Welcome to Fall 2021

The weather might not agree, but fall is right around the corner y’all. The fall equinox is Wednesday. I’ve already started planning for my fall celebrations and am chomping at the bit to put up all my Halloween decorations.

One of my favorite things to do in fall is to go to fall festivals.

Usually they have some type of corn maze, a hay ride, and a pumpkin patch. Other farms have animals around with educational facts, apple picking, some type of play ground, and/or games (like an apple or pumpkin slingshot and corn hole).

Oh no! A fork in the corn maze!

Last year, very few places were open and I skipped out on my annual fall fun.

This year it feels like a lot of places are making their fall festivals bigger than ever. 

Yesterday, I went with a group to Cox Farm in norther Virginia (yep we still have a couple farms up here). It was massive and fantastic. The hay ride alone was worth the price of admission. They had lots of great themed areas, farm animals (along with a goat petting zoo), tons of slides, a tracker museum, a corn “maze” (it was more of a walk through with themed areas), an enchanted forest (with fun facts about local plants and animals), and foam-henge which is a “to-scale” replica of stone henge in England. There was a ton of food, live music, a farm store, and tons of places for kids to play. We even got to sample free apple cider.

Mama with her piglets

They even have haunted attractions for late at night (we did not do those).

I would have loved this place as a kid. Heck, I loved it as an adult. The themed areas were a lot of fun and clearly well taken care of. One of my friends is an artist and was thrilled that the farm had commissioned so much art work. I had fun finding all the little details hidden in the scenes.

I don’t know why this exists, but I’m impressed it does.

Now, I don’t want this blog post to sound like an ad for Cox Farms. It was awesome and what I needed to kick off the fall season, which is why I’m gushing so much about it.

Finding local farms that have fall festivals is a wonderful thing to do. I may try to go to another one before the season ends. But we still need to be careful.

All over the grounds of Cox Farms were signs reminding people that COVID-19 was still a threat. They’d let people know when it was required or strongly suggested to wear a mask. There were warnings before we entered the corn maze and got on the hay ride. Most people were good about wearing a mask. There were also lots of places to get hand sanitizer or wash up. People were happy and relaxed, while also being cautious.

It was a rare feeling of normalcy after a year and a half of stress and fear.

I will go ahead and recommend you guys find local farms hosting fall festivals. They’re a great way to get into the seasonal spirit and allow for people to pick up local produce. Some are bigger than others. Some have late night haunted attractions, while others will allow you to walk the corn maze at night with nothing but a flag and flash light (the flag is for if you get lost and can’t find your way out). I’ve been to places in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey and can give recommendations.

I hope all of you have a great start to the fall season. Stay safe, get vaccinated, and wear a mask.

Until next week.

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