Category: Festivals and Fairs
Festivals and Fairs
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Canterbury Village 2022
After dropping off the family at Great Lakes Crossing, Dad went about ten miles down the street to Canterbury Village to check out the shops and see if new Halloween or Christmas items were in. Usually Canterbury was quiet but not today, the entire village had dinosaurs in it. These were high tech animatronics and pretty cool. Dad did a quick walk around the village taking these pictures, then went into the store to check on the gifts. Dad then headed back to Great Lakes Crossing to pick up the family.This is one time for sure that Dad got the better part of the shopping deal. (more…)
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Concert At Magic Bag in Ferndale 2021
Our first family concert since the pandemic was at the Magic Bag in Ferndale where we saw two great Blues/Rock bands live. The first band was GA-20 which is a band from Boston and was simply awesome. The second was J.D. Simo who had a definite Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robin Trower style guitar.After the concert, Mary and James got a chance to meet the band members, buy CD’s and T-shirts (which they autographed), and get their pictures taken with the band members. They were all great and a great time was held by all.
I should mention that this was the first time we had to actually provide proof of vaccination for anything.
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Novi Halloween Convention 2021
We visited Novi (second time in two days as the Wounded Warrior fund raiser was the day before) for their Halloween convention. All sorts of celebrities were there signing autographs, most of them we did not know but it was nice to see fun they were generating. We ended up getting several items including a Zombie Girl prop for our upcoming Halloween party in October.The event was held at the Sheraton on 8 mile in the Farmington/Novi area and was a great break in the action for the family who had not been able to go to events like this the past year due to the pandemic. (more…)
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82nd Abbott Get Together 2019
James attended the 82nd Abbott Get Together in Colon Michigan along with his Mom, Dad, and Dynamike the Magician. Mom was hoping to get good seats for the show because her favorite performer, fellow Nashville Native Stephen Bargatze, was performing this particular night. Mary got to know Stephen several years back when he was performing at Abbotts Closeup Convention. When she was a child, she remembered her bus driver was called Sim Bargatze and she wanted to meet Stephen to see if that was a relative of his. She worked with Hank Moorehouse of Abbotts who introduced them and as it turned out, it was Stephens Uncle who drove her on the bus.The show was great, Stephen was fantastic, and the seats were awesome, thanks to Abbotts for making this a very memorable experience for the whole family. Afterwards we went to the dealers room to see the latest magic for sale and everyone loved the “Devils Candle” effect which would be perfect for Halloween. After watching several demo’s we watched Abbott’s make the presentation of awards to the young magicians who completed in the stage talent contest earlier in the day.
A great time was had by all and we even included a short video of the Devils Candle!
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Made In Michigan Market at Canterbury Village 2019
We visited the “Made in Michigan Market” which was held in Canterbury Village. This was the first time I ever saw the Canterbury Village parking lot full, with additional parking across the street. Fortunately we were lucky and got a good spot as someone was pulling out. Lots of interesting booths and we decided to sign up with home delivery for the Free Press as they gave us Kroger gift cards to do so. It should be fun for James to get a morning paper to read as we think he will enjoy it. Mom got a free umbrella for signing up too, its design was based on the comic section of the Free Press.One sad note, we found out the Department 56 store was closed, we purchased many of our Halloween display ceramics there and it will be missed.
After we left Canterbury we visited Great Lakes Crossing which is only a few miles away, a good time was had by all.
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Marshall Blues Festival 2019
After missing this event due to weather and date changing, we were back on for the Blues Festival which takes place annually in Marshall Michigan. This event used to take place two weeks after the Fourth of July, now it takes place two weeks prior to the Fourth of July. This means the Halloween decorations are not yet out at Cracker Barrel which used to be part of this trip. While Mom was at the Blues Festival, James and his Dad took a trip to Colon, the Magic Capital, to see what was going on there, then stopped at the Marshall K Mart as finding an open K mart anywhere is rare. The day ended with a feast at Los Tres Amigo’s in Jackson.
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Autorama 2019
Autorama,also known as “World of Wheels”, made its way to Detroit’s Cobo Hall this weekend and James and his family made the most of their visit to the “D”. However, todays visit was a complete surprise to the family as Dad surprised them with tickets to the event (AKA America’s Premier Custom Show Car Series). James and his mother did not even know where they were going till we were in the car on 94 and well on our way to Detroit. While they had plenty of hot rods there as advertised, we were very happy to find lots more including plenty of toys and hard to find collectible. Mom picked up a t shirt and James picked up a metal Ford plaque while we were looking the cars (including the ultimate car, the Bat Mobile), Its been a while since we have been to Cobo Hall in Detroit, and we were surprised to find out that the Hall of Fame plaques had been moved since our last visit. -
Lincoln Park Days Festival 2018
Big festival in Lincoln Park with tons of rides, midways, and even a small petting zoo. James visited to support his VIP camp and bought some lottery tickets at the VIP Camp booth. James participated in the Police frisbee throw and won a frisbee, he also got a free water bottle at one of the booths so he was very happy about that. Later we visited the petting zoo and were totally impressed by two turtles that they had there (there were other animals but the turtles were pretty cool). On the way home we stopped at Sears, then picked up lunch at Wendy’s, all in all a very fun time. -
Abbotts 81st Magic Get Together 2018
Wow, did we have a good time at the Abbotts Get Together. Unlike last year, the fireworks were not rained out on Friday and looked awesome. The weather was perfect, perhaps a little on the hot side as it hit 91 degrees on Saturday, but it wasn’t that unbearable heat that sometimes happens in August. We saw several magic shows, the Friday night firework show, street performers, magic dealers, and some of the best magicians in the world. If you have not had a chance to see a Get Together show you should make sure to plan for one next year, as the shows are really incredible but the atmosphere is where the real magic is, just a wonderful bunch of people having fun doing magic.
