Besides the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day—we could take or leave that last one—February doesn’t have too much going on. It’s a great month to head somewhere warm to escape the winter weather, but it seems like this season hasn’t even been that chilly or snowy. That’s why we’re suggesting the old standby—drinking—to get you through this month. Here’s three beer festivals where you can toast to February:

Cincy Winter Beerfest

They’re preparing plenty of kegs, glasses, and other beer paraphernalia in preparation for this month’s frothy festival in Cincinnati. The fun takes place on February 10 and 11, and there are still plenty of tickets available for you and your drinking buddies. This year tickets will set you back $35 in advance of the party, and that’ll get you a snazzy souvenir cup—capable of holding five ounces—that you can refill up to 25 times. Things get underway each evening around 7:30pm, and the last call is just after 10pm so be sure to pace yourself.

The drinking take place at the Duke Energy Convention Center, and this year’s festival marks the end of the inaugural edition of the city’s beer week. Expect at least 300 different craft beers from here, there, and everywhere, and organizers are hoping for at least 10,000 beer fans to be in attendance. Brewers like Dogfish Head, Elevator, and Three Floyds are just some of the attendees planning to show off their lagers and ales. Organizers even have a spreadsheet of those planning to attend, so you can even take time to prepare your plan of attack. ]]> kjb 2012-02-02T12:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/4/63817/51693

The holidays might be over, but that doesn’t mean that the need to warm up with an adult beverage has gone away. Sure there aren’t any holiday beers at these festivals, but there are still plenty of winter puns available and brewers are doing their best to warm you up. Here’s three winter beer festivals arriving this January on three different weekends:

· Columbus Winter Beerfest – Columbus, Ohio:
When you think of craft brews and beers you might not think of Columbus, Ohio, but organizers of the Columbus Winter Beerfest are looking to change that. This year’s festival filled with winter warmers and hoppy ales takes place on January 14. The plan is to have like 250—or more—different beers from all over the place, and they’re expecting like 6,000 beer fans to enjoy each and every one. Things take place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center beginning at 6:30pm, and they even have hotel packages available at the local Hyatt in case you enjoy one too many.

Samples include pretty much every beer brewed in Central Ohio, as well as plenty of other options from outside the Buckeye State. Tickets will set you back $30 in advance, and that’ll get you 25 tickets for plenty of different samples including sips of Elevator Dirty Dick’s Brown Ale, Fat Heads Bumbleberry Ale, and Left Hand Milk Stout. Oh, and if you have a great time at this festival, be sure to check out their next event—there’s a summer beer festival in May as well. ]]> kjb 2012-01-04T11:36:20-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/6/62359/7851

Whether you like it or not the holiday season has definitely arrived, so you might as well embrace it. That’s why now's a good time to skip out on the holiday shopping—and maybe work—to see how all those candy canes get from the factory to the store.

Spangler Candy makes tons of candy canes each year, and they’ll be more than happy to show you how all the sticky and stripe-y creations come together. If peppermint isn’t your thing—don’t worry—they also make Circus Peanuts and Dum-Dums.

The factory is open each day of the week during the summer, but during the winter months the doors are open to visitors between Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 3pm. They’ve got a little store—for souvenirs of course—and museum, but they do recommend giving a call to ensure they’ve got a spot for you since it’s first come first served. ]]> kjb 2011-12-06T09:35:11-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/11/11/04440/934

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Buying off-brand Peanut Butter Cups is risky. Oftentimes they just aren't as yummy as Reese's and, even worse, they could come in a holiday tin with a Currier & Ives scene printed on the top. Yuck. That's why it's high time to share a secret indulgence of our own which can only be gotten in parts of Ohio.

The peanut butter and chocolate treats are Buckeyes, shaped like the actual nuts they're named for, but tasting so much better. Their existence is a school- and state-spirit thing, and you'll find them in Columbus to honor OSU, and Toledo, because that's nearest where they're made (in Perrysburg, Ohio). Both cities are usually passed through on road trips, but we advocate taking an hour to detour and find Buckeyes. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-11-11T13:43:28-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/8/17/14910/0349

TSA spokesman James Fotenos has emailed us a clarification about this story. Check the bottom of this post for the update, including an answer on what you can expect from TSA's Gingerbread Man scanner policies!

It's kind of a big day for Ohio travelers, as three of the state's airports got the new Gingerbread Man full-body scanners that TSA has been rolling out. Officials at CLE, TOL, and DAY have started routing flyers toward the new and very much working machines, which provide all the security of the old scanners without the backlash-inducing nudey picture overtones.

Further east, RDU is supposed to be getting the new scanners in the coming days, and of course we covered the installations in BWI and TPA in the political/technical backgrounder we did last week (you can read it here).

TSA officials are talking as if the new machines will resolve the concerns that everyone has with full-body scanners. We're not so sure. ]]> Omri 2011-08-17T14:09:10-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/6/21/65719/9348

Today is going to be a long day—literally—as the sun does its thing in the northern hemisphere longer than any other day this year. All that sunshine brings out the crazy and fun in people across the country, and there are plenty of festivals and gatherings to celebrate the season. Here’s just three of the best that you can attend this week and this weekend:

· Skandia Folkdance Society's Midsommarfest:
Citizens of the Seattle area are ready to celebrate the summer solstice this weekend along with their Swedish heritage at this year’s Midsommarfest. The area’s Skandia Folkdance Society is responsible for the seasonal celebration this weekend, as visitors and locals are invited to welcome the arrival of summer at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore, Washington.

The fun begins around 11am local time on Sunday, June 26 with plenty of music, folk dancing, flower crowns, and food; however, the main event happens at about 2:30 in the afternoon. That’s when the grand parade is in full swing and everyone gathers around to witness the raising of the majstång—that’s the garlanded midsommar pole and not something from IKEA. Admission to the event is free, as is parking, so if you’re in the area and want to celebrate a little summer and a little Scandinavia this is probably a must see. ]]> kjb 2011-06-21T08:29:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/4/21/03714/2063

If you missed the Boston Marathon earlier this week—don’t worry—there’s still plenty of marathons where you can risk injury to gain access to a gold medal. The Boston Marathon doesn’t really have a theme or anything clever going for it, so that’s why we’re glad we skipped it to focus on the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon.

The main even takes places on Sunday, May 1 where runners from across the nation and the globe will make their way through the city and to the Finish Swine—their words not ours—as quickly as possible. We’re not experts when it comes to road races, but this has got to be one of the few marathons that actually takes runners across a state line—here they even run into Kentucky. ]]> kjb 2011-04-21T11:02:09-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/