North America’s largest & longest-running kite festival
During the third full week of August, the charming coastal town of Long Beach, Washington hosts the Washington State International Kite Festival, the largest and longest-running kite festival in North America.
And it’s free.
The 2025 festival takes place from August 18 to 24 and includes kite competitions and performances, including synchronized kite ballet and mass ascensions where hundreds of kites fill the sky at once. Other kite festival activities include kite-making workshops, nighttime lighted kite flying and lots of opportunities to fly your own kite.
While in Long Beach, be sure to visit the World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame.
The museum is home to more than 1,500 kites from 26 countries and includes a 300-piece Japanese kite collection and a set of WWII military kites.
(Kids with kite photo up top courtesy State Library and Archives of Florida via Flickr Commons)
This Oregon inn had us at “popcorn”
The Setting Inn Willamette Valley is a boutique retreat with an on-site wine tasting room in Newberg, Oregon, the heart of Oregon Wine Country.
We were fortunate to spend a delightful evening there a while back and loved the wine, the complimentary breakfast delivered to amenity-rich room, the indoor and outdoor gathering spots and the walkable grounds.
Now one of the inn’s new guest experiences has us contemplating a return trip.
From now through October, The Setting Inn is offering a Popcorn Pairing package that includes a bottle of The Setting Wines’ 2024 barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc with two bags of small-batch rosemary parmesan popcorn from Miss Hannah’s Gourmet Popcorn, a family-owned Newberg favorite.
Cruise news: Holland America’s behind-the-scenes tours
Holland America Line’s popular behind-the-scenes tours of its cruise ships were on pause for the past few years due to a variety of health and safety reasons.
But they’re back on the paid activity list.
Available fleetwide by the end of July, each behind-the-scenes tour visits shipboard locations such as the navigational bridge, galley and engine control room, main laundry, recycling center, bakery and bars.
Holland America Line will also be marking America’s 250th birthday in 2026 with a special round-trip cruise from Boston. The seven-day “America’s 250th Celebration: Stars & Stripes Voyage” aboard Zuiderdam departs July 4, 2026, and includes a special call at Norfolk, Virginia, with access to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown.
Bob Ross Experience at Indiana’s Minnetrista Museum
In 1887, the Ball family—makers of the famous Ball mason jars—moved their glass manufacturing business from Buffalo, New York, to Muncie, Indiana.
Today, that property is home to the 40-acre Minnetrista Museum & Gardens.
From 1983 to 1988, Bob Ross filmed “The Joy of Painting” in one of the homes on the property, which served as the studio for WIPB-TV.
Now, the home is the site of the Bob Ross Experience, an exhibition featuring original paintings and artifacts, and the restored television studio where the show was filmed.
Visitors can stand where Ross stood at his easel and even take a painting class from a Certified Ross Instructor.
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