Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 - a free train museum hiding inside the Deerfield Tri-Rail station, and $15 Brightline tickets to feed the same obsession. Scroll your way down to the Mariana Trench, and six Broward museums that are flat-out free this month.đđđ
Stuff You Wonât Want To Miss This Week:
â TOP PICK THIS WEEK: Now through Sep 30 | Broward Attractions and Museums Month (BAMM). Buy one admission, get a second free at 20+ museums and attractions across the county, six more are just free outright. Twenty-three places this year, double what it was five years ago.
TODAY - 11amâ7pm | Free First Thursday at NSU Art Museum. Free admission, plus a Mini Muse kids workshop, one of two dated free-day hooks this month alongside BAMM.
TONIGHT - 6:30pm | Blues Traveler & Gin Blossoms at Hard Rock Live. The â90s radio-rock double bill. I might be dating myself, but when I was in college, Blues Traveler played on our campus and it was the biggest news of the year. They are still going strong.
Friday Night - 8pm | âMichaelâ at the ArtsPark Movie Night. Bring your chairs, blankets, snacks, and beverages.
Friday Night | Steve Higgins: Moonlight, Memories & Music at the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center.
Starting Friday - Sept 4 to 7 | South Floridaâs Biggest Home Show. Four days at the Broward Convention Center. Hundreds of home pros, full-scale designer rooms, live stages and tastings.
Also Starting Friday - Sept 4 to 6 | Matt Tkachuk Hockey Celebration. Competitive hockey tournament featuring Boys AAA (Tier 1) and Girls AA (Tier 2) as they battle it out for The Matthew Tkachuk Cup. FREE open Public Skating Sessions too.
Saturday - 11am to 12pm | Chess Club at the Main Library. A chance for casual practice or play for ages 5-18.
Saturday | Starlight Jam Sessions. Starlight Musicals may be done for the summer but come out to the Palm Aire Gazebo in Pompano for a free outdoor community music night.
Sunday - 10am-2pm | Dream Car/Classic Car Show. Featuring dozens of classic cars, trucks, and other vehicles of interest. Free admission.
Sunday - 11amâ2pm | Sunday Jazz Brunch at Riverwalk. First-Sunday-of-month only, so catch it while itâs actually in the window.
Sunday - 4pm to 9pm | Labor Day Festival at North Beach Neighborhood. Features a curated vintage car showcase, along with local vendors and sidewalk tag sales hosted by area boutiques.
Also Sunday ¡ 12â5pm | Doc Renoâs 9th Bacon Beer & BBQ Festival, Margate Sports Complex. Quirky, local, needs the drive to Margate.
SAVE THE DATES for Next Week
Saturday, Sep 13 | Pompano Beach historic downtown walking tour, two hours, stops include the Bailey Hotel (now BaCA Art Center).
September 10 to 13 | Disney on Ice at Amerant Bank Arena. All your favorite movies and music come to life, on the ice. Multiple showings.
Featured Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale is famous for a few things. The beaches and vacation getaways. The world-class art, music, and food. Spring break. And⌠shipwrecks?
A lot of folks donât know that in addition to trading along the New River, collecting the goods from ships wrecked by storms was a focus of early industry in the area.
And one of those âshipwrecksâ ended up producing The Bonnet House Museum & Gardens.
Yup, the whole Bonnet House story starts with a shipwreck.
You might know Bonnet House as one of the oldest homes on Fort Lauderdale Beach. The land only became available because Chicago attorney Hugh Taylor Birch got marooned.
In 1893, Birchâs yacht ran aground during a storm. Stranded along the quiet southeast Florida coast for ten days, he didnât just survive; he fell in love with the raw terrain.
Two years later, he returned to buy three miles of pristine oceanfront for roughly a dollar an acre.
When his daughter Helen married artist Frederic Clay Bartlett in 1919, Birch gave them 35 acres of that coastline as a wedding gift. The newlyweds broke ground on Bonnet House the following year, creating the Caribbean-style plantation home that still sits nestled between the ocean and the Intracoastal today.
What started as a shipwreck victimâs lucky detour ended up saving one of the last natural coastal ecosystems in South Florida from concrete and high-rises.
So... You Think You Know South Florida
You probably already know⌠here in Broward we have the Brightline, The Tri-Rail, and freight trains. You see them every day, maybe even sit at an intersection waiting for them to pass.
What you might not know is⌠some people LOVE trains!
Tucked inside the Deerfield Beach Tri-Rail station sits the South Florida Railway Museum, a low-key paradise for train enthusiasts, history buffs, and families alike.
Best of all? It costs absolutely nothing to visit.
The museum opens its doors to the public every second Saturday of the month from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Inside, you will find intricate, fully operational model train layouts alongside authentic historical artifacts tracing Browardâs rich railway history.
Passionate and knowledgeable volunteer hosts are always on hand to answer questions while they run the lines.
Mark your calendar for their upcoming 2026 open house dates:
September 12
October 10
November 14
December 12
Whether you are looking for a weekend outing with the kids or simply want to discover a piece of local history, this local secret is well worth the trip.
Want to visit? 1300 W Hillsboro Blvd, Deerfield Beach, FL (Inside the Tri-Rail station)
More Treats To Try
We donât let just anyone sponsor this newsletter. Hereâs who âmade the cutâ this week:
If you have been looking for music lessons to start the school year, Thoven is an online music academy founded in South Florida, where we help families find 1:1 music lessons that fit their kid and their schedule, from home. We work with a hand-picked, vetted network of teachers, including musicians and educators from schools like The Juilliard School and Berklee College of Music. If youâd like a personalized match, you can reach out to keri@thoven.co to talk to our head of music education.
The Florida Renaissance Festival is once again hosting its Acting & Dance Workshops. You can attend as a Member or just $5 per workshop if you want to try it out. Classes from now until October. Use this page to register
SAVE THE DATE. Founding Families Fall Festival. Stranahan House. September 25th. Email director@stranahanhouse.org for sponsorship opportunities.
Brightline is offering $15 tickets. Book a ride in South Florida for just $15 one-way when you book by October 31 for travel through November 1, 2026. Simply book an Adult SMART fare on eligible trains running Friday, Saturday, and Sunday within South Florida with a 2-hour advance purchase. But hurry, fares this low will sell out fast, so book today.
đ Buy YOUR OWN Classified Ad Here đ
Just hit reply to this email to get started. Work with us to reach over 1500+ Greater Fort Lauderdale families.
Quote Of The Week
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
~ Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell was an American writer, teacher, and scholar who specialized in mythology and comparative religion. Heâs often called the âfather of modern mythologyâ. Campbellâs work explored the worldâs mythological traditions and proposed the idea of a universal mythology thatâs expressed differently across cultures.
The Heroâs Journey is part of our daily conversation at Acton, as we prepare young people for a world that will look very different in 10 years.
Flotsam & Jetsam
Most websites give you information. Neal Agarwalâs The Deep Sea gives you altitude sickness in reverse.
Hosted on neal.fun (weâve shard a bunch of his fun projects), this interactive site turns a basic vertical scroll into a literal descent through the oceanâs depth zones. You start at the sunlit surface, surrounded by familiar sightseers like sea turtles and dolphins. Scroll down, and the page steadily darkens as sunlight dies off, pulling you through the mesopelagic, bathypelagic, and abyssopelagic zones.
A real-time depth counter in meters and feet keeps score as you sink past notable milestones, the deepest scuba dive, the wreck of the Titanic, and depth markers where the pressure becomes unfathomable. Along the way, the wildlife shifts from the familiar to the grotesque: giant isopods, stoplight loosejaws, and eventually the Mariana snailfish lingering near the absolute floor.
By the time you hit the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,924 meters, the sheer scale of the ocean hits you. It is one of the cleanest, most effective visual explanations of marine biology on the internet.
You can experience the descent yourself at neal.fun/deep-sea.
Word Play Of The Week
âSlice of the actionâ
The idiom âslice of the actionâ means to get a share of the involvement, profits, or excitement in a successful or lucrative activity. While the phrase sounds modern, the linguistic concept of âactionâ meaning a financial stake goes back to the early 1600s.
By the 1950s, the phrase broke out of casinos and into American pop culture via crime fiction and gangster movies. ~ âSource
âUnder-The-Radarâ Openings Job Board
Lots of folks offering cool positions here locally. Maybe thereâs one for you or a friend?
CHOICES Job & Community Resource Fair on Thursday, September 10, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the E. Pat Larkins Community Center, 520 NW 3rd Street, Pompano Beach, FL 33060.
Do you have a listing you would like to place here for next week? Hit reply and let us know.
Lastly⌠One Big Idea For Your Week
Is there one thing you are so sure of that nothing could change your mind?
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