HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE – Expect to experience a festive grand opening of the Hardester's Shopping Center off Hartmann Road on Saturday, Oct. 18, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

And if you should see hot air balloons from Calistoga Balloons high in the sky over the shopping center during the week, this is simply a "sign in the sky" that something special this way comes – and you do not want to miss it.

While shopping center grand openings are nothing new, this one may truly be unique. To begin, this shopping center is WiFi enabled. You can bring your laptop and go online at both ends of the shopping center, near the Crave Coffee House and Ting's Thai Kitchen. Freely check email, surf the Web or make VOIP phone calls.

The Crave Coffee house will be providing live entertainment and a jumpy house from Astro Jumps for young children, in addition to food. From the Crave location at 3:30 p.m. New York Life's Linda Fergusson will conduct a raffle of wonderful prizes – including a large, flat-screen HDTV – courtesy of Hardester's Market. It does not cost any money to participate in this raffle. All you need to do is visit each of the participating merchants and have each one sign the special raffle ticket you pick up at the Crave Coffee House. Once the ticket has been properly filled out by all the merchants, you simply deposit it in the large brass raffle drum at Crave.

At this grand opening you will not only be encouraged to eat great food, but learn how to cook it. The new Chic Le Chef store, which is adjacent to Hardester's Market (how convenient), will be conducting chef cooking demonstrations.

When was the last time you were encouraged to dress up your four-legged friend and bring him (or her) to the party? Well, the Hidden Valley Lake Pet Palace wants your pet dressed up for their costume show. The pet store will also provide a little agility course to entertain your pet. For details on how this is going to work, contact the store.

Dream Salon will have a carnival-type setup. It will be giving out free haircare samples and have a drawing for complimentary services. There will be discount coupons on services available. It will be promoting Dreamgirlz birthday parties. There will be a dream makeover photo shoot in addition to free consultations and carnival games for the kids.

For a comprehensive listing of events and raffle prizes, visit www.squidoo.com/HSCGOVLetters.

Please take note that a special "buzz" for this event is being created. Folks – both within Hidden Valley Lake and outside of it – have actually written letters to help alert the news media of this event.

So, in addition to your family (including family pet) and laptop, you might also want to bring your camera. There will likely be some interesting photo opportunities at the party.

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