In search of a truly global experience? Want to travel without actually leaving your lovely hill city? The Omniterrum, a unique globe shop located on Main st., lets you travel with the tips of your fingers.  The store holds current and antique globes, from the 18^th to the 21^st century.

Omniterrum owner Kim Soerensen opened the doors of the shop in 2009 as a space to showcase her collection of vintage globes, with the hope of providing a place to inspire Lynchburg locals and teach a lesson in history with these three dimensional masterpieces. The shop was originally located on Church street, but swapped locations following Lynchburg’s first ever globe exhibit, held by Soerensen’s non-profit organization, the American Globe Preservation Society, in October 2010. Come visit the new location and browse through globes from different periods of time and mingle with the store mascot, a Boston terrier named Winston Churchill.

A destination location for globe enthusiasts, history buffs or curious shoppers, the Omniterrum is a unique piece of Lynchburg culture. Located at 1225 Main Street next to the community market, the store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10-5. Give the shop a call at 434-847-4788, visit them online or find them on Facebook.

By Zoe Eisenberg

If you’re looking for something new to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon or happen to be sucker for handcrafted pottery, head over to Oxide Pottery, located on 1337 Main Street across from Robin Alexander.

Showcasing the work of three skilled potters, Joe Monk, Chatham Monk and Justin Rice, Oxide offers a selection of beautiful hand built and wheel thrown ceramics. Mixing bowls, serving platters, vases, plates and mugs available in a collection of shapes, sizes colors and prints are only some of the bounty offered at Oxide. The tiny storefront, which made its debut in 2009, also carries unique jewelry and specialty crafted kitchenware, such as carved wooden utensils and cast glass bowls.

Using lead-free glazes that are microwave and dishwasher friendly, a piece of Oxide pottery makes a beautiful and memorable gift. While browsing through the shop, be sure to take a peek at the small on-site studio where Oxide’s unique pottery is produced.

Oxide Pottery is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 to 6 and Saturday 10 to 5. For more information, call the shop at 434-845-5656 , visit them online or find them on Facebook.

Dolce Vita, located at 1102 Commerce Street downtown Lynchburg, is the premier spot  for any aspiring chefs or foodies. Store-owner April Wood Farmer, prior owner of Fresh, the healthy eatery previously located in the downtown community market, opened the tiny shop with the hopes of offering high-quality kitchen and home products to Lynchburg’s expanding crowd of gourmet food-lovers.

The shop, which opened November 19^th 2010, sells everything from candles to spices, including wine accessories, aprons, scarves and serving platters sure to impress the guests at your next party. Located above Shay’s Jewelry and Gifts, Dolce Vita carries both imported and locally made products, from Spanish pottery to Virginia jams, as well as fresh baked quiche and locally made bundt cakes.  Check out their unique selection of spreads, with flavors like Carrot and Peach Orange Clove.

With limited hours, make sure to plan a visit to the store, open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.For more information, visit www.yourdolcevita.com or call (434) 455-5510.

Inklings Bookshop and the White Hart Café, home to a selection of books, coffee and  food, opened its doors for the first time in 1995. Located on Main Street in downtown Lynchburg, the shop’s name was inspired by the informal literary group known as “the Inklings,” which consisted of C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and several other writers. Founded as merely a bookstore, the shop quickly expanded to include the adjoining White Hart Café.

The store’s vision is to promote “the good, the true, and the beautiful,” and the bookstore boasts a selection of hard to find, out of print, used, and rare books, which can be browsed online at www.inklingsbooks.com. While the shop’s book collection hangs heavy on topics like philosophy, literature, history and religion, they also offer a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction, as well as health, wellness, children’s books and classical education.

With free wi-fi, an outdoor patio and cozy couches perfect for lounging on rainy afternoons, the White Hart offers organically grown and fairly-traded coffee and house-made pastries. The café’s selection of coffee and espresso are roasted to order by Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, NC, and their vast selection of loose-lead teas hail from Teasource in St. Paul, MN. Arguably more exciting than excellent coffee and tea, the White Hart also carries beer, including imports and microbrews. Wine, both red and white, can be ordered by the glass or bottle.

Offering sandwiches with interesting names like the Fitzwilliam, the Mugwumper and the Pequod, the café also serves breakfast with choices ranging from free-range eggs and bacon to turkey sausage and grits. Options like Fish and Chips, Fried Mushrooms, Beignets and Cajun style red beans and rice spice up the menu.

Inklings Bookshop and the White Hart Café are open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and host a bi-monthly Celtic music open jam and a monthly old-time music session, with live music performances most Friday and Saturday nights, and a monthly open mic night. For a schedule of events, visit them online at www.inklingswhitehart.com. For more information call 434-455-1659 or stop by the shop, located at 1208 Main Street, downtown Lynchburg.

Lynchburg's Beer and Wine Festival

Do you love great food, music, and wine sampling? Well, then the Lynchburg Beer and Wine Festival is just for you. The Lynchburg Beer and Wine Festival

will be held in the Riverfront  Festival Park

in Downtown Lynchburg, on Saturday September 18^th from 10:00-5:00. There will be lots of entertainment and fun that you won’t want to miss out on.

Sampling admission is $15 in advanced or $20 at the gate. A general admission (non sampling) ticket is $5 and tickets for children 10 and under are free.

You can purchase tickets in advance at Lynch’s Landing, Accent Flags and Gifts, Travel Lovers, The Basket Case, Virginia Handcrafts, and Hill House Interiors or you can purchase them online at www.LynchburgTickets.com.

There are more than 18 breweries and wineries with sampling, PLUS, there will be artisans and craft businesses along with other local businesses. There are many different types of foods, such as coconut shrimp, sweet potato fries, pizza, burgers, gyros, and much more.

There will be many wineries such as Bright Meadows Farm, Tomahawk Mill Winery, Brooks Mill Winery,

and Hickory Hill Vineyards and Winery. Some of the breweries who are participating in this events are Jefferson Street Brewery, Century Beverage, Tuppers,

and Starr Hill Brewery. Plus, vendors such as Blue Ridge BBQ Company, CoCo’s Jewelry Boutique, Koto’s Grill, Little Treasures, Ned’s Beer Shop, and Pints O Plenty

will also be there. To learn more about the other breweries, wineries, and vendors participating in this event, go to http://www.lynchburgshows.com/beer-wine-festival/participating-vendors/.

This is a great opportunity for those in sales who are looking for potential customers and to show them your products and services; to increase sales and drive quality leads. In addition to this, you can learn about sponsorship opportunities to help your marketing strategy. For more information about vendors, you can go to http://www.lynchburgshows.com/beer-wine-festival/vendor-information/http://www.lynchburgshows.com/beer-wine-festival/vendor-information/.

There will be great music and entertainment feature Dragonfly, The House Band,

and Jerry Wimmer. Dragonly will perform at 10 with a mixture of country, rock, and dance hits. Do you love some of the 70’s great hits? Then, you will love The House Band

who will perform hits from people such as The Temptations, Stevie Wonder

, Jeffrey Osbourne

, and many more.

Jerry Wimmer is very talented and has been the featured tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah

when he was a student at Radford University and he did solo acoustic shows entertaining thousands in The Worx. He has done bluegrass and jazz and gospel quartets in his first band called Southern Breeze.

He will be performing an acoustic show at 3:00.

So, come on out and join the fun! You can get directions from Charlottesville, Danville, and Roanoke on the lynchburgsshows website, plus find close hotels near the downtown Lynchburg area.

There are a lot of different things about Lynchburg that a lot of people don’t know about. A lot of people have lived here their whole lives and don’t know some of Lynchburg’s Best Kept secrets.

One of these secrets is the tunnels in Downtown Lynchburg. There is an old tunnel underneath Jefferson Street near Amazement Square. Many people pass through here every day, but very few have noticed this. The tunnel has been filled in.

There is so much history here and we still have old buildings and old tunnels from the past. There are places, such as Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, and history from the Battle of Lynchburg during the US Civil War. There’s so much to discover and explore!

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Are you looking for something fun and exciting to do in Lynchburg this summer? Come try Rise Up Climbing. It’s an indoor climbing gym in Lynchburg that has a lot of different programs going on such as summer camps, events, open climb, basic skills classes, birthday parties, private groups and much more!

The summer camps are for kids ages 9-14, and it will be a great experience. These kids will learn climbing,  and how to do basic movements and turns through climbing. Not only will they learn a lot about climbing, but they will learn about more important life lessons, such as team building, respect for teammates, and other such things that kids learn through sports.

The summer camps are a great way to get your kids off the couch and having them stay active, athletic, and involved. It will also be educational and they will learn different basic things about geology. So come, get ready for the fun! It’s going to be a great summer at Rise Up Climbing.

The three sessions are from July 12-16; July 26-30, and August 9-13 and you can register your child online at http://riseupclimbing.com/index.php/summer_camp/ . It’s a day camp that goes from 9:00-3:00 and is $190 per session. Members of Rise Up Climbing will have $20 discounted off the original price and siblings will have $25 discounted as well.

There will also be fun events going on this summer. The next event is Get Outdoors 3: New River Weekend, which will be June 19-20th. This place has some of the best stone in the country and it will be a fun trip!

There are also open climb classes Friday 4-7 and Saturday 2-4. There is no pre-registration and it costs $4. There are staff there who help you learn how to climb and help those who are new.

The basic skills classes are Mondays and Fridays 7-9 and Saturdays 1-3. Pre-registration is needed for these classes and you must be at least 14 years of age. These classes teach you the safety that you will need when climbing on your own. You will learn how to put on a harness, tie yourself into a rope, and belay for a partner. These classes are $20 for members and $25 for non-members.

Does your child have a birthday coming up? Rise Up Climbing has fun birthday parties, so come celebrate.  It will be a lot of fun where the kids can climb in the gym and afterwards play in the party room. The invitations can even be downloaded online. You need to pre-register to have a birthday party and the cost is $18 for members and $20 for non-members. So come, and have fun!

Do you want to meet here after a business meeting? Are you looking for something to do with a group of your friends? Whether kid, teen, or adult, Rise Up Climbing has private groups, where the staff can teach you the skills you are learning, or can teach you how to climb.  Pre-registration is needed and the group needs to be at least 6 people.

It’s important for kids to stay active and stay healthy and Rise Up Climbing can not only accomplish that, but can make it fun for kids to learn how to climb. This is an opportunity for kids to learn a new sport and to have fun. Their location is 1225 Church St. Lynchburg, VA 24504 and their phone number is (434) 845-7625. So, come and try it out today!

Stick around and join us in a journey of discovering and uncovering the past.