explore, and sit in the cockpit of their “Imagination Plane“, a 1939 blue Taylorcraft. Fly away in a 1911 Model B Flight Simulator where you can fly over this airport using hand controls and state-of-the-art visuals. Visit their hands-on room to learn about flight and to dress like a pilot.

Look for exhibits on the first US Postal Air flight in 1918 and the first controlled helicopter flight by H. Berliner. The airport runway is just out side the rear glass windows of the museum, so you can watch take-offs or landings as today’s pilots take to the sky.

Location: College Park Aviation Museum, 1985 Corporal Frank Scott Drive, College Park, MD 20740
Hours: Daily 10am – 5pm (Closed Sun, Jan 1st)
Tel: 301- 864- 6029
collegeparkaviationmuseum.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions:
visitmaryland.org/city/college-park

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