Coastal Companion

Your ultimate guide to the coast

From Monroe to Ocean, Architecture and Jazz. Explore in Jacksonville, Fl

by

The Beaches Museum & History Center present the work of award-winning architect, William Morgan, Jan. 16 through Feb. 13, 2010. Maintaining that there is no such thing as primitive architecture but only primitive means, Morgan relates buildings and human activity to the ecological context, thus revealing the universality of phenomena while also advocating creative freedom. An Evening at the Museum with William Morgan will be held Feb. 11, 2010, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

The Beaches Museum and History Center
413 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville Bch, FL 32250
(904) 241-5657

Jazz it Up

Beginning Jan. 20, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens will unveil a new must-see exhibit for jazz fans of all ages. Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits by Paul Rogers highlights jazz greats through poetry, from A (Louis Armstrong) to Z (Dizzy Gillespie). Each portrait and poem is evocative of the particular musician’s sound, and each work of art alludes to song titles, artifacts, and other markers of the time, including artistic references to well-known artists who were particularly inspired by jazz music.

The Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens
829 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida 32204
904.356.6857


Life as a Legend: Marily Monroe
Marilyn Monroe is once again in the limelight at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville this season. The feature exhibition, Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe, will debut on Jan. 22 and run through April 4, 2010. Forever Blonde, a captivating one-woman live performance celebrating the life and glamour of Marilyn Monroe will take the stage Thursdays through Sundays Feb. 11 to March 7, 2010. On March 13, MOCA will host the Mad About Marilyn Soirée, a Hollywood-style party featuring diamond-laced cocktails, live music, dancing and late-night tours of the Marilyn exhibition.

MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art
333 North Laura Street,Jacksonville, FL, 32202 USA
(904) 366-6911

Virtual Ocean Trip
A fully immersive maze-based exhibit starts on January 30 at The Museum of Science and History (MOSH) in Jacksonville. A-Mazing Sea is a virtual trip into the ocean with surprises around every corner – from role play games and puzzles to problem-solving and deep-sea sleuthing.

A-Mazing Sea compels visitors to climb into sea turtle shells, crawl through a whale’s mouth and reach into an octopus cave while discovering simple solutions for challenges that face inhabitants of the deep blue and beyond.

MOSH Museum of Science and History
1025 Museum Circle, Jacksonville, Florida 32207
904-396-6674

New Year’s Eve for the family – Charleston, SC

by

Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina with lots of fun and activities for the whole family. This is perfect if you have family visiting town, or if you have younger children celebrating New Year’s with you. Head to downtown Charleston and Marion Square for an evening out on the town. The festivities begin at 4:00 pm and end with fireworks at 10:15 pm.

On the main stage – entertainment from drumming to sing-a-longs and at 8:00 pm the headliner “Total Package” takes the stage.
Fireworks at 10:15 pm!!

Kidsfest Under the Tent
There’s a special tent at Marion Square for kids with everything from face painting, arts and crafts, balloon art and sing-a-longs.

At 4:50 pm a bagpiper will lead the way to the Second Presbyterian church for free concerts. At 5:00 pm there’s a special concert for kids called “The Velveteen Rabbit”

  • 6:30 pm Baroque Splendor: music of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi
  • 8:00 pm Chamber Music of Charleston
  • 9:00 pm, Brass Concert performed by Charles Towne Brass with Julia Harlow

This event is presented by the City of Charleston.
The concerts take place at Second Presbyterian Church, 342 Meeting Street.
For more information call (843) 724-7305

Holiday Events for the Family in Jacksonville, Florida

by

Many of us have friends and family visiting for the holidays, or we have kids who are home from school. Sometimes you just need something to do that fits the whole family. We have found a few events the family can enjoy together, and these events will� get you into the holiday spirit without breaking your budget.

We suggest you take a break from the holiday hustle and bustle and enjoy a late afternoon or early evening in downtown Jacksonville.

First, take a walk around the downtown area and look at the beautiful holiday window displays.  This is definitely going to look best when it’s starts to get dark. When the 2009 windows were unveiled and many walkers joined Mayor John Peyton for a tour of holiday windows. But if you haven’t seen them yet, don’t worry, the 15 holiday windows are still on display and you can download a printable map  in pdf format right here.

Christmas Tree Light Show at Jacksonville Landing

christmas-tree-200At night you can watch the synchronized Christmas tree light show at the landing. Over 78,000 LED lights in the Christmas tree are synchronized to blink to holiday music to spread holiday cheer in the courtyard. I’m sure this is a big hit with the younger crowd – and it’s free� – which is always an extra plus in my book

Christmas Tree Light Shows:
Sun – Thurs 6 pm – 9 pm and Fri – Sat 6 pm – midnight

On Saturday Dec 18 at 7 pm the Navy Band Southeast perform with a special Christmas Concert at the Jacksonville Landing. This is also free.

If you come early in the day, maybe you can even combine your walk with some free holiday music at city hall. Check out the schedule below.

Holiday Entertainment at City Hall St. James

December 2009
City Hall at St. James Atrium
Free Admission

Friday,� Dec. 18

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – U.S. Navy – Holiday Brass
1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Ritz Voices

holly-150Monday, Dec. 21

1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Orange Blossom Country Music Association, Inc.

Tuesday, Dec. 22

1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – 100 Youth Voices

Wednesday, Dec. 23

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. – Rebecca Hewitt

The Gingerbread Extravaganza and Victorian House Tours

It’s only $5.00 to go and see the magnificent and unique gingerbread houses at Old St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, but the exhibit is well worth a visit. The proceeds go to charity, so it’s money well spent and this is definitely an event for the whole family.

OLD ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
317 A. Philip Randolph Blvd. Jacksonville, FL 32202
This annual� event at the Old St. Andrews brings thousands to the site to enjoy the artistic Gingerbread exhibit installed in a National Register Site.

GB logo 2007

The 2009 Gingerbread Extravaganza Details:

until December 23, 2009
Wednesday – Saturday – Exhibit Hours: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Tuesdays, December 1, 8 & 15: By Appointment

General Public Open Dates
Wednesday – Saturday, December 3rd -20th: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Week before Christmas – 11a.m. – 5 p.m.

Monday, December 21, Tuesday, December 22, and Wednesday, December 23

Call (904) 391-3425
For more information visit� www.jaxhistory.com

snowjax

Read our previous post about the Rotary Gingerbread House Extravaganza in Jacksonville, Florida

Track Santa’s arrival via Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

by

This year you can go high-tech and track Santa’s arrival with the help of NORAD – the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Follow Santa’s flight via Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more. Even OnStar is on board.

It’s that time of the year again and the North American Aerospace Defense Command is getting ready to track Santa! The NORAD Tracks Santa Web site, www.noradsanta.org, is now live and features fun holiday games and activities that change daily. The Web site is available in seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese. On Dec. 24, the website will stream videos, captured by NORAD “Santa Cams,” from numerous cities along Santa’s journey.

This year, children and the young-at-heart are able to track Santa through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and TroopTube.mil. To follow us on any of these Web sites, type in @noradsanta into the search engine and start your tracking.

New this year, OnStar is partnering with NORAD to provide OnStar subscribers with live Santa updates as they travel in their vehicles on Christmas Eve. Subscribers simply push the blue OnStar button to get status reports on Santa’s whereabouts.

Also new and beginning at 12:00 a.m. MST on Dec. 24, visitors to the website can watch Santa as he prepares his sleigh, checks his list, and goes through all his preparations to ensure he has a successful journey.

As soon as Santa takes off from the North Pole, children can also track him with up-to-the-minute Google Maps and Google Earth reports.

Santa trackers will begin answering phones and replying to email at 4:00 a.m. MST (6:00 a.m. EST) on Christmas Eve. Children of all ages can call the NTS toll free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.

The NTS program is carried out with the assistance of many corporate partners. Booz Allen Hamilton has designed the NTS Web site. Other sponsors helping with the event include Verizon, who donates the toll-free number, Time Warner, Avaya and PCI provide communications engineering, while OnStar, 5 Star Bank, Pepsi Distributing and First Choice Awards and Gifts keep the trackers happy with food, beverages and souvenir tracking pins.

The NTS program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after a phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo. who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested – the whereabouts of Santa. This began the tradition of tracking Santa, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958.

The NTS program has grown immensely since first presented on the Internet in 1998. The Web site receives millions of unique visitors from hundreds of countries and territories around the world. In addition, the NTS Operations Center will be occupied for 25 hours with over 1,200 volunteers on Christmas Eve, who will be receiving hundreds of thousands phone calls and emails from families around the world.

We look forward to helping you with NORAD Tracks Santa!
santaclaus

A Christmas Carol on IMAX in St Augustine

by

Disney’s “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come, will premiere on the largest IMAX screen in northeast Florida Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. The film will be a special engagement at the World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theater with tickets being $13 for adults with discounts for children, military, seniors and students. Tickets may be purchased and additional film information may be found at www.wgv.com.

“A Christmas Carol” is Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of an old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who must face Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come as they help to bring kindness to his otherwise cold heart. The Ghosts remind Scrooge of the man he used to be, the hard truth of what the world is today and what will happen if he does not strive to be a better man. Set around Christmas, the most joyous day of the year, Scrooge realizes the sharp contrast of his own personality.

“A Christmas Carol” is rated PG for scary sequences and scary images and runs one hour and 36 minutes. The film will play at the World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theater through Monday, Jan. 18, 2010.

The theater also is currently presenting a holiday favorite, “The Polar Express,” on the big screen through Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. The 90-minute animated holiday adventure based on the Caldecott Award-winning book by Chris Van Allsburg, tells the story of a boy battling with the belief of Santa Claus’ existence and takes audiences on the boy’s extraordinary journey to the North Pole. Tickets for “The Polar Express” are $6 for all ages.

Closed captioning services are available for both holiday films. For all film and ticket information, visit the IMAX Theater section of www.wgv.com.

Additionally, Santa Claus will make appearances at the World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theater lobby around the holiday films. Santa’s schedule is as follows:

snowflakeSaturday, Dec. 5  -  10 to 11 a.m.
Sunday, Dec. 6  – 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 12  – 10:30 to 11 a.m. and 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 13  – 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2:30 to 3 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 19  – 12 to 2:30 p.m.

Watch our video from the Disney Train Tour “A Christmas Carol” in Jacksonville, Florida below