Celebration Life

The case of Emily Grace, a 45-year-old New Jersey woman reported missing from the New York area since August 1, took a local turn last week. Employees at the Celebration golf course reported finding some of her personal effects, including a debit card belonging to her.

Then, from a release by the Celebration Safety Committee today, a tip came in today indicating the caller had seen her in the Celebration area, but that Osceola County sheriff deputies have been unable to locate her at this time. There was a Sheriff’s helicopter flying over Celebration earlier this afternoon, but don’t know if it’s related.

According to the Facebook group set up to find her, there is no evidence of foul play, but there are people that love her and miss her and want to ensure she’s OK.

From July 23 to 25, Celebration becomes a veritable Who’s Who of Survivor stars, with some Amazing Race and Big Brother people sprinkled in there for good measure.

From CelebrationTownCenter.com:

Come meet the stars of the hit reality shows “Survivor” , “The Amazing Race” and “Big Brother” as a part of this year’s Summer Sidewalk Sale in beautiful Celebration Town Center and participate in the “Sales” Survivor Treasure Hunt July 23rd through the 25th.

On Friday, the Sidewalk Sale kicks off with a “Sales Survivor: Treasure Hunt”. Visit the restaurants to get your “treasure map” and use the clues to navigate through Celebration Town Center to uncover the answers. One “Sole Survivor” will walk away with $500 worth in cash and prizes. Continuing on Friday a special VIP sponsor party will take place at The Mona Lisa Suites Hotel with all the cast members’ on-hand for pictures autographs and more.

On Saturday, a special autograph signing will take place in Downtown Celebration from 4:00-6:00 PM and a special “Survivor Party” at the Celebration Town Tavern hosted by comedian Dean Napolitano will be held that evening with all proceeds from the party and autograph signing to benefit Give Kids the World Village. On Sunday, the Sidewalk Sale continues and it will be the last day to return your completed treasure maps to be eligible to win.

That link also has a list of everyone scheduled to appear, including favorites Jerri Manthey and Richard Hatch. This is a great charity event for Give Kids the World, so if you’re a reality TV fan, Celebration appears to be the place to be this weekend!

For those that are into the Twilight books and movies, I noticed this morning that the AMC Celebration 2 is showing the Twilight saga tonight starting at 6:30. From the AMC website:

Relive the epic of Bella, Edward, Jacob and all your favorite TWILIGHT characters at THE TWILIGHT EXPERIENCE at AMC Theatres at 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 29, 2010.

Each $30 ticket includes:

1. Admission to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
2. Admission to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
3. Admission to TWILIGHT
4. $10 AMC Gift Card
5. A commemorative event-style lanyard, while supplies last

I have it on good authority that Shannon’s of Celebration will be opening their new “wing” for Saturday’s World Cup Match Up of USA vs England. For the uninitiated, Shannon’s bought out the lease of the space next door to them several months ago and has been working on expanding their business into that space.

Every month or so the Celebration Town Tavern hosts a “tweetup”… which is, as far as I can tell, just an excuse for people on Twitter to get together in Real Life and have some beers. I am not judging, as I am a willing participant. The photo is Exhibit A.

If you happen to see this in the next hour-and-a-half, come by the Celebration Town Tavern for a Summerfest Sampler of beers. If you find this later, add this site to your favorite RSS feed reader and I’ll tell you when the next one is!

We’re just back from the Celebration Memorial Day 2010 Flag Ceremony. We thought this was a well-executed tribute to the men & women, husbands & wives, sons & daughters, who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States of America.

Thank you, veterans.

As always, click the photo for a larger version. Apologies for not knowing the names of the people pictured, but if you mail me I will add appropriate captions.

Exotic Car Show @ Celebration

Originally uploaded by bbhart

A law enforcement officer has a word with KITT.

A reminder that the Celebration Exotic Car Festival is on today in downtown Celebration.

From the Celebration Town Center web site:

The 7th Annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival, benefitting Special Olympics Florida, will be held April 15-18, 2010. This four-day, world class event, hosted by the Ferrari Club of America, will be bigger and better than ever, with new activities and even more unique, exotic, and race cars – as well as famous and movie and television cars to be displayed.

The festival, which is organized by a small team of volunteers of Celebration and other local residents, has established itself as one of the largest of its kind in the country, and will raise much-needed funds for Special Olympics Florida, which provides year-round programs and services to 15,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Florida, at no cost to the athletes or their families. Over $500,000 has been raised for charity since the event’s inception in 2004.

There are a number of notable events related to the festival, listed on the above website, with most happening outside Celebration. The Celebration component is the car exhibit, taking place downtown along the lake on April 17 from 10am to 4pm. I imagine the traffic situation downtown will be… interesting… but probably well-worth the challenge for those visiting from outside. Me, I’ll walk.

Click in to each for better size.

And the “snow fall”:

Our first Celebration July 4th was a great time. This was our first big community event as residents rather than tourists.

We managed to catch the tail end of the 9am parade.

It was already steamy hot at 9:30 in the morning — uncomfortably so — but it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. We were surprised by the number of people that turned out! It was crowded but definitely manageable. Note for next time: bring the portable chairs. Once the parade was over we wandered around the downtown for a bit, grabbed a Coke from Upper Crust (10:15am ended up being a bit early for a pizza, though I had a serious internal debate about it), and strolled back home.

We spent the middle of the day hanging around our East Village (Blue Sage) condo. I was reading a book out on the balcony when a somewhat large, somewhat sweaty guy walked by on the sidewalk and said “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Celebration Ave.?”
“Are you trying to get downtown?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you on foot?”
“Yeah.”

He looked absolutely exhausted, drenched in sweat. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was still a mile away from the center of activity, only that it was pretty far, about a 20 minute walk. I directed him to the trail behind Eastlawn… hopefully he found it!

Later in the afternoon, around 5 or so, friends Leah & Rory came over and we all walked to the downtown. We didn’t see anyone passed out along the path, so hopefully the sweaty guy found his way. Once downtown we immediately settled in to an outdoor table at the Celebration Town Tavern, and were thankful for it. The crew there took great care of us, and you gotta love the food and location! The people watching was fantastic from our vantage point.

Once nighttime settled in, fireworks started.

We couldn’t hear the music very well from our location, but the show was still outstanding, especially with the moon in frame. The geography of downtown and where the fireworks are shot from offered lots of great vantage points.

The best part of the night? Being able to walk home!