Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkins from Sherman's Farm.

Sherman's Farm

We visited the Sherman's Farm located in East Conway, NH in order to pickup our holiday pumpkin's.

We took a nice "hayless" hayride around the permiter of a very large corn maze to the pumpkin field.

Most of the pumpkins in the field were in really rough shape with many rotted and moldy pumpkin (probably because we were late this year in picking them out and perhaps because of the wet cold summer). The kids were able to walk around a bit and find two in good shape. The "hayride" waits for everyone to pick their pumpkin before returning to the entrance.

The "hayride" was $4 per person (children under 4 free) and our medium size pumpkins were about $5 each. The $4 admission charge allows for you to visit the goals and jump in the corn seeds. They had a few food vendors serving kettle corn, hot dogs, etc. They had a a cow tractor ride for the young kids for $1 and a shooting game.

If rain wasn't in the forecast and I didn't injure my foot I would have considered entering the Maize. The Maize cost is $8 per person. I'm not sure if that includes the hayride.

It was a fun way to spend the morning but it would have been more economical to purchase the pumpkins at Walmart but pumpkin picking is one of family traditions.

keep the Change...

My niece and her friends (a Virginia Tech senior) attended the McCain / Palin support rally in Salem, VA. She got within an arms length of Govenor Sarah Palin.

I love her poster "I'll keep my freedom, my guns, and my money, you can keep the Change" McCain/Palin. This says it all.

I'm proud of her political activism and gives me some hope for her generation.

Gettysburg

Updated 28 October 2008

During our recent trip to Pennsylvania we stopped in for a history field trip without our homeschooled children to the Gettysburg Battlefield and visited the brand NEW Gettysburg National Military Park (Museum and Visitor) center.

This is located about 1 mile from previous vistor center. The entire entrance area is covered with thousands of beautiful black eye susans. There are at least 3 HUGE parking lots including plenty of spots for buses, RVs, etc. When we visited we had to park in the bus area because all other parking lots were full! Quite a change from 2007 when their other dinky parking lot wasn't even 1/2 full.

Museum, Movie, and Cyclorama

Entrance to the Museum, Movie, and Cyclorama is about $7.50 for adults. The museum is very modern and contains lots of displays and artificats. The movie is realistic as well as modern. It is narrated by Morgan Freeman. After the movie you are escorted to the Cyclorama where you get perspective of Picketts Charge (the third and last day of the battle). They cyclorama is a 360 painting of the battlefield. Definately worth the admission price!



Our kids even took part in the National Park Junior Ranger program (which was revamped for Gettysburg in 2008) and earned their patch. There was about a dozen activities that could be done each worth a specific amount of points. I found that many of the questions were rather difficult. Some sections are geared for younger kids (e.g., monument match). Touring the battlefield was worth 6 points which is what we did.
We followed the audio CDs - auto tour that we bought last year and toured the battlefield. We stopped at almost every stop and enjoyed the sites. I suggest you give yourself 2 to 3 hours to tour the entire battlefield. Its very amazing to imagine the bloodshed, war, that occurred on the fields.



Going Home

We left Gettysburg around 6PM and immediately got into traffic (from an accident -- i presume) on PA15 (they diverted us from the highway for 2-3 miles -- my "low" gas light came on, moving only 5 MPH, but fortunatley we were not stranded). Just a little bit stressful to state the least.

A couple hours later, we left NJ 287 to get some food. (I believe there should be a law against resturants posting their signs on the highway especially if that resturant is 5 miles inland!). Once leaving it was difficult to turn around and our GPS quickly got us onto another highway and that route led us right into NY city (long story -- worthy of a blog entry). We got home safely around 2AM but we have a great Penn trip!

No more field or road trips for now. Time to get back to the basics!

Webshots pictures are located here. Last years pictures are here.

Hersheypark in the Dark

We attended the Hersheypark in the Dark on the opening weekend - Saturday 17 October 2008. The photo to the right is of the entrance during the evening.

Tickets are $23.95 for attendees ages (10+) and $16.95 for ages 3 to 9 and seniors (55+). This includes entrance into Hersheypark and includes all rides and shows. On Saturdays the park opens up at 2pm. Parking is $6 for this event.

Barking Lot

Hersheypark provide a clean, well staffed, and maintained kennel to house your pet called "the Barking Lot". Kenneling your pet will cost $10.

Rides

With exception of the Boardwalk section (waterpark) of the park most of the rides were open. Each ride was named something different for Halloween. The carousel even had Halloween music coming from the Orchestra. We were disappointed that the monorail only had 1 train running. This caused a large delay and long lines. However most rides did have the maximum number of units running.

Theme

For being one of the top candy producers in the USA, except for the great entrance, the "themeing" (decorating, holiday spirit, etc.) of this event was somewhat a disappointment. There was corn stalks and hay bales and some lights few and far between.

Employees were dressed neatly in nice Orange "Hershey in the Park" sweaters and rides were "renamed" with a Halloween feel.

The good news for parents of young children is that there is nothing scary about this event. We were concerned about the Busch Gardens event and the Canobie Lake event (right here in New England).

Also the Trick-or-treating was a bit disappointing especially since we took the extra effort to bring costumes for the kids. Trick-or-treating (for kids 12 and under) in the brochure is advertized as starting at Hershey's Chocolate World through Treatville (which is a catering area across from Boardwalk) but this must of been a well hidden secreat as the only trick-or-treating we found was in Treatville (nowhere else) where kids receive about 10 pieces of candy and a magazine that is suited more for adults. The brochure definately is not correct.

We were disappointed that there was hardly any character sitings. Only one spot when you entered the park.

We have been to the Hershey Sweet Lights show and Hersheypark's Christmas Candylane and have expected the same type of quality that we have experienced at these two events.


Value

Lets face it, you come to Hersheypark for one thing -- the rollercoasters and the superb rides and shows that they have and we were not disappointed. For $23.95 (about 1/2 the summer price and most of the rides open) this is well worth the visit! I relaxed more and didn't feel I had to hit every ride.

Tips

• Arrive early - Hersheypark parking lot opens well before the park opens. We arrived 1 hour early and were able to get parking near the stadium. You can poke around in Chocolate World, nearby shops, and then head down and stand in line.
• Buy Tickets Ahead of Time - Hersheypark did not open up the gate early and by the time they did there was a LONG line. If there is a specific popular attraction that you want to hit (e.g., Farenheit, Stormrunner)
• General Savings Tip. After about an hour of searching (and even a post to the facebook site) I was not able to find any promo codes; coupons, etc. online. We stopped at the Giant Supermarket in Hershey, PA (off of PA 39) and was able to pre-purchase our tickets a savings of $3 per ticket (9 and over $20.95; 3-9 $13.95) and was able to immediately enter the park which saved about 15-20 minutes.
  
  As always, photos on my webshots account.

Hershey's Chocolate World

Hershey's Chocolate World is located about 7-10 miles off of I81 in Hershey, PA.

For us its a "must see" trip on our trips down to Virginia. Its a little bit more than 1/2 way.

Review coming soon!!!

Homecoming

Hope everyone had a nice Columbus Day weekend. The weather was superb here in New England and continues to be excellent!

We were fortunate enough to have a nice visit from our daughter and her significant other back from her US Coast Guard station in Nantucket. She was happy to get off the island! We will definately have to make a visit there sometime soon.

The two middle kids were a little bit dirty (working in the yard).

After seeing this picture along with my 3 siblings (and their families) early this week I realized that time flies! Enjoy every moment. Hug your kids! They grow so fast.

Popup One Stop

Marc and Jenn have recently purchased a 2000 Palomino Colt popup camper, have already been on 3 trips already, and Marc has started his own website called Popup One Stop

This site contains buy tips, pros/cons, general information and even a You Tube video or two on popup camping.

They are just starting out but I'm sure this site will be filled with invaluable information soon.

Check it out!

Connecticut Renassiance Faire Review

My son is learning about the Renaissance in his 8th grade homeschool class. When we heard about the King Richard's Faire (KRF) in Carver, MA and we thought this would be a great way for him to experience this period of time. Well after doing some research on the internet we found that there were several bad reviews of the King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA and stumbled upon a more affordable alternative (the Connecticut Renassiance Faire in Hebron, CT).

Notes:

• Free Parking
  
• $16 per adult / $7 per child (online coupon available to save $1 -- somone in line was nice enough to give us)


• $5.00 fried dough was nice and hot and very good


• $7.00 beef stew bowl was good but the beef could have been cooked a tad bit more.


• $3.00 french fries was OK


• Bottle of soda was $2.00; Can was $1


• Costume rental was $20.00


• Cash is allowed for food (no buying tickets like KRF). You can bring your own food and drinks in. Some vendors take credit cards.


• There are a lot vendor tents selling hand carved swords and sheilds to elegant costumes (one costume we saw cost over $1000)


• This location is about 2+ hour drive to travel from the NH Border and about 1 hour from Worcester.


• This event is held at the Lions Clubs fairgrounds.


• Real bathrooms which were clean and well maintained.

Characters / Dressing Up:

When we arrived we were politely greeted by the guides and was asked if we were here for the wedding. There are many, many interactive characters throughout the fairgrounds. They all speak with a British accent. My 10 year old daughter was dressed in a fancy princess dress we got her several years ago for our Disney trip, and my four year old son was dressed in his Knight costume (for Halloween this year). They both received a lot of attention. Even some of the pheasants would bow down to her. There were "characters" who were all dressed up in mud (yes I said mud). There was mime character. There was a farmer girl trying to catch a "6 foot rabbit". Many of the adults attendees (probably 50%) were also dressed up as wenches, princesses, knights, etc. If we return next year - I am so dressing up! LOL!

Storyline:

When we arrived we watched a sword fight between the King's court. There was activities regarding the wedding all day including a wedding shower, a very interesting wedding (where the evil step sister almost conquered the kingdom), and a wedding reception (where my daughter got to dance with the princess and was later "knighted". The great thing about this was that between scheduled performances you couldn't turn a corner without seeing a group of the King's court in the "Market area" interacting with each other.

There was three jousting shows (the last one was called the King's Joust with knights in full amour on horses). The show and storyline was nicely done and made my oldest son (14) want to come back and see each one. There were numerous smaller shows taking place at several stages. They pass the hat around for gratituies.

Misc:

They had activities for the kids. There was a investigation mystery paper with several questions that you collected and had to get clues from vendor shops or the characters walking around the fairgrounds in order to solve a "who-done-it" puzzle. Many times the kids would have to do a simple activity (e.g., belly dancing, jumping up and down, etc.) to get a clue. Overall we thought there was too many questions and the overall activity was a bit convuluted and complex that we ditched this activity about 1/2 way through. There was also free sword lessons for the kids and several games for them to play. They were not bored.

Overall

For our first EVER event in Connecticut we had a superb time! We loved the characters, storylines, and renaissance feel and felt it was a really good value. I do agree this fair is not for everyone.

I probably spent less than $100 (which I would have spent that alone for tickets at KRF -- not to mention food ticket prices). We drove over 200 miles (round trip) to make this event and have very fond memories and overall feel it was well worth it!!!

This CT Rennaissance Faire appears to be more family friendly and affordable.

King Richard's Faire Bad Reviews?

We wanted to take the kids to a Renassiance Faire for a homeschool field trip since this was a topic that our oldest son was studying in 8th grade. Our first choice was to revisit the King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA.

However after reading mostly bad reviews found on the internet and how they didn't even allow you to bring bottled water into the faire (or even allow kosher food for those on a strict dietary need). Along with the price gourging (and the need to use tickets vs. cash) we decided to skip this non-family friendly event and make the extra mile to the Connecticut Renassiance Faire in Hebron, CT. Great Choice! We had a great time without spending a fortune. More to come on this soon!

My pictures are here:

http://family.webshots.com/album/567675738tshJkI


List of Bad Reviews of King Richard's Faire:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/king-richards-faire-carver

http://www.bostoncentral.com/events/king_richards_faire/p1242.php

http://www.mit.edu/~jik/faire/faire.html

Fryeburg Fair 2008

Fryeburg Fair 2008

The Fryeburg Fair held in Fryeburg, Maine (located on the NH border) is Maine's largest fair and one of the most popular. We attended the fair on Monday, 29 September 2008 and it runs until Sunday 5 October 2008. We purposedly attended on a non-weekend day in order to avoid the crowds (because in the past we have had terrible experiences with heavy traffic which has caused us to wait hours to enter or more likely to leave the fairgrounds also the crowds inside the park are quite heavy. Well with it being a rainy weekend and the opening of the fair we were quite naive to think that the fair would not be crowded. The parking at the fairs two main gates which we have parked in the past (on a Saturday) were SOLD OUT. This year the cost is $5. Premium parking is glady offered by neighbors surrounding the fair grounds which offer you a spot to park on their lawns for $5 to $10 (based on proximity to the fair).

Crowds

Even though the parking situation was not ideal. The crowds weren't terrible at the fair (probably a 5 or 6 on a scale of 10). At lunch time you were hard pressed to find any picnic tables for seating but by 2PM there was plenty to go around. There was a long line at Old MacDonald's Petting farm for the young ones but you could pretty much go through all the animal stables and areas without bumping into anyone. Some parts of the fairgrounds near Expo 1 and 2 had some crowds and the ATM was crowded (see below) but other than that it was free-flowing. We literally bounced around from area to area without any problems.

Food

As usual we spent a majority of time and money eating at the fair. My wife had a full-course delicous turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce for $13 which included a drink (this is located near the Agricultural Exhibition center). She was able to share this with our toddler. My son and I each had a delicous sicilian style thick crust pizza for $3.50 each (his cheese mine pepperoni: NOTE garlic and black olive was also available). My daughter opted for a healthy lunch.... she had fried dough ;-> which was an unbelievable $5.00.

For ane early afternoon snack we stopped by the Sugar Shack and got a thing of maple cotton candy for $3.00. This was not the kids favorite and I'm not a big cotton candy fan so a lot of this went to waste. I believe you can try a sample.

For a late afternoon snack the kids shared a very large bowl of delicous fries for $7.00, youngest son wanted a soft serve icecream cone for $3.50 and the wife and I shared a blooming onion for $7.50 (which included extra ranch dip).

To save on money we brought in our own water bottles. Good thing. This was about $2 each for a small water bottle.

Cash

Well the fair had somewhat of its own little "credit crisis" as just about everything requires CASH. Nothing is wired to accept credit/debit cards. And with increasing food prices I was quickly out of cash within 1 hour. My toddler kept reminding me that he was still hungry and with no snacks in our backpack I had to find an ATM. Well the line I found at the ATM you would think it was a hot new ride at Disney or Universal. It took a good 1/2 hour for me to make it through that line. I quickly found out that out of the 4 ATMs they had only 1 was working. The line continued to grow as I moved up in the queue.

Animals

We saw exotic birds, sheep (including a ram), goats, horses, lots of cows, etc. My children was able to ask some of the owners specific questions about their animal they had to research for their homeschool project. After all this was an official field trip.

Overview

One thing about the Fryeburg Fair is that it doesn't change much. Year after year the same vendors return and they are located in the same location. You think they could "shake things up a little" and introduce new vendors or even the old ones in new locations.