The temperature is falling, sweaters are being unpacked from mothball filled drawers, and the smell of barbecues is becoming a distant memory as the fall season is finally upon us. Fall comes with so many activities, but what are you supposed to do first? The changing leaves, the aroma of pumpkin spice, and the anticipation of the impending tryptophan overload provides us all with the anticipation of the new season. The fall is filled with fun activities like apple picking, going to a corn maze, or even something simple like getting a fall drink. It may be hard to decide what to do, but lucky for you, this article might be able to help you choose.
Apple Picking:
Apple picking is the quintessential fall activity and something to enjoy with family or friends. Once you get to the orchard, you can take a hay ride out to the apple trees with buckets and an apple picker to pluck the juicy, ripe red apples high up in the branches. There is nothing quite like picking fruit off the tree and taking a bite out of it – the crunchy freshness is indescribable. As fun as it is to pick your own apples, the best part of apple picking is all the apples you can take home to use in the kitchen. From caramel apples to apple tarts to apple butter to apple pie, the list of treats that you can make with apples is endless and a way to preserve the memories of your apple picking trip for a long time.
Corn Mazes and Haunted Houses:
Corn mazes and haunted houses are a fall rite of passage. Usually built near apple orchards, corn mazes are a fun activity that challenges your powers of observation and your sense of direction with a little bit of claustrophobia thrown in for fun. Corn stalks can grow up to 12 feet tall and tower over the average adult. Employees create paths through the corn field that twist and turn with some paths leading to a dead end that force you to turn around and retrace your steps to the last intersection. With the inability for anyone in the maze to see anything but the sky above them, people run around in circles searching for the exit. This is a fun activity to do with groups of friends, competing with each other to see which group can exit the maze first, similar to the game “Escape the Room,” but without tricky clues to solve. Along with apple orchards and corn mazes, many farms also have haunted houses that are most popular in October evenings leading up to the scariest holiday of them all, Halloween. Haunted houses are often created in farm houses or barns and are filled with scary things with people jumping out at you or grabbing you as you walk by and random noises and sounds that make the experience feel as though you are in a horror movie. This is an activity that must be done with friends, if you are brave enough to enter.
Pumpkin Spice Lattes:
It may seem like getting a Pumpkin spice latte is just like getting a regular coffee, but it is different then just having a regular coffee. Since our perception of taste is connected with our sense of smell, when we taste pumpkin spice, our brain interprets it as a warm and comforting memory that we enjoy. Even the name reminds us of the thrill of free candy at Halloween and the excitement of Christmas right around the corner. While some may feel as though the fall brings pumpkin overload, everyone can enjoy trying pumpkin spice latte once and if you only drink one of these drinks every fall, you will look forward to it because it has become a fall ritual.
