Win a Hocking Hills Getaway with Your Video

Shoot a video of why “I Love the Hocking Hills!” and you could win a full weekend retreat for two in Ohio’s  Hocking Hills. Enter through the Hocking Hills Tourism Association, shooting in front of a Hocking Hills landmark or attraction.

The winner will receive a cottage for two for two nights from At Boulder’s Edge Tipi & Cabin Retreat, dinner for two at The Brass Ring, lunch for two at Etta’s Lunchbox Museum and Café, tickets for two on the Hocking Hills Canopy Tour Zipline Adventure and a Fun Package for two at Hocking Valley Canoe Livery.

DEVO Band Memorabilia on Display in Columbus

Remember DEVO, the Ohio band with the bright red “Energy Dome” hat? The band performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and is preparing a new album, so the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus is putting its DEVO treasures on display now through August.

Four of the remaining members, including lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh, grew up in Akron and met while attending Kent State University.

Named for the band’s first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!, the exhibit includes a costume, with the iconic red hat or “Energy Dome,” t-shirts, vintage stickers and albums.

The group’s name is based on the idea that the human race is in a process of devolution, a concept that members first read about in the 1924 pamphlet “Jocko Homo Heavenbound.” Later editions (second through fifth) of this anti-Darwinism pamphlet were published in Ashtabula, Ohio, birthplace of Clarence Darrow. A copy of the fifth edition, in the collections of the Ohio Historical Society, is on display with the DEVO Collection.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! can be seen 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays in the lobby of the Archives-Library on the third floor of the Ohio Historical Center.

Free Summer Shows at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Summer in the City, a free live concert series, returns to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on July 14 with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the first black string band to perform on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Other acts:

• July 21, Free Energy, a Philadelphia rock band;

• Aug 11, Deer Tick, indie rockers;

• Aug. 18, Trans Am, a synth-rock band.

Snap Away for Ohio Lake Erie Photo Contest

Got a great shot of Ohio’s Lake Erie region, or heading there soon? Amateur photographers are invited to submit entries for the Ohio Lake Erie Commission’s 2010 photo contest.

The “Life on Lake Erie” photo contest is open to amateur photographers age 16 and older. Digital images taken between July 9, 2009, and July 9, 2010, in and around the Lake Erie watershed can be submitted to the Ohio Lake Erie Commission (OLEC) through July 16.

Winning photographs will be featured on the OLEC Web site and will become part of the commission’s traveling photo gallery. The images will appear at prime Ohio shoreline locations throughout the year, including the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center in Oregon and the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Welcome centers in Port Clinton and Sandusky.

Lake Erie Guide Helps Stretch Vacation Dollars

Ohio’s 2010 Lake Erie Shores & Islands® Travel Planner has deals on lodging, attraction admission, shopping and dining at such hot spots as Kalahari Resort, Great Wolf Lodge and Sandusky’s Merry-Go-Round Museum. 800/255-3743.

Veterans and Military Ride Free on Hocking RR

To celebrate a record-breaking year hauling more than 35,000 passengers in 2009, the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway in Nelsonville, Ohio, is running a special free Memorial Day train for veterans or military personnel on May 31.

Any veteran or current member of the armed forces can ride for free on the 1:30 p.m. train on Memorial Day. Immediate family members living with them ride for free, too.

Can’t ride on Memorial Day? Veterans, current military and their families receive a discount all year long on any regular train departing at noon or 2:30 p.m. Call to reserve a seat on the train and show your military ID or DD214 at the depot when picking up tickets. Leave a message at 800-967-7834 or call the depot on the weekend at 740-753-9531.

Weekends from May to October, volunteers blast the whistle, ease the train out of the station and start a trip back in time. The non-profit Hocking Valley Scenic Railway has been chugging through the scenery of the Appalachian foothills for 35 years ago.

Publish Your Family Story with KY Workshop

Looking to publish your family’s story? The Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Genealogical Society will host a free family-history workshop “Publishing Print and Electronic Family Histories” from 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. March 13 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort.

Researcher/writers and book publishers will help you make the transition from research to interpretation to publishing. After the session at 1:45 p.m., the Kentucky Technology in Genealogy Users Group will offer a free program, “Finding Family Histories Online–What Has Been Printed, Where to Find Them and Whether the Books Are In or Out of Copyright.”

Reservations are required by noon March 12: 502-564-1792, ext. 4460 or RefDesk@ky.gov; a light lunch is available for $6. Free Family-History Workshops repeat each month.

CVG Airport Heats Up Winter Getaway Deals

Have you set your GPS for “anywhere warm”? Or looking for a ski bargain? Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) has some warm round-trip deals this week:

• Cancun, Mexico for $405

• Denver, Colo. for $196

• Miami, Fla. for $178

• New Orleans, La. for $168

• Phoenix, Az. for $228

• Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for $332

• San Antonio, Tex. for $178

• San Diego, Ca. for $278

• San Juan, Puerto Rico for $311

• Vail, Colo. for $278.

Toast Ohio Historical’s 125th with Free Party

The Ohio Historical Society will be throwing a big party for its 125th birthday on March 13, and everything’s free. During Happy Birthday, OHS! at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, the parking and admission will be free, as well as family activities and birthday cake from 1:30 p.m.

• A display will highlight Ohio Historical Society milestones from 1885 to 2010. Uncommon Ohio tours will feature Ohio’s Garden Path at noon and 2 p.m., and Echoes in Time Theatre will present “Saints Preserve Us! The Irish in America” at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

• In the galleries with the permanent exhibitions, Nature of Ohio and Ohio: Centuries of Change, you can meet people from the society’s past played by costumed interpreters. Shake hands with archaeologist William C. Mills, who discovered the Adena pipe in 1901, and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt J. Morton Howell, who donated the mummy known as Nasi-Khonsou-Pa-Khrodou, familiarly known as Nibit-Pi, meaning “the Mistress of the House,” and her sarcophagus to the Ohio Historical Society collections.

Today, the Ohio Historical Society has 58 historic sites and museums around the state, including the headquarters at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus. Collections total more than 3 million items, and OHS has educational and historic preservation programs in all 88 counties.

Winter Carnival Fun for Families at Salt Fork

Salt Fork State Park Lodge in Cambridge, Ohio, will throw a Winter Carnival Family Fun night March 13, with games and special room rates starting at $79 per night plus taxes.

The games, from 7-10 p.m., will include Wii, a football throw, basketball and baseball toss, duck pond and bottle ring toss, putt-putt golf, face painting, balloon darts, trivia challenges, pop bottle target game and ping pong. Salt Fork also has a large indoor pool.

To book the $79 lodge rate and discounted cabin rates, enter the promotional code “CARNIVAL1” or call 1-800-282-7275.