Leap into Fall this weekend in Gig Harbor
So you thought the end of summer meant the end of fun stuff to do? Think again! The fun just continues with a great variety of events and activities around the Gig Harbor Penisnula area:
Second Annual Gig Harbor Area First Responders Celebration, honoring police, sheriff, EMT, fire and State Patrol. Saturday October 2n from 1-4pm at the United Methodist Church, 7400 Pioneer Way. Meet and thank our local heroes and enjoy music, refreshments, prizes and more! www.honoringfirstresponders.org
Harvest Fest takes place again this year through out the Key Peninsula at local farms. Enjoy it all day on October 2nd. Learn more at www.crevistonvalley.com
Gig Harbor Bite of Mud Bay celebrates the grand opening of the new Mud Bay store located at 4816 Pt Fosdick Dr. NW. The fun starts at noon with pet-inspired farmers market, deonstrations and more. www.mudbay.com
First Saturday Art Walk 1-5pm in historic downtown Gig Harbor!
Gig Harbor Boatshop open house with BBQ and tours. www.gigharborboatshop.org
Fabulous Fox Island October Indoor Market, from 10am-4pm at the Nichols Community Center, 690 9th Ave., Fox Island
Harbor History Museum is open both Saturday and Sunday! www.harborhistorymuseum.org
Final weekend to see HAIRSPRAY at Paradise Theatre www.paradisetheatre.org
Enjoy this introductory weekend to Fall!!
Read more → Comments (0)
Quilt Festival Supports Breast Cancer Research
For ten years now the small but mighty Gig Harbor Quilt Festival committee has put on a fabulous annual event, while raising awareness and funds for local breast cancer charities.
When I started working marketing Gig Harbor, creating a quilt festival was the first committee I was on. Since then this event has beakoned quilters from around the region each October to network, learn, share and admire the art of quilting.
And I mean art. Some of these works are masterpieces you must see. A great deal of patience and talent is needed to be a quilter. My hat goes off to all the quilters who provide their beautiful works to share.
Want to learn more or perhaps bid on some of these quilts? Check out the Gig Harbor Quilt Festival October 15th and 16th. Learn more at www.gigharborquiltfestival.org
Read more → Comments (0)Chum Festival Celebrates the Fish!
It Takes a Fish to Raise a Village
Saturday October 16th, it’s time to celebrate salmon in Gig Harbor at the 4th annual Donkey Creek Chum Festival.
Since 1972 the Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Club has incubated salmon eggs at Donkey Creek, the creek that feeds into the head of Gig Harbor Bay. Each year the fishermen release over 1 million fry into Gig Harbor. Every fall, mature salmon find their way home from the open sea back to the Austin Estuary, and up Donkey Creek to spawn.
This alone is worth a celebration. But there is more. The Donkey Creek Chum Festival also celebrates the partnership of all who admire and cherish the success of the salmon: local environmental groups, local recreation and kayak club, the Puyallup Tribe and average Gig Harbor citizens.
In celebration of this annual event, the Fishermen’s Club, the Gig Harbor Canoe & Kayak Club, Harbor WildWatch, the City of Gig Harbor, the Harbor History Museum, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, downtown merchants, the Pierce Stream Team, KGI Watershed Council, Hood Canal SEG, Friends of Pierce County, Crescent Valley Alliance, Great Peninsula Conservancy, HDR/Fishpro, PenMet Foundation, Citizens for a Healthy Bay and the Gig Harbor Kiwanis have joined hands to promote a better understanding of and improve the conditions of our salmon and watershed. In Gig Harbor it takes a fish to raise a village!
The October 16th event begins at 10am with booths and kids events including pressed salmon art, child with a chum photography and more. Chum Burgers are on the grill beginning at noon and kayak races are from 2-3:30pm.
New this year, the Puyallup Tribe will have a booth and provide insight to their early presence on the Peninsula. In addition the new Harbor History Museum will be open with spectacular displays and activities that offer Chum-goers a look into Gig Harbor’s past. Tickets for the museum are $6 for adults with reduced rates for juniors. Museum members are free.
The event takes place where Harborview meets North Harborview in beautiful waterfront Gig Harbor.
Read more → Comments (0)Join the Fun at Local Hotels October 21st
Learn about meeting in Gig Harbor
Normally October is a month for catching our breath: cleaning up stuff from summer, catching up on work and emails that have been buried, working on budgets and planning for the next year. But this year is a little different. We haven’t had a moment of rest as we literally leap from project to project. And a new activity and focus has all of our attention lately. We are working on a special event coming up on October 21st. This event is part of an overall marketing campaign we have been focused on for about six months – marketing Gig Harbor as a destination for conventions and meetings.
Meetings and conventions are the bread and butter of successful hotels. Gig Harbor has great potential in this area, as professional meeting planners are looking for smaller, fresh and unique locations to bring retreats, conferences and conventions. Gig Harbor can fill all of these needs.
So on October 21st the public is invited to an “introduction to Meetings in Gig Harbor! Please join our three hotels for an event from 5-8pm. Each hotel (The Best Western Wesley Inn, The INN at Gig Harbor and the Maritime Inn) will have fun events and activities as local residents and business leaders are invited and encouraged to go to each hotel during the three hour event. If you visit each of the three hotels you will be entered in to a drawing for great prizes.
The event will focus on information about how you can become an ambassador for the meetings and convention industry in Gig Harbor. Your support towards helping make this effort successful will result in increased business for all our local businesses, as well as helping create jobs and increase tax revenue for the community.
If you don’t directly have a need for meeting or convention space, perhaps you know someone who does: your church, your soccer club, your fraternal or military organization. Any kind of meeting can be accommodated in our community. And now, with the addition of the Harbor History Museum, we have even more first class and beautiful meeting space available to fill the need.
Please join the fun on Wednesday October 21st. It’s free, entertaining and educational. Support these efforts and learn how to “Meet in Gig Harbor”
RSVP to this event at (253) 853-3554 or gigharborguide@gmail.com
Read more → Comments (0)
Run! Don't Walk to HAIRSPRAY
Get Your Tickets Now!
HAIRSPRAY is phenomenal.
Run, don't walk to www.paradisetheatre.org and get your tickets today, for one of the 5 remaining shows of this production.
Truly one of the best community theater productions I have ever seen. The casting of this production is perfection. A perfect mix of talented individuals from around Gig Harbor and beyond. Too many outstanding performances to name them all, but in particular:
Emileigh Kershaw as Tracy Turnblad could not be more perfect in this role. Powerful voice, darling acting - she has you believing in her from the moment she opens the show.
Krista Curry is phenomenal as Penny, Tracy's best friend and comedic sidekick. It takes a lot of talent to play a role like this with high energy, vocals, comic timing and dance. She nails it.
Howard Knickerbocker and Eli Gorley are awesome as Tracy's parents and Eli surprises you with his vocal talent in their funny yet touching duet "You're Timeless to Me".
Jesse Smith as Seaweed and Annette Seymour as Motomouth Mabelle bring a level of professional vocals to the cast not usually seen in community theater...amazing to think Annette is in her first theater production.
And Grant Troyer, who I have seen in so many productions around Gig Harbor over the past ten years is one of Gig Harbor's most talented young actors. He knocks it out of the park as Link Larkin.
I want to mention them all because they were all incredible. There was not a bad egg in this very large cast. Fantastic choreography by Vicki Richards, music by Vicki Knickerbocker and top notch direction by Jeff Richards, this is a show you must see.
Run, don't walk to www.paradisetheatre.org this minute, or chance missing out on a show that will make you smile until your face hurts. I'm still smiling.
Perfect for Fall - Chowder!
Gig Harbor Chowder Cook Off is Tomorrow
What could be more perfect for fall than a warm cup of chowder, in the cool sunny days of September? Tomorrow is that day in Gig Harbor.
The 10th annual Gig Harbor Chowder Cook off is tomorrow at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market. A great way to say farewell to summer, as well as farewell to the Gig Harbor Farmers Market until next April.
Tasting of the area chowders is free, just come on down to the market on Kimball Drive around 11am. Then vote for your favorite for the coveted People's Choice award. This award as well as the judges choices for awards will be announced around 1pm.
The weather looks great and it should be really fun day, through out the market and the Gig Harbor. Salute to summer and say hello to fall tomorrow at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market! www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com
Read more → Comments (0)The Green. House Opens in Gig Harbor
Fun and flavorful dining option
I was lucky enough to join the new owner of The Green. House Restaurant Chef Robert Green along with his staff at last nights official opening and open house. We are all so excited to see another restaurant go into this location at Uptown, and congratulate Chef Green for us great food and dining concept.
First class but not overly pricey, The Green. House is working towards a menu with locally grown products being featured through out, with a focus on sustainable, fresh, farm to fork family food! Chef Robert Green returns with his own fresh daily and seasonal menus, organic sustainable, farm sourced foods and regional wines.
Read more → Comments (0)
Do You Think There is Enough To Do
This is the busiest week of the year!
In all the years I've been in Gig Harbor, there has never been a week like this one. Truly the busiest and most exciting week in Gig Harbor that I can ever remember. The GRAND OPENING of the long-awaited HARBOR HISTORY MUSEUM is the shining jewel on the crown of this week, and the crown itself is made of of some amazing other gems. It's a long list, so I'm just gonna put it out there - choose one or all, you can't go wrong in Gig Harbor during this history making week:
Gig Harbor Quilt Festival Quilt Exhibit at the Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview Street. www.gigharborquiltfestival.org
Gig Harbor Quilt Walk, downtown Gig Harbor Sept 15-18th www.gigharborguide.com
HAIRSPRAY, WA Community Theatre premier, opens September 17th at Paradise Theatre www.paradisetheatre.org
Gig Harbor Farmers Market, Saturday September 18th at Kimball Park and Ride www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com
Open Studio Tour through out the Gig Harbor Peninsula regional Saturday and Sunday September 18 & 19th www.gigharboropenstudiotour.org
Harbor Hounds Walk the Town, annual dog walk and festival, downtown Gig Harbor Saturday September 18th, www.harborhounds.com
The Ninth Annual Fox Island Garage Sale and Market, Saturday September 18th www.foxisland.net
The Gig Harbor Lions Club Salmon Bake, Saturday September 18th ramlbird@comcast.net
SalmonChanted Evening, auction and dinner to benefit Hands on Art, auctioning off this years SalmonChanted Harbor Art, beautiful one of kind heron sculptures. Saturday evening September 18th. Tickets at www.salmonchantedharbor.org
And, the GRAND OPENING OF THE NEW, STATE OF THE ART
HARBOR HISTORY MUSEUM. This is a "not to be missed" museum. Not your Grandma's history museum. See it first on September 18th when it will be free all day and include lots of great events for all ages! www.harborhistorymuseum.org
I'll see you out there, having a good time in my favorite town - GIG HARBOR WASHINGTON
Learn more at www.gigharborguide.com
Read more → Comments (0)Help Support the Homestead at Alder Cove
Music event to raise funds at Borders Cafe
Gig Harbor is blessed to have individuals like Sue Braaten, owner of the Best Western Wesley Inn. Sue owns and operates a hotel and in her "spare time" is a tireless advocate for foster children. Her Homestead at Alder Cover project http://www.homesteadcove.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=47975 is working to provide a stable home where every child feels safe, secure, valued, and able to nurture their sense of personal worth.
The Homestead at Alder Cove will provide a consistent nurturing and safe home for children between 8 and 18 years old. It will maintain a vacancy factor for children returning from failed placements. They will work with the State of Washington and other local agencies to provide a safe, loving and stable home for these children and serve as an adoption agency and facilitate adoption placements, as needed.
Read more → Comments (0)