Coastal Companion

Your ultimate guide to the coast

Slow Food First Coast Hosts “Meal and a Movie Night” – Jacksonville

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Slow Food First Coast is hosting a “Meal and a Movie Night” on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at the St. Johns County Agricultural Center at 6 PM.  The event will coincide with both Earth Day festivities and the celebration of Women’s History Month.  The meal will feature an all-vegetarian buffet of fresh, local produce catered by Johnny’s Kitchen of Hastings, followed by a pre-release limited screening of “A Sense of Wonder,” a documentary style film about Rachel Carson’s pioneering work as the founder of the contemporary environmental movement.  Cost for the event is $20 and tickets may be purchased by calling (904) 692-1800 weekday mornings.  Seating is limited.  The film is only being shown in a small number of communities across the country.

“What better way to celebrate both Earth Day and the contribution of women to our society than to eat a delicious, local, vegetarian meal where the produce was pulled from the ground that very morning and follow it up with a fascinating film about Rachel Carson?” remarked Slow Food First Coast leader Richard Villadóniga.  “This event is a celebration not only of how far we have come as a society, but where we are headed.  Rachel Carson was ahead of the curve, but today, right here in St. Johns County, people are doing tremendous things to protect our natural resources and the future is bright.”

According to the film’s website, “A Sense of Wonder” is “an intimate and poignant reflection of Carson’s life as she emerges as America’s most successful advocate for the natural world” as she battled cancer in her final year of life.   The film was shot in HD by Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler at Carson’s cottage on the coast of Maine.  For more information regarding this remarkable film, visit http://www.asenseofwonderfilm.com/.

Slow Food First Coast is a non-profit organization that promotes local food production, the preservation of our community’s culinary and cultural heritage, and public education and discourse on a system of food production and consumption that supports equity, sustainability, and quality.  Slow Food is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.  For more information visit www.slowfoodusa.org.

Sounds on Centre Season Returns to Fernandina, Amelia Island

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Spring is in the air and a sure sign of warmer weather is that the concert series  Sounds on Centre returns to downtown Fernandina. The 2009 season kicks off in March and the free concert series will continue until October – except in the month of May.

The concerts are free, so come and hang out downtown on the First Friday of every month from 6.00 pm to 8.00 p.m in historic downtown Fernandina, right on Centre Street.

The line up is as follows:

April 3: Instant Groove
June 5: Tuff-A-Nuff
July 3rd: Out of Hand
Aug 7: Face for Radio
Sept 4: Touch of Gray
Oct 2: Les DeMerle Jazz All Stars

Bring you whole family downtown for some fun and dancing with music from the sixties, seventies and eighties…

Wild Ways Tours by Amelia River Cruises

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Amelia River Cruises has set the dates for its next series of Wild Ways Tours offering tourists and locals, alike, the unique experience that has earned a nomination as Best of the Best in Boat Cruises by WJXT. Votes are now being recorded for a wide range of Jacksonville and surrounding area businesses by category.
A link to voting can be found on the company’s home page at www.ameliarivercruises.com.

To celebrate this nomination, Captain/historian Kevin McCarthy of Amelia River Cruises and international zoologist/columnist Dr. Pat Foster-Turley are conducting a new series of Wild Ways boat tours this spring in and around Cumberland Sound. Each tour will visit different places and tell different tales of local history and wildlife here and around the world.

All tours will be about three hours long depending on wildlife and wild happenings that are encountered along the way. Tours are scheduled for 10:30 AM on Tuesday March 31st and Tuesday April 28, and at 6 PM on Saturday, May 16th as part of the Wild Amelia Nature Festival. Tours will embark from the Fernandina Beach downtown marina at the foot of Centre Street and cost $38 per person plus tax.

Soft drinks are provided but people are encouraged to bring their own snacks and other drinks if they wish. For more information and to make reservations, call Amelia River Cruises at 904-261-9972.

Those interested in scheduling their own chartered Wild Ways Tour can call the office or visit us on the web at www.ameliarivercruises.com.

Savannah Music Festival 2009

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The city of  Savannah has spring fever.  First it’s St Patrick’s Day and the city is taken over by a green, then the city follows up with a classy music festival unlike any other. The Savannah festival is unique, it offers up a buffet of music. There is truly something for everyone, and you really can’t imagine a more appropriate city for such a festival.

The Savannah Festival kicks of on March 19th  and continues thru April 5th, 2009. It’s difficult to give you any guidance as to choice of music. Just take a look at their extensive program and read the information on the festival website, it’s enough to keep you busy for a while.  Click here to visit Savannah Music Festival.

The video below gives you a pretty good idea as well. And if you didn’t know, the festival also made it as the weekly pick for Coastal Companion’s weekly show, the Georgia edition.