Grape Stomp Festival

At 3:00 PM on August 30th people will gather in Irvington, VA for the annual Irvington Stomp harvest festival.

The festival will be held at White Fences Vineyard, which is about three hours from Washington, D.C. and just over an hour from Richmond, VA. The “stomp” will feature both individual barrels and larger family-sized barrels.

Local officials and special guests will participate in a “stomp-off,” which will determine who gets to be the “King and Queen of the Stomp.”

There’s more than just grape-stomping at this festival, which will also feature farm animals and exhibits, a petting zoo, kite show and a corn maze.

If you decide to go, be sure to bring a blanket and chairs for the festival concert, which will have blues, rock and country music. This year’s Stomp will feature Virginia-based singer/songwriter Robbin Thompson, former lead singer for Bruce Springsteen’s band Steel Mill. Robbin also co-authored the unofficial song of Virginia, Sweet Virginia Breeze.

The event is a great chance for people of all ages to get a taste small town America. The cost is Adults $10, $5 kids 6-16, under 6 free. More details are available at www.irvingtonstomp.com.

Havasu Falls in Grand Canyon Closes due to Flooding

On August 16th, flash floods tore through the popular Havasu Falls area of the Grand Canyon, causing a great deal of damage to the access trail and campground areas.

Most tourists/campers made it up to the village of Supai, which sits well above the Colorado River, before being flown out by helicopter.

The Havasupai tribe had planned on re-opening the campgrounds within a few weeks, but now says the area will have to remain closed for the next six months in order to repair parts of the 8-mile trail and damaged campgrounds. This area of the canyon is only reachable by foot or helicopter.

The flood waters caused a lot of damage to waterfalls that attract thousands of tourists to the area every year. The popular blue-green travertine pool below the falls has even dried out.
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Will Laptop Policy Change Reduce Airport Checkpoint Stress?

As of last Saturday, airline passengers are no longer required to remove laptops from their cases at airport security checkpoints. As long as the laptop is inside a “checkpoint-friendly” carrying case, the passenger will not have to remove it from the case for inspection.

The TSA has set guidelines for what constitutes a “checkpoint-friendly” bag; including a few common styles of laptop cases like butterfly style, trifold style and sleeve style.

Backpack and accordion style cases are not on the approved list because they can obscure the x-ray image. It is essential that the bags provide a clear and view of the laptop that is not obscured by any other contents that the bag might have.

It is hoped that the use of x-ray friendly bags will help speed things along at airport checkpoints, but not everyone is so sure that will be the case.

As this article points out, many styles that are x-ray friendly do not allow much extra room for items and components that usually accompany a laptop, and might mean that people will need to bring an extra bag along to accommodate all of their belongings.
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All Points West Goes Green

The inaugural All Points West music festival concert took place last weekend, August 8-10 in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park.

Radiohead and Jack Johnson headlined the festival, which also featured performances from the Roots, Kings of Leon, Chromeo, Metric, Andrew Bird and the Virgins, just to name a few.

Over 40 acts played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the historic 80-acre park, which offers striking views of the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty.

All Points West was the first festival of its size to come to the Tri-State area in a long time. All Points West promoted itself as a “green” festival, taking precautions to lower the carbon footprints of the festival and its attendees, promoting recycling and mass transit.

One of the most notable ways the festival encouraged attendees to be green was by taking the ferry from Pier 11 at South Street Seaport in Manhattan to get to Liberty State Park, which was how most people got to the event.

Attendees were also encouraged to ride bikes, take the light rail or PATH train. People who wanted to drive to the event had to carpool and obtain a special carpool parking pass.

Large music festivals can generate a lot of waste. With this in mind All Points West used non-disposable materials in the backstage area, per request of the artists. It was an important priority of the artists to keep the festival green.

Radiohead, who headlined the festival on Friday and Saturday, even commissioned a carbon-footprint study of their tour. Jack Johnson, Sunday’s headliner, educated attendees on the importance of going green with an interactive eco-village that he brought along to the festival.

Eco-friendly art and environmental awareness booths were scattered throughout the festival, which also featured a “recycling store” called “TRASHed.:” Attendees could go around collecting plastic bottles and turn them in to collect merchandise like t-shirts, skateboards and beach balls.

People were also able to cut down on bottle usage by bringing their own water bottle that they could fill up for free at faucets throughout the festival grounds.

As a result of the greening efforts, the festival grounds were kept especially clean and over 70,000 people were able to reach All Points West by using mass transit.

10 Most Pet-Friendly Hotels

If you’ve ever owned a pet then you are sure to know the hassles that come with trying to plan a trip and make sure your pet is taken care of.

Will you be able to find someone you trust to take care of your pet or will you have to put them in a boarding facility with all those fees?

Believe it or not many hotels have started to allow pets to check in with you to help eliminate some of your travel stress. Here are the 10 best pet-friendly hotels.

1. Gazebo Inn Ogunquit, Ogunquit, ME

The Gazebo Inn Ogunquit knows how great it can be to bring your pet on vacation. Guests may bring well-behaved, non-barking dogs. Out of concern for other people’s allergies, cats are not allowed at the Inn.

There are five designated rooms for dogs, and common areas are off limits to the dogs. The Inn offers fine lodging.

When you check in, they will provide you with information on nearby vets, as well as parks, beaches and other places where you can take your dog for a walk.
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Concert Venues From Hell: Worst Tragedies of All Time

Everyone loves a good concert. Your favorite bands in town so you and a few friends grab tickets, show up early and head right for the front of the stage. This is what good times are all about, at least until something goes wrong.

Concerts are usually a great time, but things can turn bad in a heartbeat. Of course no one expects to go to a concert and actually die but it can, and does happen.

Here are some of the worst concert tragedies over the years that have rocked and shocked us.

1. Free Rolling Stones Concert at Altamont Speedway, 1969

Organized and headlined by the Rolling Stones, the Altamont Festival also featured Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The Grateful Dead were originally included in the lineup but they bailed out because the event was so disorganized.

Some heralded the event as being “Woodstock West,” with roughly 300,000 people in attendance. What started out as a good idea is best remembered as an event marred by violence and death. Read more