Country music’s elite, American Idols and a skating legend headline the 89th annual Delaware State Fair, planned for Harrington, Delaware, from July 17-26, 2008.

The headline entertainment kicks off on Friday, July 18, with Brooks & Dunn, with Rodney Atkins. 3 Doors Down, with Staind and Hinder, performs on Saturday, July 19.

Country music sensation, and fourth American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood, with Lady Antebellum, takes center stage on Monday, July 21. Daughtry, fronted by American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry, steps on stage Tuesday, July 22.

Performing on Wednesday, July 23, is country hitmaker and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Trace Adkins, with special guest Bucky Covington. Martina McBride, with special guest Chris Young, takes top billing on Thursday, July 24.

Demolition derbies will be held on July 17 and 25, with a monster truck show on July 20. Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam, with two shows on Saturday, July 26, wraps up the fair. Fireworks will follow the headline entertainment on July 19, 21 and 24.

Advance tickets are available online at the fair’s new Web site (www.delawarestatefair.com) and will be available by phone at 866-335-3247 or in person at the fairgrounds.

ResortQuest offers vacation rental accommodations at Sea Colony. “The Premier Family Beach & Tennis Resort Community,” located in Bethany Beach, Delaware – just a short drive from the fair. Sea Colony features a wide variety of amenities including a half mile of newly-widened private beach, 12 pools (two indoor), fitness centers, year-round security and in-season children’s programs. Accommodations at the beach and in the resort community, available through ResortQuest, range from oceanfront condos to secluded single families homes and start at $121 per night.

About ResortQuest Delaware
Since the early 1970s, ResortQuest Delaware has provided real estate sales, vacation rental and homeowner association management services to Sea Colony and other fine communities in Delaware’s Quiet Resorts, as well as the surrounding coastal areas. With 10 offices in southern Delaware and Ocean City, Md., the company offers comprehensive vacation rental services to more than 950 vacation rental properties. In 2007, ResortQuest, and its recently-acquired Seacoast Realty operations, combined for $579 transactions in Sussex County – more than any other broker – totaling more than $249.79 million in gross real estate volume, according to the Sussex County Association of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. Its homeowner association management division represents the needs of nearly 6,000 homeowners in 43 associations from Lewes to Fenwick Island, Delaware. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE: LUK), Destin, Fla.-based ResortQuest is one of the nation’s leading real estate companies focusing exclusively on resort properties, offering superior brokerage services in the country’s premier beach, ski and golf destinations and their surrounding communities. ResortQuest is also the largest marketer and management company of vacation rentals in the United States.

Dover International Speedway’s “Monster Mile” hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Dover 400, NASCAR Nationwide Series “Heluva Good!® 200″ and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series AAA Insurance 200 events, scheduled for May 30-June 1, 2008.

For nearly 40 years, the one-mile concrete oval in the First State has treated stock car race fans, up to 140,000 per event, to thrilling racing from the biggest names in the sport. ResortQuest offers vacation rental accommodations nearby at Sea Colony, just south of Bethany Beach, Delaware.

Last year’s victors were Martin Truex Jr., who took the checkered flag at the Autism Speaks 400, presented by VISA, finishing 7.3 seconds faster than Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth; Edwards, who won the Dover 200, topped Denny Hamlin and Scott Wimmer; and Ron Hornaday Jr., captured the Craftsman Truck Series’ AAA Insurance 200 checkered flag by seven seconds over Stacey Compton and Travis Kvapil.

In late September, racing returns to Dover with Spring Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman races. For more info, or tickets visit www.DoverSpeedway.com.

ResortQuest offers vacation rental accommodations at Sea Colony. “The Premier Family Beach & Tennis Resort Community,” located in Bethany Beach, Delaware – just a short drive from the races. Sea Colony features a wide variety of amenities including a newly-widened half mile of private beach, 12 pools (two indoor), world class tennis, fitness centers, year-round security and in-season children’s programs. Sea Colony vacation rentals, available through ResortQuest, range from oceanfront condos to secluded single families homes and start at $102 per night. For more information or to book Sea Colony vacation rentals, visit us online. Looking for Sea Colony real estate, visit us on the Web for the latest listings.

We recently got this in the mail. It sounded cool, so we’re passing it along. 

DiFebo’s Jeff and Lisa are offering an afternoon of fun, food and fabulous hands-on cooking instruction for four different courses. And, at the end, you get to “dine on eat your own culinary feast.”

When: Sunday, March 30, noon to 5 p.m.
Where: DiFebo’s Restaurant, 789 Garfield Parkway, Bethany Beach
Cost: $125 per person; or $150 per person (including wine pairing).

For more info, call 302-539-4550 or visit restaurant online.

Sea Colony vacation rentals are available nearby through ResortQuest.

Check out this list of ten top restaurants at Sea Colony and the surrounding Quiet Resorts of southern coastal Delaware.

From crab shacks to American classics, this list features local favorites and vacationer standards.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Is the list missing any great local eateries? Let us know. 

Happy holidays from our families to yours.
Thank you for a great 2007 and we look forward to a fantastic 2008.

From … 
The ResortQuest Delaware family – proud to provide superior real estate sales, vacation rental and homeowner association management services to Sea Colony and other fine communities in coastal Delaware. 

Happy Halloween from Sea Colony and the Quiet Resorts of Southern Coastal Delaware!

While we were gussying up our kids in Elmo, Brittney Spears (interesting possibilities) and any number of variations on the Johnny-Depp-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean theme for some door-to-door handouts (hopefully of the chocolate kind), the Federal Reserve decided to hand out a better goody for the masses - a quarter-point cut in the federal funds interest rate to 4.5%.  

The stock market likes cuts (it certainly did today).

So, by the way, does the resort real estate business.

Here’s hoping you have a great Halloween! 

“Wayne-iacs” won’t find it shocking that Wayne Newton‘s headline performance at Sunfest – Ocean City’s summer swan song festival - sold out well before the “Mr. Las Vegas” hit the stage. Anyway, at least one local paper broke the news.

Even if you weren’t lucky enough to get tickets for Wayne, there’s still plenty to do this month at Sea Colony, in Delaware’s Quiet Resorts and Ocean City, Maryland – or on the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, in case you were curious).

While it’s hardly a complete list (and a pretty comprehensive one is available on on ResortQuest’s Web site), still on tap this month is Delmarva Bike Week (rumor has it there will be 10,000 motorcyles on the highways and byways for the next couple days), The Make-A-Wish Triathlon at Sea Colony (the 24th annual swim-bike-run event raises money to grant wishes to sick kids, what’s cooler than that), Sunfest (featuring entertainment (sorry, Wayne is sold out), arts and crafts and food – try ‘gater on a stick) and don’t forget the NASCAR races at the Monster Mile in Dover next weekend. 

You missed the Nanticoke Pow-Wow and the Jazz Funeral, but there is always next year.

Cool events should be shared, so share away. The coolest will be added to our calendar ASAP.

Oh, if you want to check out these or any of the other great happenings around town and you need a place to stay, ResortQuest has a Sea Colony vacation rental that will fit the bill.