Travel calendar
Windy City Wine Festival
While you'll never be as cool as Johnny Depp (changing his "Winona Forever" tattoo to "Wino Forever" and moving to France), a little working knowledge about your Zins and Syrah's could move you out of the clueless category. Check out the legs on Cabernets and Chardonnays at the Windy City Wine Festival, Sept. 5-6 at Daley Bicentennial Plaza, 337 East Randolph St. A $25 ticket allows 10 samples of more than 250 global vintages, plus wine seminars and cooking demos in between. Pretend to be listening to local musical talent when the head begins to wobble and nibble items from top Chicago restaurants and caterers. Buy tickets in advance for $25 at (847) 382-1480 or browse www.windycitywinefestival.com. Procrastinators pay $30 at the gate.
Back-to-school shopping package
Now that little Madison and Ryan realize their school attire is so 2007, you need to book the Avenue hotel Chicago's Back-to-School Shopping Package. For $179 per night including breakfast, enjoy the luxury and comfort of this newest Mag Mile property, along with special discounts from local retailers at Water Tower Place and the shops at 900 N. Michigan Avenue. You'll have access to the rooftop pool and sun deck to squeeze a little more summer out of the season, too. The package is valid only through Sept. 6, so call 877-AVE-5110 or scurry to www.avenuehotelchicago.com.
The Ultimate Urban Adventure Game
If your talent pie chart shows a bigger slice in the brains department than the brawn, you'll want to enter High Trek Adventure Chicago: The Ultimate Urban Adventure Game. The one-of-a-kind urban race that's part scavenger hunt, part Trivial Pursuit takes you and a partner through some of the city's historic neighborhoods while cracking clues ranging from pop culture and math to American history and anagrams. Metro adventurers get a T-shirt, swag bag of goodies and a chance to win round-trip airfare. Saturday, Sept. 13. Register at www.hightrekadventure.com/chicago-urban-race.
Midwest
LayFlats Arts and Music Festival
The family-oriented LayFlats Arts & Music Festival has more than doubled in size, bringing more than 50 local and regional bands and more than 50 juried artists to the Tippecanoe Outdoor Amphitheater in West Lafayette, Ind. The weekend of Sept. 12 -13 offers hands-on art and music workshops for adults and kids, tasty local food and drink and lots of entertainment. Tickets are $15 for a two-day pass, $10 for a single day pass and children 12 and under get in for free. Visit www.layflatsfestival.com or call (765) 464-8170 for details and directions.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Although Mum's the word at the Chicago Botanic Garden, it's not the entire story this fall at the Glencoe attraction. The Garden displays 1,700 red chrysanthemums planted at the Lake Cook Road entrance and around the gatehouse, and each of the 23 specialty gardens is awash in fall hues from mums, asters, pumpkins and pansies. Visit any weekend for spectacular color shows and special events such as: Roadside Flower Workshops on Sept. 3-6, Roadside Flower Sale, Sept. 12-14; African violet show and sale on Sept. 20-21; and subsequent dahlia, orchid, daffodil and lily shows and sales. Talented chefs create nouveau dishes from fresh, seasonal ingredients Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 5, too. Leaf through www.chicagobotanic.org/plantshows or ring (847) 835-5440.
Celebration on the Grand - Grand Rapids, Michigan No tickets needed to attend the Celebration on the Grand, a premiere end-of-a-summer festival that attracts more than 200,000 people to downtown Grand Rapids. The free festival, always held the weekend after Labor Day, features national and local bands (like Bad Company), a fabulous fireworks show and low cost, appetizing bites from tapas to Thai. On Saturday, area museums and zoos offer free admission for your customized "Tour the Grand." Sept. 4-6, 2008. Call (616) 752-8257 or sightsee www.celebrationonthegrand.org.
Worth the Trip
The 12th Annual Cape May Food & Wine Festival
New Jersey cuisine is more than Carmela Soprano's Baked Ziti with Sunday gravy. Cape May, the nation's first seaside resort, hosts the 12th Annual Cape May Food & Wine Festival, Sept. 20-25. The event includes a Harvest Food & Wine Tasting, Gourmet Marketplace and People's Choice Chowder Contest, five different Chefs' Dine-Arounds, Fisherman's Wharf Tour, gourmet luncheons, winery cellar tours and tastings, beer-tasting dinner, seminars and classes during six days of culinary celebration. The area also offers beaches, a lighthouse, historic and nature sites and Victorian Inns. Call (800) 275-4278 or feast at www.capemaymac.org.