Pennsylvania: Linvilla Orchard

Our final stop of the day was Linvilla Orchard. We arrived just as the sun was going down and had a sunset hayride through their beautiful flower fields and apple orchard. We opted for the witches hayride which stopped at the witches house where a witch entertained us with jokes and a halloween story. She also passed out giant pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies to everyone. Our hayride ended at a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows and had apple cider. Sugar cookies, marshmallows, apple cider donuts, and cider ended up being our dinner. Is that bad?

Blurry. But proof that I was there.

Pennsylvania: Tyler Arboretum

About five years ago we took a road trip up to Pennsylvania to check out some places that were recommended in the Washington Post's fantastic "Road Trip" section (which sadly no longer exists). It suggested a stop at Tyler Arboretum, Linvilla Orchard, Terrain, and Longwood Gardens. We hit up all those spots and have since made it back to Longwood several more times. We really liked the Tyler Arboretum too and were excited to finally return. (Check out old photos here. Elsa was just an infant.)

They had some fun tree houses at the Tyler Arboretum and we were excited to discover that most of them were still there, with the addition of several new houses and other fun play areas. We spent several hours exploring and had the place mostly to ourselves. It was my favorite stop of the day. The whole place felt like it was designed especially for kids and is in the most beautiful setting. Lots of creative play spaces and even a magical forest with fairy houses, gnomes, and a place to build your own fairy house. I'm always pleasantly surprised to see how many of these fairy forests have popped up at various places we've visited.

There was a stage at the end of this tree house with a box full of costumes. The kids love putting on plays and performances for us so this was perfect.

The kids loved crawling through these fun tunnels. I think they were pretending to be prairie dogs. Or bunnies. I can't remember.

Sometimes Oliver just leaves.

 

Building fairy houses.

The guitar and drum tree house.

The girls frequently pretend to be birds hatching in a nest so this was perfect.

We had a lot of fun in the hammock area last time so were happy to find that the hammocks were still there!

Another nest!