Articles at ParkGeek.com

For those of you heading back to college or traditional calendar school, this may be your last weekend of the summer. With plenty of fun activities throughout the Triangle, you can give the summer a grand farewell!

If you live in Holly Springs, have you checked out the New W.E. Hunt Center? The new recreation center is open and the old one came down last week. Coming up are three opportunities to demo some of their self defense classes for free. Thursday night you are welcome to bring the kids for the Evolution Self Defense. This "All Levels" class is open to kids and adults ages 7 and older. Next Tuesday night there will be a demo for 3-D Self Defense and Wednesday night offers a demo for Chung Do Kwon- Tae Kwon Do.

Next Wednesday, the Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Week comes to the Raleigh Farmer's Market. Along with live music by Hopscotch & bull and demonstrations by the Chef's Academy, 9 local restaurants will be bringing their chefs to the lunchtime market to serve up complimentary bite-sized samples.

Kick off your child's successful school career at Kickoff to Kindergarten at Marbles Kids Museum. Celebrate this major milestone with a real school bus, pretend lunch lines & PE classes, crafts and lots of great resources to answer your questions.

Hundreds of classic cars and trucks will be parked on or near historic Fayetteville Street, while plenty more show cars and vendors will be on display in the Raleigh Convention Center for Carolina Classics on the Capital. There is a charge to get into the festivities inside the Convention Center, but all the outdoor activities are free.

You are invited to a Birthday Party! Axl and Kisa, the tigers at the Natural Science Center of Greensboro are turning seven on Wednesday and you are invited to join in.

The East West Classics Motorcycle Swap Meet & Show will roll into the North Carolina State Fairgrounds this weekend. Come check out both road and off-road Vintage Motorcycles built before 1990.

Come out to Mordecai Historic Park for Mordecai Free Friday. Tour an antebellum plantation house, and three other historic structures: a plantation kitchen, plantation chapel and The Birthplace of Andrew Johnson-17th president of the United States.

Visit the Raleigh City Museum Saturday to learn more about the Civil War experience on the home front in Raleigh. Costumed living historians and military re-enactors will also be present to demonstrate The Civil War in Raleigh.

Relive history the 3rd weekend of each month and experience the traditional way corn was ground into meal and wheat into flour, using water power, simple machines & millstones. The Historic Yates Mill Corn Grinding Tours are a great opportunity to see the complex mill in operation.

Thursday night brings the movie Outsourced to Regency Park along with "Destination India," a special dance performance which presents a musical journey to India.

The weekend starts early in Garner with a Music off Main Concert. This Thursday evening brings Jim Quick & Coastline playing the "music of the south" with influences of Country, Blues, Soul, Beach and Southern Rock.

Artist Jeff Sonhouse invites you to join him Thursday evening for a lecture entitled Riveting Dimensions of Manhood. His electrifying paintings of men with seemingly ominous intentions are part of 30 Americans. He will be talking about works that depict both the challenges and the celebration of power for African American men.

Along with a screening of The Social Network Friday night at the North Carolina Museum of Art, they invite you to take part in their first ever Tweetup.

Take a trip back to 1985 with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd Saturday evening with Back to the Future at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

It will be a Double Screen Mix-Up at Durham Central Park Friday night for Movies at the Park. Think bits of Westerns combined with soundtracks from melodramas, and Roman gladiators paired with crazy dance numbers.

WUNC's Back Porch Music bring the sounds of Holy Ghost Tent Revival to the American Tobacco Campus Amphitheatre on Friday night.

nosi DANCE theater, a multifaceted contemporary dance company will be performing twice on Saturday afternoon at the North Carolina Museum of Art as a continuation of their Summer Dance Series on the City Block.

Area bands will be performing Saturday night at the Holly Springs Cultural Center to showcase their talent and see who has the right stuff to please the crowds during Teen Band Night

Hope Community Church invites you to bring the whole family over to Womble Park Saturday evening for face painting, games, raffle prizes, popcorn, ice cream, live music and a viewing of the Disney classic, Toy Story 3.

Marches, Broadway & show tunes will be filling the night at Fletcher Park when the Raleigh Concert Band offers a free concert.

Join a Park Ranger Thursday afternoon at Umstead State Park for a leisurely Bike Ride on the multi-use trail while you learn about some of the people that lived on the land before the park was protected land. Come back Friday morning with your kids to learn how to identify birds for Birding for the Young.

On Saturday afternoon, join the Occoneechee Ranger for a two-mile hike to the river and back to learn about the River Trees. Saturday night you can help the Eno River park naturalist look for and identify Frogs & Toads.

Come on out to Harris Lake County Park Saturday to catch Beaver Fever. You'll build a beaver, take a walk to look for beaver evidence, and even make a beaver lodge!

As the summer winds down, Blue Jay County Park welcomes you to bring some of your summer souvenirs to make a Summer Memory Wreath.

August 18th - August 24th 2011