This Weekend, the Passport Challenge features two events. The Front Porch Fundraiser at Historic Oak View Park boasts three local bands, The Iron Mountain Messengers, Kudzu Ramblers, and The Happy Valley Pals along with food from the Chick-N-Que Food Truck. The event is free, but donations are encouraged to restore their newly aquired Tenant House. The Challenge Destination sign will be at the information tent by the Tenant House.

 

As a bonus, Historic Oak View Park is also a Challenge Destination. The Wake County Park preserves and displays our local agricultural legacy through an interperative center, hands on dispalys, a historic manor home and crops & gardens. The Challenge Destiantion Sign is at the front of the Farm History Center.

 

The second featured event this weekend is the Widlife Expo-National Hunting and Fishing Day at the Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education. Come visit ParkGeek and enjoy a variety of fun activities for all ages including a pellet range, an archery range, live animals (snakes & birds of prey), mountain man camp, outdoor cooking, fishing, trapping, tree stand safety, caricatures and falconry.

 

Like ParkGeek.com on Facebook and get mid-week updates on featured parks and additional opportunities to log in Passport Challenge Destinations. If you spot us in our bright yellow ParkGeek shirts, we will give you an additional QR Code to log in.

 

All the TACO Week events at the JC Raulston Arboretum are are Featured Passport Challenge Destinations along with all of the Wake County Parks. Just look for the Challenge Destination Sign and scan the QR Code to log in your park explorations!

 

 

Take A Child Outside Week, a national initiative spearheaded by the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences kicks off Monday, September 24 and runs through Sunday, September 30. Designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from exploring the natural world, the week encourages children and adults to spend time together outdoors. Although ParkGeek.com has over 60 events this week, more than 20 are specifically aimed at kids and families for Take a Child Outside Week. On the Take A Child Outside web site (www.takeachildoutside.org), adults are encouraged to make a pledge to take a child outside during the week and chart their location on a digital map. Currently, all 50 US states and four foreign countries actively participate in Take A Child Outside Week.

 

Involvement in Take a Child outside Week transcends local, county and state parks throughout the Triangle. Two events kick off the week. JC Raulston Arboretum invites you to make a Leaf Collage and Lake Crabtree County Park wants you to join them observing and identifying the aquatic critters you can catch, and learn basic fish anatomy and life history during Let's Play Catch on Monday.

 

On Tuesday, bring your kids to the JC Raulston Arboretum to play Creature Bingo, or head on over to Harris Lake County Park to learn about Ponds and Lake Critters Tuesday afternoon or do some Family Fishing Tuesday night.

 

On Wednesday, the JC Raulston Arboretum challenges you to a Treasure Hunt, Blue Jay Point County Park will be reading Nature Stories to preschoolers and Lake Crabtree County Park will be Going Batty as the sun starts to set.

 

Thursday brings Beautiful Butterflies to Crowder District Park and they will be playing Nature Bingo at the JC Raulston Arboretum. Join in on an after dark search forNocturnal Navigators on the American Tobacco Trail or come to an evening Campfire Story and Marshmallow Roast at the Durant Nature Park.

 

Friday morning, grab your picnic blanket and join the JC Raulston Arboretum for Garden Storytime. You can visit Prairie Ridge Ecostation Friday afternoon for an Open House to learn about nature activities that you and your family can enjoy year-round. After dark, its Up, Up and Away Astronomy: The Summer Sky at Historic Yates Mill Park.

 

Are you in the mood to plant? Saturday the JC Raulston Arboretum offers its Fall Plant Sale. Blue Jay Point County Park kicks off the weekend with Nature Stories, Natural Beauty Turned Ugly, a progam on pests and discover Mysterious Mushrooms. Historic Oak View County Park brings TACO to a fabulous close with the Storytelling Festival.

 

Round out the week Sunday with a Sunday Stroll at the JC Raulston Arboretum or explore Daytime Astronomy through a variety of hands-on activities at Lake Crabtree County Park.

 

Most of these events are free, but a few do have a small fee. Many do require pre-registration so click through for all the details.

 

 

Explore the science behind entertainment and meet experts in the fields of special effects, make up artistry, film production, sound editing and effects, video game design and simulation, comic book art and staged combat at the annual Heroes, Villains and Special Effects Saturday at the Museum of Life & Science.

 

Bikefest is back in Downtown Raleigh this weekend. The event will feature a wide variety of entertainment and last year brought over 85,000 bikers downtown.

 

Discover the amazing lives of Gorillas and Chimpanzees with special programs both Saturday and Sunday at the North Carolina Zoo. Go see the new babies, too!

 

Saturday at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds brings the Moon Festival, a Chinese Cultural Festival.

 

The North Carolina State Fairgrounds will also host a Toy & Hobby Show, Responsible Dog Ownership Day, a Quarter Horse Futurity Show and the Southern Ideal Home Show.

 

Good Neighbor Day is back this Sunday at Holding Park. The Wake Forest event celebrating diversity and promoting goodwill through food, fun, and family entertainment was rescheduled from last weekend.

 

Learn how to write Haiku poetry, fold origami figures, enjoy Japanese kamishibai storytelling, and see cultural performances Sunday for Asian Festival Day at the Asiatic Arboretum of the Sara P Duke Gardens.

 

 

Eno River State Park starts the fun Friday with a program about the life cycle of the Caddisfly. Saturday afternoon bringsAnimal Grossology and a Dragonfly Identification Program. Bring the whole family to Eno on Sunday for a Scavenger Hunt.

 

Join them at the Annie Louise Wilkerson Nature Preserve on the third Friday of each month for Nature Play Days. Children of all ages, are welcome to join them for imaginative play in a natural setting.

 

Join the Occoneechee Mountain ranger Saturday morning for a hike to learn all about their Oaks. On Saturday afternoon, you can explore the pyrophyllite quarry with a real geologist on a Geology Hike.

 

Decorate your wheels or wear a funny hat in preparation for the Kids Together Walk For Inclusiveness.The walk will span the 1.4 mile segment of the Hinshaw greenway, starting at KTP and connecting with MacDonald Woods Park via the pedestrian bridge over US1 & 64. Awards, refreshments, games and a great silent auction await participants when they end the course,

 

Are you interested in learning how to paddle a canoe? Jordan Lake State Recreation Area wants to introduce you to Canoe Paddling on Saturday.Come back Sunday for some Bird Watching.

 

Before they fly south to mexico, come to Durant Nature Park on Saturday to learn all about Magical Monarchs.

 

Spend Saturday morning at the Big Sweep Clean Up at the Walnut Creek Wetland Center.

 

 

Tift Merritt, Megafaun & Mandolin Orange will be playing a concert Friday night at the Carrboro Town Commons. The concert is free with a voucher that is available at several locations throughout Carrboro. Click through for the details.

 

Movies in the Park is back to Parrish Womble Park Friday night with the flick Kung Fu Panda 2, live entertainment, food and themed activities for the entire family.

 

The North Carolina Museum of Art kicks off the weekend with Art in the Evening with music by Side Car Social Club, an Art Exploration of sunny coasts and the 1946 movie Gilda. Come back Saturday for a Family Fun Saturday featuring Poetry & Art. The UNC Debaters also be at the Museum on Saturday focussing on What Inspired Edvard Munch's Art?

 

Come to the The North Carolina Museum of History both Saturday and Sunday for a Curator's Choice Tour of their new exhibit, The Making of Gone with the Wind. History Professor Karen Cox will discuss the South and American Popular Culture Sunday afternoon.

 

The featured family movie at the Holly Springs Cultural Center Saturday Morning is The Pirates.

 

This week's Sunday in the Park Concert will highlight the sounds of Triangle Taiko at Pullen Park.

 

Music on the Streets is a new program running Monday through Friday leading up to the Carrboro Music Festival next weekend. This will be a week of free outdoor concerts in locations throughout town featuring a different style of music from jazz to rock each night.