First Wednesday December 1

So much going on at Travel Salem tonight!
Travel Salem
181 High St. NE
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

"Come to the Travel Café at 181 High Street NE on December 1st from 5 - 8 p.m. to meet the chef from Wellspring’s Vitality Food & Spirits, learn about sustainable wine tours from Grand Cru Wine Tours and overnight packages at the newly-renovated Lodge at Detroit Lake and to get fun gift-giving ideas from the Salem Saturday Market's Holiday Market during Salem’s First Wednesday celebration." (click here to read all the details)

And this from Go Downtown (for the entire column, click here): "Take the Window Stroll- help determine which window will have that little extra holiday magic this year. You be the judge, stroll store to store and rate the windows. Turn in your completed voter’s ballot and be entered to win $100.00 in Downtown “Holiday” Dollars.

Play the Christmas Tree Game; it is on your same voter’s ballot. Match the photo to the correct tree to the correct store. We don’t make it too easy; the photo is only a partial image! (Hint: we will list all the participating stores). Pick up and return your voter’s ballot at the information tent on the corner of Court and Liberty.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without sugar cookies and candy canes, coffee, hot chocolate, and hot cider. Refreshments will be in participating stores and on the streets. Stop by Grand Vines for wine tasting and live music."

Salem Art Fair 2009

So the Salem Art Fair is coming up this weekend. I don't know about everyone else, but I LOVE the art fair. There is nothing else like it from the mixture of local and out-of-town artists, the evening concerts on the grass, the greasy fried yakisoba noodles, your name in colorful calligraphy (for a donation of course), to the sense of community I always feel this time every year from our city.

My question is, how many days does it take to fully enjoy the art fair? I say 3.

The first day I always get exited and run around looking quickly at everything and immersing myself in culture, art and music. The second day I realize I need to slow down and actually look at each and every vendor booth, critiquing or drooling over each artist's passionate expression. The third day is the day to decide what to buy. I go over the vendors again, skipping those I wasn't interested in. When I find items I want, I go back and forth comparing them and debating over what I could use or enjoy more. It takes me until the end of the day to realize its not practical to buy a $100 diggery-doo and I go home with a $12 pencil drawing by my favorite artist.

What are your memories of the art fair and how many days do you take to soak it all up?

By Lisa Anne
Salem Oregon Event Calendar

Salem Oregon Event Calendar now has it's own page!

This is really cool, Lisa Anne has put together a calendar of Salem events and created a site for it. If you know of anything, big or small, going on around town, send her an email to let her know what's going on. I'm thinking about sending her the date of my birthday. Maybe I'll get more presents?

The calendar puts the number of sites on the Salemites.com network at 48. Wow, I didn't expect the rapid growth and the variety of sites. The stats show that about 40 to 70 "unique visitors" are traveling through the site daily. Keep up the good work and be sure to bookmark salemites.com!