Indian River Blog

Vero Beach, FL - Costa d’Este Beach Resort, a world class retreat in Vero Beach, is gaining popularity as its head chef, David Rodriguez was recently profiled in Vero Beach Magazine. The magazine’s goal is to make a positive impact on the local community by engaging readers, promoting local business and generating support for non-profit organizations.

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Indian River County Fair, with an average attendance of 50,000 visitors, offers an environment of family fun and entertainment. While showcasing the youth of Indian River County in livestock and agriculture, we also provide a sense of self-esteem to every child. The feeling, which arises from accomplishing something and being rewarded for that accomplishment is very satisfying, we believe hundreds of youth over the years have come away from the fair “as winners”.

All proceeds from this event benefit the Indian River County Burn Fund, Local High School Scholarships, Fair Ground improvements, other Various Charitable organizations, and for the benefit of Public Safety. The fair is located at the Indian River County Fair Grounds at 7955 58th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL 32967. For more visit www.firefightersfair.org.

The Grant Seafood Festival is the largest and longest running seafood festival in the Southeast. The Seafood Festival draws a large crowd every year with as many as 50,000 people for the event.

This year’s festival will be held February 23rd & 24th, 2008 from 11 AM - 5 PM daily and features free admission, free parking, over 100 craft exhibitors, continuous live entertainment, along with a menu of delicious seafood.

Some of the items offered this year include Fried Shrimp, Raw & Steamed Oysters, Linguini W/ Clam Sauce, Steamed Clams, Shrimp & Tuna Kabobs, both Manhattan & New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Bisque.

Visit Grant Seafood Festival at grantseafoodfestival.com. The Grant Seafood Festival is located at 4580 1st Street, Grant, Florida north of Sebastian.

The Vero Beach Extravaganza is one of the largest Antique Shows in the region with over 300 dealers. The show takes place at the Indian River County Fairgrounds, in Vero Beach, FL. More »

When: February 1, 2, 3, 2008
Where: 7955 58th Ave, Vero Beach, FL 32967

Vero Beach is getting all decked out this year for Christmas. We’ve already had a spectacular boat parade and now were ready for Santa. Vero Beach is a great place to spend the Holidays with plenty of sunshine and without the cold and snow.

McKee Botanical Gardens will kick off the holidays December 13, 14, 15 and December 20, 21, 22 from 6pm to 8pm. Thousands of twinkling lights and other festive surprises will be around every turn as visitors stroll along the festive luminaria-lit garden pathways. More »

The Vero Beach Museum of Art will celebrate Christmas at the Museum on December 9th. This free one-day holiday celebration for children of all ages begins at 1:00 pm and continues through 4 pm. More »

I’ve recently noticed an increase in website visitors from the United Kingdom and for good reason. The exchange rate has been favoring British tourist as our dollar has been devalued and the results have been noticed by many Indian River hotels and restaurants that are seeing an increase in travelers from the UK.

I recently stumbled upon On The Beach Holidays, a website serving UK Travelers. On The Beach Holidays has been around since 1995 and has one of the most complete travel booking services I’ve seen. They offer holiday travel to Florida and beach destinations all over the world including Cypress, Spain, Dubai and many others.

I did a few searches and found their International Drive holidays were very competitive, complete with air fair and hotels included. They have excellent online customer service and also offer insurance, car hire and currency services.

If you are traveling to Florida from the UK, you may want to see what they offer. You’ll find that they have cheap holidays to Florida and a highly useful website.

Vero Beach, FL - Spirits will be haunting Indian River County this October through Halloween.

The Riverside Theater will host a Haunted House October 20 & 26 - 28, 2007. The event will be at Agnes Wahlstrom Youth Playhouse and the Anne Morton Theatre. It will feature storytelling in Ghost Gardens and a Costume Parade, Costume Contest. More at
http://www.riversidetheatre.com/web/guest/home.

McKee Botanical Gardens will host a Spooktacular Halloween Celebration October 31, 7 to 9pm for children. Ghosts and goblins will be lurking behind trees as you search for Halloween treats, there will be ghoulish ghost stories in the Hall of Giants. More at www.mckeegarden.org.

On September 29 you’ll get chance to taste BBQ from Florida’s best teams as they compete for cash at the Grant BBQ Fest. Categories include Chicken, Pork, Pork Ribs and Beef Brisket. The Grand Champion Prize is $1500 and $1000 for the Reserve Champion. Cash payouts run through 5th place for each category with trophies going to winner of each. Proceeds will benefit Toys 4 Kids.

Parking and admission are free, entertainment features The Usual Suspects and Elgin Hooper. There is also a Marketplace with arts, crafts and more.

Visit Grant BBQ Fest at www.grantbbqfest.com.

By Kirby Collins

I’m happy to unveil my new blog, the Florida PhotoBlog with many unpublished photos I’ve taken over the years. Almost all of the photos at Florida PhotoBlog are available for use on your website or blog under the Creative Commons License with Attribution and are hosted on flickr.

I have many photos of Vero Beach, Sebastian Inlet and Indian River County. The photos range from beach scenes to wildlife and are high resolution with sizes up to 1000 X 750. For more view the Licensing Guidelines.

Vero Beach, FL - Home sellers continue to hear bad news as the mortgage marketplace has concerns of an upcoming credit crunch. Today it was revealed by some sources that other home owners were also having trouble making their mortgage payments with as many as 5% of all homeowners are more than 60 days in arrears. Now, according to this blog, Fannie Mae is taking action just as oil prices are falling, well at least there’s some good news.