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Unique Places to See this Autumn for Family Fun
By Michele Zavatsky

Ok, the kids are back to school and pretty busy most every weekday. On weekends, they need a break and beg for creative ideas on something fun to do…outdoors. Entertaining children shouldn’t be so hard. You will probably find there are several hundred family things to do targeted specifically to autumn weather. Here are just a few:

Let’s start at a castle! The Mercer Museum “castles” to be exact. The fall winds lightly swirling past the leaded glass windows truly give it that medieval feeling. The best part of the self-guided tours was the walk into Center Court. It’s amazing. Artifacts are hanging everywhere. 

While searching through junk in a barn, Henry Chapman Mercer found a jumble of objects made obsolete by the Industrial Revolution. Kids are encouraged to scour the many floors on a scavenger hunt for simple tools. Some are easy to see, but over 40,000 pieces of “junk” are in every nook and cranny. This fall, visit the new “Are We Dressed Yet?” Exhibit and see other unique accessories people have carried to hold their personal items. See what you and your family can discover about the lives of residents from Bucks County and beyond through a wide variety of hats, gloves, jewelry, and other individual items.

Your experience will be complete with try-on activities and fun interactive games. Or, take the Family Tower Tour of Mercer’s  nearby home, Fonthill. Children and parents explore Henry Mercer’s castle from basement to tower and learn about Mercer’s creative ideas through stories and prints. 

As always, a favorite tour in Pennsylvania is one where kids can learn about the olden days of transportation—the railroads. The crisp air and crackling leaves will make this trip full of brisk color. Take the Gettysburg Scenic Railway train ride through the apple countryside and then tour the National Apple Museum. Snack on America’s favorite fruit while you view a film about apple varieties, picking, and production. Because many apple production facilities don’t give tours, you’ll get a great insider look at how they “produce” apples for applesauce—a favorite with kids. 

If you pay attention, you’ll learn the secret of how apples stay “ripe” long after they’ve been picked. Next, go to an Apple Festival. Not only apples and cider, but also pie eating contests, apple peeling contests, apple butter making, tons of apple flavored foods, parades and wagon rides out through the orchards. The premier event is the National Apple Harvest Festival in Adams County (near Gettysburg). It’s an old-time festival of live country music, hundreds of crafters, antique autos and tractors, steam engines, and orchard tours. 

Still hungry? Eat your way through a Pumpkin Festival. These events feature pumpkin contests (like the largest pumpkins, rolling pumpkins and pumpkin pie eating contests). Take a hayride out to the fields and pick out your favorite pumpkin—right off the vine. Rides and entertainment are often intertwined with vendors selling unusual pumpkin flavored cotton candy, burgers, chips and ice cream. You can add to the fun by running through a Corn Maze. The cornfields and barns are converted into mazes and playlands with chutes and slides that add that fall touch to normal play. Some mazes are tricky and other paths are stroller accessible. Occasionally, interpreters perform open hearth cooking with old-fashioned foods for sale. Can’t you just smell the kettle corn, apple cider and ham stew simmering in giant cast iron pots? 

Most kids absolutely love participating in annual Battle Re-enactments. For example, come to the Daniel Boone Homestead weekends each autumn and maybe get a special treat. Period costumed townsfolk and soldiers “set up shop.” At least one weekend per month, staff and volunteers in period costume discuss the regular troops, or Continentals, who were fully equipped and trained. The First Pennsylvania Regiment interprets the role of the Riflemen with a live-fire flintlock shoot at the Rifle Range. Militia are on hand to talk about the troops and conduct a muster and manual-of-arms for children.

Daniel spent his first 16 years of life here before his family migrated south. The original site tells the story of Daniel’s youth and the saga of the region’s 18th century settlers. A restored 10-room Boone homestead and barn plus the video presentation are highlights of the tour. Children are often bored on tours of historic homes – but not during festival weekends when they can run and play!

As the Family Travel Mom who has spent thousands of hours wandering Pennsylvania, I can assure you the state has been completely kid-tested for seasonal fun. Whatever you do, Pennsylvania is full of hundreds of family events and attractions—you’ll never run out of ideas this fall!

Michele Zavatsky is the Family Travel Mom with KidsLoveTravel.com. This article contains the kind of details you can find on more than 600 places and events included in “KIDS LOVE PENNSYLVANIA–A Family Travel Guide to Exploring “Kid-Tested” Places in Pennsylvania…Year Round!” You won’t find all of this information and personal kid-tested reviews anywhere else. To find out more, visit www.KidsLoveTravel.com.