2011 Woollybear Festival – Vermilion, Ohio

Dick Goddard hosts the 39th Annual Woollybear Parade & Festival, Vermilion, Ohio, Sunday, October 9, 2011.

Woollybear Festival

The Banded Wooly Bear (Pyrrharctia isabella). Top - the familiar larva stage. Bottom - few people will recognize the Isabella Tiger Moth as the adult or ‘imago’ stage. (The smaller the dark band on the caterpillar – the more severe will be the winter, as the folklore goes.)

The Woollybear Festival is the largest one day festival in the state of Ohio. Cleveland’s Fox 8 Meteorologist Dick Goddard hosts the fun-filled events when the 39th Annual Woollybear Parade & Festival takes over Vermilion, Ohio on Sunday, October 9, 2010.

The woollybear wackiness all started more than three decades ago. Northeast Ohio TV weatherman Dick Goddard of Fox8 TV in Cleveland talked with some friends and co-workers about his idea of a celebration built around using the woollybear to forecast what kind of winter is ahead.

The first Woollybear Festival attracted perhaps 2,000 people but now the event attracts an estimated 15,000 and features the Woollybear Parade, one of the largest parades in the state of Ohio. It starts at 1:30 pm and lasts approximately 2 hours. It includes the Woollybear kids and pets, over 15 marching bands with nearly 2,000 musicians, radio and TV personalities, vintage automobiles, floats animals, festival queens, clowns and much more!

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Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival – 2011

Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival will be celebrating its 28th Anniversary with the 2011 Festival to be held October 8th and 9th, 2011.

Netcher Rd. Bridge

Netcher Rd. Bridge over Mill Creek in Jefferson Township

Mahoning Valley’s neighbor to the north, Ashtabula County, is home to many authentic and restored covered bridges and celebrates the fact the every second full weekend in October with a lively fun-filled festival. It’s a great place to share experience Americana at its finest as well as being a great time to take in some spectacular fall foliage, .

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2011 Burton Apple Butter Festival

The Burton kettles will again be bubbling with maybe finest homemade apple butters in Ohio, October 8 and 9, 2011.

63 years of tradition simmer in copper kettles over open flame log fires right before your eyes. The delicious aroma of apples and cinnamon wafts everywhere over the Village. The fall festival celebration brings with it gifts, fine arts, food, crafts, antiques, games, pony rides, and musical entertainment to welcome the arrival of autumn at Century Village, in Burton, Ohio.

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2011 – Life on Lake Erie – Photo Contest Winner

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Conneaut Resident Captures Judges’ Favorite in 2011 “Life on Lake Erie” Photo Contest

Conneaut resident Richard McBride received the overall favorite award in this year’s “Life on Lake Erie” photo contest. McBride’s black-and-white image, entitled “Cleveland Tall Ships”, depicts two Tall Ships sailing through the Cleveland Harbor.

This year’s photo contest winners are from all along the Lake Erie shoreline from Toledo to Conneaut. Enjoy all the winning photos on the Ohio Lake Erie Commission website.

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ODNR: Explore the Outdoors Fall Color Photography Contest

The Fall Color Photography contest begins September 21 and ends October 26 .

Fall Pond

Explore the Outdoors, an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) program, presents the 2011 Fall Color Photography Contest for Ohio students, grades 3-8.  The contest begins on September 21st and ends October 26th, 2011.

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ODNR: 2011 Fall Foliage Update #1

Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Fall Foliage Color Update #1 for September 21, 2011. Choose from six fall foliage events.

Ohio Fall Foliage

As the calendar ushers in autumn this Friday, Ohio’s woodlands and landscapes are still predominantly green; but with the continued good weather the fall color season should be great, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

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Phantom Fright Nights At Kennywood Park

Phantom Fright Nights Return for Tenth Terrorific Season. There’s haunted houses, then there’s Kennywood. Few Can compare.

kennywood-phantom-fright-nightKennywood Park Phantom Fright Nights are back for its 10th straight blood-curdling season beginning Friday, September 30, 2011 — and will be open for your screaming pleasure every Friday and Saturday night thereafter through the Halloween season ending Saturday, October 29, 2011. One Sunday, October 9 is an added bonus. Operation times are from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. in all cases.

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2011 Ohio Swiss Festival

Friday, September 30 – Saturday, October 1, 2011; Sugarcreek, Tuscarawas Co., Ohio

Steintossen

Make plans to attend the 59th Annual Ohio Swiss Festival in the Village of Sugarcreek in nearby Tuscarawas County.  Sugarcreek is known as the center of the Swiss cheese industry in Ohio and the festival is a celebration of all things Swiss. It has grown become one of the state’s premier outdoor events.

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Geneva Grape Jamboree Returns

The 2011 Geneva Grape Jamboree is back September 24th and 25th, Geneva, Ohio.

Geneva Grape JamboreeGeneva, Ohio runs purple every September for The Geneva Grape Jamboree celebrating the harvest of the local grapes. Visitors to this great festival can taste freshly squeezed juice, locally vintages wine, jams, jellies and all things grape.

Entertainment this year includes the band Hotel California - the original tribute to The Eagles 8:30 p.m. September 24. Opening for Hotel California will be Adam Calvert, live on stage at 6:15 p.m.

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Ohioans Asked to Help Spot Asian Longhorned Beetle

Ohio hunters and outdoorsmen are asked to lookout for trees displaying signs and symptoms of Ohio’s newest, non-native invasive insect, the Asian longhorned beetle.

Invasive insect documented in southwest Ohio

Asian Longhorned BeetleThe Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Division of Wildlife asks all Ohioans, especially Ohio outdoorsmen and hunters, to lookout for trees displaying signs and symptoms of Ohio’s newest, non-native, invasive insect, the Asian Longhorned Beetle.

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PNC Park – One of Top Five Cheapest BallParks

PNC Park, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates numbers in BankRate.com’s top five Most Affordable ballparks in the Majors.

One of the advantages of living in the Mahoning River Valley is the fact that we have quick and easy access to two major urban metropolises, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. And, if you like sports, they’ve got you covered. Between the two you can enjoy live professional hockey, baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Both the Browns and Steelers boast new state of the art stadiums; and the Pirates and Indians each have new, intimate, classic-style ballparks considered among the most beautiful in Baseball.

Now, I’m not telling anyone who lives here in the Valley anything new. Pittsburgh and Cleveland fans are very proud of their respective parks. However, some may not know that BankRate.com has given PNC Park the added distinction of being one of the top five ‘cheapest’ (as in affordable) major leagues ballparks in baseball. Here’s what the site had to say:

The last time the Pittsburgh Pirates had a winning season, their fans were high-fiving to the top three singles of the year, which were by, in order: Boyz II Men, Sir Mix-A-lot and Kris Kross. That was 1992. Nineteen years and more than 1,650 losses later, it seems they’ve come to the end of the road for 100-loss seasons.

One silver lining for Pirates fans, though, is PNC Park, which opened 10 years ago on the shores of the Allegheny River and is regarded as one of the most beautiful ballparks, with the yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge rising behind the outfield. The park is also one of the most affordable in baseball, with a Fan Cost Index of $127.71 — the third-lowest in the league.

The average regular ticket price of $15.30 to start the season beat out every other team.

In a vacuum, attendance would not be an issue at a great ballpark in a big sports town. Alas, the Pirates ranked 27th in the majors in attendance last year, more than 10,000 per game below the league average.

There is more optimism than in recent seasons with the progression of the Pirates as a team, but PNC is a good major league deal regardless of records, with some of the lowest average prices for hot dogs ($2.75), soda ($2.75) and beer ($5). And speaking of records, the Pirates own one with the most consecutive losing seasons, which reached 18 last year.

Want to know where the other four parks are? – Top 5 cheapest ballparks | Bankrate.com

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