DROG – Our Driving Blog | Things we find and do along I-95

VA: Wanna Fling Some Fruitcakes: Visit Science Museum of Virginia

Posted on December 15, 2015 by sandra

Richmond, Va Exit 78: This quirky, annual holiday event at the Science Museum of Virginia takes place Sat, 12/26/2015 – Wed, 12/30/2015 from 9:30 – 5 where they will be conducting unconventional experiments on everyone’s least favorite holiday treat, the fruitcake. Watch in amazement as they burn, drop and freeze fruitcakes.

On Tuesday, December 29th, Build your own catapult or stand back as they celebrate Trebuchets to fling fruitcakes with finesse!

Who would ever think you could watch rats play basketball right on I-95? We did, and you can too. Stopping at the Museum can be an educational break. You can check how the drive is affecting your blood pressure, find out how much you weigh on Mars, or calm down watching fish in aquariums or snakes and lizards slither.

Wanna see a tarantula up close or try a segway? At the Science Unplugged, little ones can build an arch and actually walk on it. Outside there’s an aluminaut, an aluminum submarine, while inside you can watch an Imax dome movie or the planetarium.

Location: The Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 West Broad St., Richmond VA 23220
Museum Hours: Tues to Sat 9:30 – 5 pm, Sunday 11:30 – 5 pm,
Mon, Dec 21, Mon, Dec 28 9:30 am – 5 pm, Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Tel: 804-864-1400
www.smv.org/visit/events/event-details/fruitcake-science
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: visitrichmondva.com

Posted in Connecticut, Entertainment, Fun, Museum, Special Event | Tagged aluminaut, aluminum, aquarium, arch, basketball, blood, break, build, burn, calm, catapult, celebrate, conduct, dome, drive, drop, educational, event, experiment, finessse, fish, fling, freeze, fruitcake, holiday, I-95, IMAX, lizard, Mars, movie, Museum, planetarium, play, pressure, quirky, rat, Richmond, science, segway, slither, snake, submarine, tarantula, treat, Trebuchet, unconventional, unplugged, Virginia, weigh | Leave a comment

MD: Christmas on the Potomac at Gaylord National Resort

Posted on December 14, 2015 by sandra

National Harbor, MD Exit 2: Get in the spirit of the season at the Gaylord National Resort. Be mesmerized by the resort’s holiday decorations with a variety of animated attractions.

At Christmas on the Potomac step inside the magical Christmas village and discover a winter wonderland. Stroll through the Christmas shoppe, take a ride on a carousel, sip hot cocoa, visit the Gingerbread Decorating Corner sponsored by PEEPS ® and enter the world-famous ICE!® attraction featuring Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town. The 15,000 square foot indoor walk-through holiday attraction is made entirely of ice kept at a chilly temperature of nine degrees. Guests are loaned parkas to wear to stay comfy inside.

Two million lbs of hand-carved ice sculptures, Five ice slides, 7 individual rooms depicting the story of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and The Frostbite Factory – a live carving zone. Don’t forget The Elf on the Shelf® Scavenger Hunt and Potomac Express Miniature Train Ride.

Enjoy the Free Nightly entertainment at the Gaylord National Resort include a suspended 60′ tall, 7,000 lb tree made entirely of synthetic “candy” glass. Marvel at more than 2 million twinkling lights, amazing nightly indoor snowfall and beautiful dancing fountains, set to the season’s most loved music, that shoots 60-feet high. You can also choose to stay at the resort and experience one of the Christmas on the Potomac packages that include unlimited entry to ICE!® during your stay.

Location: Gaylord National Resort, 201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745
Dates: until Jan 3, 2016
Hours: opens at 10 am
Tel: 301-965-4000
www.christmas-on-the-potomac
For Regional Restaurant & Attractions: www.nationalharbor.com

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Entertainment, Festival, Fun, Kids, Maryland, Special Event | Tagged animated, attraction, candy, carrousel, carving, Christmas, cocoa, corner, dancing, decorating, decoration, discover, elf, entertainment, entry, express, factory, famous, feature, fountain, frostbite, Gaylord, gingerbread, glass, guest, hand-carved, holiday, hot, hunt, ice, individual, indoor, light, loan, magical, Maryland, million, miniature, music, National, National Harbor, nightly, package, parka, PEEPS, Potomac, resort, ride, room, santa claus, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, scavenger, sculpture, season, shelf, shoppe, slide, snowfall, spirit, sponsor, story, suspended, synthetic, temperature, town, train, tree, twinkling, unlimited, variety, village, visit, visitor, walk-through, winter, wonderland, world, zone | Leave a comment

FL: Friendly, Fashionable Shop for Window Treatments in Boynton Beach

Posted on December 10, 2015 by sandra

Boynton Beach, FL Exit 59 west : Montrealers who live in southern Florida will be happy to know that they can shop for window treatments by one of our own. Shoppers Drapes & Blinds, right off an exit of Interstate 95, may be new in Boynton Beach, but nothing about the window fashion business is new to owners Max and Jessica. They have grown up and worked for the family business (Verti Store) which has been selling window treatments for over 40 years.

The friendly couple has over 10 years of experience designing window styles with custom shades and fabrics You can visit their showroom to check out over 100 displays or use their free shop-at-home service, where you can choose a window dressing to match your decor in the comfort of your own home.

Expect custom-made everything for your windows: blinds, roller shades, pleated shades, cellulars, horizontals, wood, faux wood, verticals, panel tracks, Roman shades, shutters, custom-made draperies and the latest trend – Alternative Shades.

Alternative Shades allow you to easily change the amount of light and visibility you desire and are less expensive than the Hunter Douglas‘s Silhouettes which have a similar effect. The Silhouettes also have the disadvantage in the Florida climate of having many horizontal layers which collect dust, as well as many hollow channels where bugs can live.

For many style and price options, you can look through catalogs of multiple suppliers or select from their own private line.

Montrealers will recognize Bank Desjardins next door. And yes, if you require it, Jessica and Max parlent francais. Working with them is effortless and seamless, so make Shoppers Drapes and Blinds your one stop shop for all your window fashion needs.

Location: Shoppers Drapes & Blinds, 1070 Gateway Blvd.,
Boynton Beach, Fl. 33426
Hours: Mon – Fri 10 – 5, Sat 9 – 3, Sun – closed
Tel: 561-336-3526
www.shoppersdrapesandblind.com

For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: www.visitboyntonbeachflorida.com/

Posted in Florida, Shopping | Tagged alternative, bank, blinds, Boynton Beach, bugs, business, catalog, cellulars, channel, climate, collect, comfort, custom, custom-made, decor, design, desire, Desjardins, disadvantage, display, drapery, drapes, dressing, dust, effect, effortless, exit, expensive, Experience, fabric, family, fashion, faux, Florida, free, grown, hollow, home, horizontal, Hunre Douglas, interstate, layer, light, line, match, Montreal, mutiple, option, owner, panel, pleated, price, private, roller, Roman, seemless, select, sell, service, shade, shades, shop, shop-at-home, shopper, showroom, shutter, silhouette, Southern, style, supplier, track, treatment, trend, vertical, visibility, window, wood, work | Leave a comment

FL: Art of the Brick Exhibition Featuring LEGO® Bricks Sculptures

Posted on December 9, 2015 by sandra

Vero Beach, FL Exit 147: If you are in the Vero Beach area, you’ve got to see The Art of the Brick, a show named one of CNN’s Top 10 Global Must-See Exhibitions. This one of a kind art exhibition featuring more than thirty large-scale sculptures created out of iconic LEGO® bricks by New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya.

Sawaya, an award-winning artist, has taken the small scale toy and transformed it into an art medium all its own, resulting in awe inspiring and thought-provoking sculptures, elevating what almost every child has played with into the status of contemporary art.

Location: Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, FL 32963
Dates: until January 3rd, 2016
Hours: Mon-Sat, 10 – 4:30pm, Sun, 1- 4:30pm
Tel: 772-231-0707
verobeachmuseum.org
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: www.verobeach.com

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Florida, Fun, Kids, Museum, Special Event | Tagged art, artisit, award, beach, brick, child, CNN, contemporary, exposition, Florida, global, iconic, lego, medium, Nathan Sawaya, New York, sculpture, status, transform, Vero Beach, Vero Beach Museum of Art | Leave a comment

DE: Over 250 Years of Hospitality Experience at the Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware

Posted on December 8, 2015 by sandra

Newark, DE Exit 1B: This is a special Courtyard, located on the grounds of the University of Delaware, so you can take advantage of University fun. Check to see if you can catch a game or something exciting going on on the campus.

In the Courtyard Bistro, your breakfast is cooked to order, and we liked the calorie counts on the menu. A nice touch is the luggage scale to make sure your bags are not overweight for flights. And take along your bathing suit for the pool and spa.

For an interesting dining experience, ask them about the unique student restaurant on the campus – and the student ice cream parlor too. It is truly farm-to-table, since other students learning about the dairy industry care for the cows, milk them and prepare the cream for the ice cream.

Winner of numerous Trip Advisor and Marriott awards for excellence in guest service as well as being Green Certified, the hotel offers full ADA features in guest rooms and public spaces, including a self-service pool lift. It’s not only disability friendly, it is pet friendly too.

Location: Courtyard Newark: 400 David Hollowell Dr., Newark, DE 19711 (GPS use 200 New London Rd)
Tel: 302-737-0900
www.udel.edu/hotel
For Regional Restaurants & Accommodations: www.enjoydowtownnewark.com

Posted in Delaware, Drink, Food, Fun, Hotel/Motel, Ice Cream, Kids | Tagged advantage, advisor, AFA, award, bistro, breakfast, calorie, campus, certified, cook, count, courtyard, cow, cream, dairy, Delaware, dining, disability, excellence, farm-to-table, feature, flight, fun, game, green, ground, guest, ice cream, industry, lift, locate, luggage, Marriott, menu, milk, Newark, order, overweight, parlor, pet, pool, publi, Restaurant, room, scale, self-serve, service, spa, space, student, trip, university, winner | Leave a comment

DE: Tiffany Glass: “Painting with Light and Color” Exhibition

Posted on December 7, 2015 by sandra

Wilmington, DE Exit 7, Route 52 : As a painter, Louis C. Tiffany was enchanted by the interplay of light and color, and this fascination found its most breathtaking expression in his glass “paintings.”

The objects on display are some of the most iconic and celebrated of Tiffany’s works. Organized by The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York City, Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light is comprised of five windows, nineteen lamps, and seventy-five pieces of opalescent flat glass, in addition to educational models illustrating how leaded-glass shades are selected and fabricated, along with three examples of Tiffany lamp forgeries to explore issues of authenticity and artistry.

Location: Winterthur Museum, 5105 Kennett Pike (Route 52), Winterthur, DE 19735
Dates: until January 3, 2016
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10 – 5 pm, closed Christmas Day
Tel: 800.448.3883
winterthur.org/?p=1237
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: www.visitwilmingtonde.com

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Delaware, History, Museum, Special Event | Tagged artistry, celebrate, city, collection, color, comprise, Delaware, display, educational, explore, expression, fabricate, forgery, glass, iconic, illustrate, lamp, leaded, leaded-glass, light, model, Museum, Neustadt, New York, object, opalescent, organise, paint, painter, painting, select, shade, Tiffany, Wilmington, window, Winterthur | Leave a comment

VA: 10 Free Historic Sites in Downtown Richmond

Posted on December 2, 2015 by sandra

Richmond, VA Exit 74: Looking for a fun holiday event for the whole family? How about the 29th Annual Court End Christmas.

An annual holiday tradition, ten historic sites in downtown Richmond open their doors for a day of free admission and holiday festivities. Carriage rides, carolers, living history, live music, children’s crafts and gift shops. A complimentary shuttle will circulate among all sites throughout the event.

Don’t miss The White House and Museum of the Confederacy with cookies, cider, stationed tours of the decorated White House of the Confederacy and loads of children’s activities and a visit from Santa Claus. Doors open at 10 am, program starts at noon.

Participating sites:

The Valentine/Wickham House
The John Marshall House
St. John’s Church
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
The Museum and White House of the Confederacy
Monumental Church
The Egyptian Building (VCU Medical Center Campus)
The Beers House (VCU Medical Center Campus)
The Virginia State Capitol
The Virginia’s Executive Mansion

Date: Sun, Dec 13, 2015
Hours: 12 – 5 pm
Tel: 804-649-0711, x301
thevalentine.org/calendar/court-end-christmas
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: www.visitrichmondva.com

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Entertainment, Food, Fun, History, Kids, Museum, Shopping, Special Event, Virginia, Worship | Tagged activity, annual, beer, building, capital, caroler, carriage, children, Christmas, church, cider, circulate, Confederacy, cookie, craft, decorate, Downtown, egyptian, episcopal, event, executive, family, gift, historic, holiday, house, John Marshall, mansion, monumental, Museum, music, Richmond, ride, santa claus, shop, shuttle, site, St. John, St. Paul, State, station, tour, tradition, valentine, Virginia, visit, wickham | Leave a comment

CT: Stepping Stones Museum: Broken? Fix It! Exhibit

Posted on November 30, 2015 by sandra

Norwalk, CT Exit 14N or 15S: Play is serious business at this award-winning children’s museum, for children ages 1-10 or children at heart.

Throughout the year Stepping Stones plays host to exciting exhibits created by other museums. Broken? Fix It! a thought-provoking traveling exhibit that focuses on changing the way we view too many things in our lives as disposable rather than fixable.

This hands-on exhibit designed to encourage problem solving and critical thinking skills. All ages will learn how to make simple repairs on everyday items including flat bicycle tires, to broken dishes and dolls in need of patches. Children and adults will work together to diagnose the problem and determine a repair process with a large variety of fix-it opportunities. And don’t forget to confess previously undisclosed accidental breaks in the “Truth Booth” – a great way to get that weight off your chest.

In Energy Lab® you can explore the waterfalls, funnels and water wheels, wind tunnel, or cranks, levers, air tubes and blowers which set balls and objects into motion. Try to hit the bulls eye with an air pump. In Build It! put on construction clothes and finish walls, apply carpeting, wallpaper or shingles or make an arch with blocks. Express Yourself is about social and emotional learning. Act out your feelings on camera in a TV studio. Become part of a video game where you appear or disappear magically on-screen.

While most museums are in the business of look but don’t touch, Stepping Stones Museum for Children is an exciting change of pace for kids and adults alike and opens your child’s world to a lifelong love of learning.

Location: Stepping Stones Museum for Children, Mathews Park 303 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06850
Exhibit Date: Until Dec 31st
Hours: Tues – Sun, 10 – 5 pm
Tel: 203 899 0606
steppingstonesmuseum.org/
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: litchfieldhills.com

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Connecticut, Entertainment, Fun, Kids, Museum, Special Event | Tagged accidental, adult, age, air, arch, award, bicycle, blower, broken, bull, business, camera, carpeting, chest, children, clothes, confess, Connecticut, construction, crank, critical, design, diagnose, dish, disposable, doll, emotion, energu, exhibit, explore, express, eye, feeling, fix-it, focus, funnel, game, hands-on, heart, host, lab, learn, learning, lever, lifelong, love, magic, motion, Museum, Norwalk, object, on-screen, opportunity, patch, problem, pump. build, repair, shingle, skill, social, solving, studio, thinking, tire, touch, tube, tunnel, TV, video, wall, wallpaper, water, waterfall, weight, wheel, wind, winning, work | Leave a comment

MD: ‘Tis the (Civil War) Season at Surratt House Museum

Posted on November 25, 2015 by sandra

Clinton, MD Exit 7A: Enjoy the holiday season while appreciating the history and culture of Maryland after the civil war at the Surratt House Museum.

With an ambiance of period decorations, the charm of antique dolls and toys on display, refreshments, and interaction with folks in period attire of the 1850s and 1860s recreate the memories of the mid-19th century.

Receive a holiday discount in the museum shop and sample cider and cookies.

Admission: Adults $3, Seniors (age 60+) $2, Students (age 5-18) $1,
Children (under 5) Free

Location: Surratt House Museum, 9118 Brandywine Road,
Clinton, MD 20735
Date: Tues, Dec 2 – Sat, Dec 13, 2015
Hours: Wed – Fri: 11 – 3, Sat – Sun: 12 – 4, (Mon-Tues – closed)
Tel: 301-868-1121
surrattmuseum.org
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: visitprincegeorges.com

Posted in Fun, History, Kids, Maryland, Museum, Special Event | Tagged 1850, 1860, 19th century, ambiance, antique, attire, century, charm, cider, civil, Clinton, cookie, culture, decoration, display, doll, History, holiday, interaction, Maryland, memory, Museum, period, recreate, refreshment, sample, season, toy, war | Leave a comment

NC: Twelve Birds of Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Posted on November 24, 2015 by sandra

Scotland Neck, NC Exit 171: Sylvan Heights Bird Park pays homage to Christmas with a Twelve Birds of Christmas holiday-themed scavenger hunt that runs from December 1st through December 31st.

This family-friendly, fun for all ages holiday game takes visitors on a scavenger hunt throughout the park searching for the 12 bird species mentioned in their own version of the popular holiday song, The Twelve Days of Christmas.

See if you can spot the swans-a-swimming, geese-a-laying, calling birds, and of course, the partridge in a pear tree. Can you find them all? This festive activity will enhance your knowledge and appreciation of birds and is free with your admission ticket.

Location: Sylvan Heights Bird Park, 500 Sylvan Heights Park Way, Scotland Neck, NC 27874
Dates: Dec 1 – Dec 31, 2015
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9 – 4 pm
Tel: 252-826-3186
shwpark.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: www.exit173.com

Posted in Kids, Nature, North Carolina, Special Event | Tagged activity, appreciation, bird, Christmas, family, festive, friendly, fun, game, geese, height, holiday, hunt, knowledge, neck, North Carolina, park, partridge, pear, scavenger, Scotland, song, species, Swan, sylvain, theme, tree, visitor | Leave a comment

DROG – Our Driving Blog

VA: Wanna Fling Some Fruitcakes: Visit Science Museum of Virginia

FL: Friendly, Fashionable Shop for Window Treatments in Boynton Beach

FL: Art of the Brick Exhibition Featuring LEGO® Bricks Sculptures

DE: Over 250 Years of Hospitality Experience at the Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware

DE: Tiffany Glass: “Painting with Light and Color” Exhibition

NC: Twelve Birds of Christmas Scavenger Hunt

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