A Lot To Enjoy This Summer and This Weekend

This weekend OpSail enters coastal Virginia. It is an opportunity to see ship from all over the world. The event is region wide and spans over two full weekend beginning Friday.

Downtown Hampton will have the Blackbeard Festival this weekend and Harborfest in Downtown Norfolk will be next weekend. For more information on OpSail visit www.opsail2012virginia.com. For more information on the Blackbeard Festival visit www.blackbeardfestival.com and Harborfest is www.festevents.org.

If looking for Dinosaurs is fun. I suggest the Dinosaur exhibit at the Virginia Living Musem. I had the opportunity to view them already. They are robotic dinosaurs that seem real. The man behind this educational and entertaining exhibit that goes all summer is Kokoro who makes them not only look real, but act ready. For more information visit www.thevlm.org. The exhibit features every weekend until June 24. The Really Big Dinosaur Puppet Show. The times are noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.

From now until the end of the month enjoy Seed to Stalk Theme Month at tge Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. This exhibit explores American agriculture of the 17th and 18th centuries during an interpretive theme month with hands-on activities. Throughout the month, visitors can try their hand at tending and watering gardens, and learn about the many practical uses of herbs and plants. A value-priced combination ticket to both museums is $20.00 for adults and $10.00 for ages 6-12. Admission to Jamestown Settlement is $15.50 adults, $7.25 (6-12); and to the Yorktown Victory Center, $9.75 adults; $5.50 (6-12). Children under 6 are free. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (until 6 p.m. June 15-August 15). Jamestown Settlement is located on State Route 31 in James City County, just southwest of Williamsburg. The Yorktown Victory Center is located on Route 1020 in Yorktown. Call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838, or visit www.historyisfun.org.

For space lovers on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center is the 18,000-pound Orion Test Vehicle, built at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. It was used in the successful test of Orion’s launch abort system, Pad Abort 1 in May 2010. A pad abort would provide escape capability to protect the crews in the event of an emergency during launch or initial ascent. Today, NASA is building the first space-bound Orion capsule, which will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, an uncrewed launch planned for 2014. This test will see Orion travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. The capsule is located on the Center’s main gallery floor adjacent to the Apollo 12 Command Module. VASC is the only place in the world where visitors can see these two spacecraft from different eras displayed next to each other. Destination Station just opened as well. It is an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to explore the International Space Station. The multi-media experience immerses visitors in the story of the International Space Station (ISS). Visitors will learn about the 24/7/365 space-based research that bring results down to earth to play a role in their lives. They will also lean how the space station operates as a result of a peaceful international partnership of five space agencies representing 15 countries. The exhibit includes hands-on activities, imagery and audio and visual technology to connect visitors with their place in space, communicating the real and potential impacts of the space station and our everyday lives.

A great way to expose kids to classical music is in a relaxed setting. What could be more relaxed than seeing the symphony outside. The Chrysler Museum of Art and the Virginia Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Benjamin Rous, will present a free concert on the lawn outside the Museum June 1 at 8 p.m. The concert will feature favorites by Beethoven, Rossini, Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, Smetana, Dvorak, and Sousa. The grand finale will be a thrilling performance of Tchaikovsky’s rousing “1812 Overture”—complete with live fireworks shot from the roof of the Museum. The fireworks are presented by Pryo Shows. The event is free and open to the public. Guests can bring a blanket or lawn chairs and a picnic supper. Non-alcoholic beverages will be allowed, and there will be snack boxes and beverages available for purchase.