Possibly you have a remote nook or cranny in mind for your family’s Labor Day weekend getaway. Therefore you would not want to see your nook and cranny featured on this page, because then it no longer would be remote! But if your style for getting away is to get lost in where the crowds go, here is a sampling of events:

Detroit offers a two-for-one: The three-day Detroit International Jazz Festival at the riverfront Hart Plaza is among the nation’s biggest and best. The Labor Day Parade down Woodward Avenue celebrates the auto industry; there has not been much to celebrate in that regard since the 1970s, of course, but this September is the 100th birthday for General Motors.

New York City has hosted a traditional Labor Day Parade since 1882, which was two years before the official federal holiday was declared. That’s NYC, always insisting on being No. One. However, a bigger event nowadays is the West Indian American Day Carnival Parade, a four-day festival in Brooklyn. Caribbean costumes, music and food are featured.

In Washington, D.C., the National Symphony Orchestra performs on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building. There is also a Renaissance festival, a blues festival and the Kensington Labor Day Parade. President Bush traditionally is back from a long August wood-cutting vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Atlanta’s roster of holiday festivals includes an event that features hot-air balloon rides, which you may have expected from D.C. instead.

An example from the heartland is Labor Day in Florence (Kansas), a four-day affair with a carnival, parade, Scottish bagpiping and a kids’ ranch rodeo. Other highlights include mutton busting and, yes, a “city-wide garage sale.” Featured entertainers this year are Michael Martin Murphey and the Diamond Wanglers.

The holiday weekend in Irvington, Va., features the “Irvington Stomp,” as in stomping grapes to celebrate regional wine making. There actually is prize competition in stomping grapes, although it seems each and every competitor should get new pairs of shoes.

Listeners of syndicated radio’s Tom Joyner Morning Show will join their favorite deejay for the Tom Joyner Family Reunion at Orlando’s Walt Disney World. They probably won’t be waking up at 6 a.m., like they do during the work week when Tom is on the air.

At Pointe South Mountain resort near Phoenix, one of the Labor Day highlights is a “dive-in movie at the wave pool” - that’s literally cool.

Temperatures are cooler in Maine, of course. If it hasn’t started snowing yet, the Point Sebago Labor Day Weekend Package features fine dining (Maine lobster, possibly?). You can go on a cruise, or do the work yourself on a paddle boat, kayak or canoe.

Regardless of your holiday plans, you know what to do on September 2. It’s back to work!

SOURCES

Disney Family Travel (family.go.com/travel/article-st-778898-top-10-labor-day-escapes)

About.com (travelwithkids.about.com/od/holidays/a/laborday.htm)

Submitted By: Michael Thompson