Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, Your destination for travel resources and entertainment.

Calendar

A collection of fun events to keep you busy over the next three months.

November

Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge

We consider it a good start to the day if a morning run involves more than one street. Runners who sign up for the Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge will hoof it across more than one state. The 10-kilometer course starts at the tollgates near the westbound lane on the New Jersey side of the bridge and crosses over the Delaware River into Philadelphia, then loops back into New Jersey and finishes on the grass of Campbell’s Field, home to the Camden Riversharks. If you don’t feel like channeling your inner Forrest Gump, you’re in luck: Participants can also opt for the less strenuous two-mile bridge walk. No sweat.

4 New York City

Comedy Festival

Need a good laugh? How about a chortle, a giggle, or a hee-haw? You’ve come to the right place: The New York Comedy Festival serves as laugh-central for five days, bringing great comedic stars to the already comedy-rich island of Manhattan. Now in its sixth year, the Festival presents more than 150 comedians at 10 venues throughout the city, making it hard to narrow down the list of favorites. Try starting with headliner Ricky Gervais, star of movies and television, and perhaps most well known as the creator and star of the original British version of The Office. Tracy Morgan (30 Rock) and Bill Maher round out the announced talent, with organizers set to announce many more soon. Also on the agenda, “Stand Up For Heroes” returns in its third year, presented in partnership with the Bob Woodruff Foundation to raise money and awareness for our nation’s service members and their families. After all, cracking up for a good cause beats a regular guffaw any day.

Dallas International Art, Antique, and Jewelry Show

Need the perfect necklace to provide that signature style? You’ll only need to visit one place in the Big D this month when the Dallas International Art, Antique, and Jewelry Show kicks off at the Dallas Convention Center. Choose from more than 200,000 items, including furniture, antiques, paintings, fine jewelry, and plenty more. Art movers and shakers, take note: Purchases at the invitation-only Private Preview Party will benefit TACA, an organization that has raised more than $17 million for local artists. What better way to guarantee the show goes on.

Moss Rock Festival

If you’re going green, you’ll feel right at home at the Moss Rock Festival. Now in its fourth year, the festival takes its name from the Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover, Alabama, 15 miles outside Birmingham. Gather eco-friendly-living ideas, learn about new products, and stop by the Nature Cakes Expo and organic wine tasting for a snack. Ask HGTV’s Carter Oosterhouse for clean energy tips. And don’t forget to bring along that old printer or cell phone, since the festival will be collecting electronics for their recycling program. Once you’ve learned how to save the planet, go out and enjoy it. The 250 acres of the Preserve play host to rare species of plants, unique rock outcroppings, and nearly 10 miles of hiking trails. Take guided hikes to enjoy the fall display of colors, or join a group of geocachers for some hiding and seeking. After that, head back to the festival grounds to browse the juried art show, take in the design and sculpture competitions, or just kick back and listen to some live music. We’re talking nature at its best, and for free, so get to greening. Just try not to make a mess.

Kids Euro Festival

Treat your kids to a European vacation without ever stamping a passport. At the Kids Euro Festival in Washington, D.C., 27 European Union embassies and nearly two dozen cultural centers will school your kids on everything they need to know about life abroad. Watch the puppet performance about the 6-year-old Slovenian boy who finds himself in a fairytale after being carried away by a giant balloon. Or catch a Spanish illusionist and an Austrian opera for children. Keep an eye out for a few of Europe’s most talented children’s entertainers, including dancers and clowns. The festival also includes more than 150 other events, all of them free, and ends on Nov. 10. Let’s just hope they don’t teach your kids to say, “Are we there yet?” in more than one language.

Fabulous Food Festival

Foodies everywhere will find their fill of first-rate, flavorsome food at the Fabulous Food Festival on Nov. 7-–8 in San Francisco. (OK, we’ll lay off the letter F now.) Visitors can sample everything from cheeses to chocolates, soups to sauces, and condiments to cookies. In addition to good eats, the festival will offer demonstrations, live music, giveaways, and lectures on the latest recipes and techniques. And some old techniques too: Last year’s fest included a 1920s ice cream machine.

Hard Rock Imagine There’s No Hunger Campaign

Thirty-eight years ago John Lennon dreamed about a world free of poverty and hunger on his 1971 album Imagine. Today, Hard Rock International hopes to help see that dream realized with the Imagine There’s No Hunger campaign. If you can’t score tickets to the concert by O.A.R. at the Times Square restaurant, drop in to buy a copy of SERVE4, the digital album that will include live versions of new and previously unreleased tracks from artists like John Lennon (of course), Elvis Costello, and Eric Hutchinson. Proceeds from the album will benefit WHY, a nonprofit organization that fights hunger by teaching farming and entrepreneurial skills to poverty-stricken people.

Dallas Dance Festival

If shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars have you itching to cut a rug, don’t miss the Dallas Dance Festival from Nov. 12–15 in Irving, Texas, about 10 miles northwest of Dallas. The four-day event features classes and competitions in all styles and skill levels. The festival kicks off Thursday with a class on the fundamentals of country western dancing. On Saturday, couples can tackle the crown waltz and two-step, before transitioning to salsa routines on Sunday. An awards ceremony will wrap up the weekend with performances by the week’s top instructors and performers. Best of all, those twirls and shimmies might stretch your quads, but they won’t drain your life savings: A three-day pass costs $130.

Dreams Come True

Pixie dust replaces voodoo as New Orleans’ magic of choice when the New Orleans Museum of Art opens Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio. Disney’s newest animated feature The Princess and the Frog, debuting next month and set in the Big Easy, helps to set the scene. But before you check out the new Disney flick, find out how animated feature filmmaking changed over the years. Each room in the exhibit focuses on a different movie, displaying artwork and clips to illustrate how the images came to life. Starting with the series of shorts Silly Symphonies—released in the late 1920s and 1930s—the exhibit also covers classics like Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. The newest movie will have its own room, so you can catch a glimpse of its colorful characters (princess Tiana and a trumpet-playing alligator named—natch—Louis among them) before they hit the big screen. Just don’t go kissing any frogs around these parts. With all this magic floating around, you never know what will happen.

San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival

Normally Californians would head straight to Napa if they wanted a taste of the world’s finest vino, but this month the Golden State’s oenophiles will migrate south to San Diego for Southern California’s largest wine and food festival. Don’t know your chianti from your chablis? Enroll in a wine tasting seminar taught by some of the country’s best chefs, sommeliers, winemakers, and culinary pros. Once you’ve made the rounds, let Billy Strynkowski of Cooking Light and Sam Zien of Discovery Health’s Just Cook This! suggest what to pair with your new favorite vintage.

22 Seattle

MLS Cup

Are you ready for some football? No, the other kind. The MLS Cup, the championship game for Major League Soccer, will take place this year at Qwest Field in downtown Seattle. The final game marks the first time the MLS Cup teams have played at Qwest Field, already a popular venue for exposition games, as it was built to meet the regulations and requirements for the sport abroad. Seattle’s devoted fans hope their own team, the Sounders, will make it to the competition, but first they’ll have to get past other Western Conference favorites like the Houston Dynamo and USA Chivas. Perhaps they’ll end up facing the 2008 champion Columbus Crew, a team eager to defend the title, their first in the club’s history. Whatever the match-up, the game should offer good, clean, possibly confusing fun.

22 New York City

Tim Burton at MoMA

Wander the halls of the Museum of Modern Art, and you’ll find names like Cézanne, Rodin, Van Gogh—and Tim Burton? This month, the New York City museum will open a retrospective on the famous director. The exhibition includes an extensive collection of works by the creator of darkly whimsical films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice. Think drawings, paintings, puppets, costumes, and props—more than 700 pieces in all. A film retrospective presents all of Burton’s 14 movies, plus several early flicks that inspired him, including a 1931 version of Frankenstein. The exhibit also highlights some projects that never came to fruition, providing insight into the filmmaker’s creative mind. And though the exhibit closes on April 26, just remember: You’ll always have the DVD player.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Snoopy’s going off-Broadway this year—or at least the gigantic helium balloon that bears his face is. Bucking tradition, the 83^rd annual installment of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will float down 7^th Avenue for the first time, instead of taking its traditional route down Broadway. Organizers feel the new backdrop offers spectators a better view of the performers that will parade toward Herald Square. More than 3 million people will line the streets for the festivities, while another 50 million watch live on TV. But only those early birds that arrive the day before will get to see one of the event’s cooler sights: the inflation of all those colorful balloons.

Seattle Center Winterfest

Pirouette around a carousel from Nov. 27 to Dec. 31 at the Seattle Center’s Winter Fest celebration. The annual festival features more than 30 free events, including indoor ice-skating, carousel rides, magicians, and an aerial acrobatic show. Bundle up and check out the ice sculptures scattered around the Seattle Center grounds. In the evening, cozy up to the bonfire and listen to live music. To get yourself in the holiday spirit, hop on the winter train to see the 19^th-century miniature villages that replicate Seattle’s King Street Station, one of the city’s most famous landmarks.

December

Classic Cable Car Holiday Lights Tour

San Francisco’s holiday lights look their best from a cable car. Every holiday season, Classic Cable Car Sightseeing takes visitors and locals alike on tours of the twinkling lights of San Fran. But don’t confuse these with the cable cars on rails: These babies run on regular wheels. Back in the 1950s, the founder of the company retrofitted some of the original cable cars for regular driving. Since then, Classic Cable Car Sightseeing has added to its fleet by building replicas of the original cars by following the original blueprints and using authentic materials like oak and brass. On cool winter nights, tour operators give riders cozy blankets and Santa hats to keep the ears warm. Tours depart from Fisherman’s Wharf and Union Square, and they do sell out, so buy your tickets in advance. Then settle in and enjoy the sights as you celebrate the holidays, San Francisco–style.

Festival of Trees

Think it’s a chore getting your family’s Christmas tree ready for the holidays? Try decorating more than 800. That’s what the organizers of the Festival of Trees in Sandy, Utah, will do this year, all in preparation for their fundraising festival. At the event, located 15 miles south of Salt Lake City, each tannenbaum gets decked out for the holidays and sold to the highest bidder. Stop by the Sweet Shoppe for fudge, divinity, pecan rolls, and popcorn balls to munch on. As for the tasty homes in the Gingerbread Village, you’ll have to look and not touch. The Quilt Block showcases beautiful handmade blankets, and the Kids Korner offers face painting and other activities for kids. And as always, Kriss Kringle will hold court in Santa Land, taking names and wishes. Local citizens and businesses donate everything from the trees to the trucks that deliver them, and the proceeds benefit Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City. So put on your elf hat and celebrate the season while doing some good. Santa’s making a list, you know.

6 Las Vegas

Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon

Run past the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and giant pyramid all before lunch. Just watch out for the Running Elvi. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half Marathon have a new set of organizers this year, and they have managed a unique feat: winning permission to close down all seven and a half miles of Las Vegas Boulevard—home to the top casinos and hotels—for the first time. Tens of thousands of runners and their cheering fans can also hear live music and even take a trip to a run-through wedding chapel. And for the charity-minded, the Team Challenge program for this race benefits a good cause: the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Plan to stop by the free two-day health and fitness expo, held the Friday and Saturday before the race, and of course don’t forget to play a few hands of blackjack while you visit the Strip. See, you can have fun and get in shape at the same time. Now lace—and ante—up!

Craftboston Holiday 2009

Behind on your holiday shopping? You’ll find plenty to put under the tree at Craftboston, held from Dec. 11–13 in Beantown’s historic South End. Check out the work of 90 artists from all over the country, including limited-edition jewelry, furniture, ceramics, and one-of-a-kind contemporary art. Bargain-hunters will want to keep an eye out for the “Craft Under $100” logo scattered throughout the venue. We certainly will.

13 New York City

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

It just isn’t Christmas without high kicks. Watch the iconic Radio City Rockettes on Nov. 13–Dec. 30 execute perfectly synched routines at the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York City’s world-famous Radio City Music Hall. First performed in 1933, the show has grown into one of the Big Apple’s biggest holiday draws. Performances include old favorites like the “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” “New York at Christmas,” and the “Nutcracker.” Santa will fly through the air above the crowd, and actors will tell the story of the first Christmas with a live nativity scene on the stage. That’s enough to get a standing ovation out of any Scrooge.

Shen Yun Performing Arts

Remember the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics? Here’s a close—OK, sort of close—second. Prepare to be dazzled when Shen Yun Performing Arts enacts a classical Chinese dance routine based on ancient Chinese legends in Houston. The show has attracted more than 600,000 people to the world’s most famous stages. The show’s performers help bring the stories to life with elaborate costumes, earth-shaking drum processions, and synchronized movements. Sounds worthy of a gold medal.

January

BASH Winter Race Festival

Find a new way to play in the snow at the BASH Winter Race Festival held in Midway, Utah, about 45 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Want an extreme challenge? Try the National Championship Winter Triathlon, which includes a 5-kilometer run, 10-kilometer mountain bike, and 8-kilometer cross-country ski. Those of us with more than 5 percent body fat can opt for less taxing events like the short triathlon (5-kilometer run, 5-kilometer bike, 4-kilometer ski), the snowshoe fun run (5 kilometers), or the sprint skate ski race (2.5 kilometers). When you hit the slopes, you’ll be tracing the footsteps of Olympians, as the races take place on the cross-country ski trails of Soldier Hollow, a 2002 Winter Olympic venue. After you finish racing—or cheering on those who do—conclude your day with a slide down the 1,200-foot-long Tubing Hill, site of Utah’s longest tubing lanes.

ScrapArtsMusic

Now this is what we call recycling: The five musicians who make up the percussionist group ScrapArtsMusic turned a worthless pile of discarded metal, accordion parts, and artillery shells into more than 145 instruments. See for yourself when the Canadian quartet rocks Omaha’s Holland Performing Arts Center with a heart-pounding, 85-minute performance that critics compare to STOMP and Blue Man Group. Go if you dare, but know that you might leave marching to the beat of a different drum.

2010 Great Lakes Multi-sport and Running Expo

It’s OK if you’ve been putting off your New Year’s resolutions; it’d be a waste to throw away those leftover ginger man cookies. Get your fitness routine back on track at the 2010 Multisport and Running Expo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Take a dive in the Endless Pool and let the experts analyze your stroke, lace up a pair of running shoes and get a critique of your gait, or ask the professional bike fitters to help you pick out your perfect ride. If none of those options sound tempting, just wander around. The Expo takes in more than 70,000 square feet of booths and exhibits. You’ll have those calories burned before you can say “fruit cake.”