Outdoor Autumn Fun: What's Your Fave?
I did not plan this weekend with three excellent outdoor autumnal activities on the calendar. In fact, when was the last time I planned any weekend ahead of time? Just not my nature. And were I a planner, I would never had agreed to hit Kruger's for pumpkins and hay rides, Portland Nursery for music, apples galore and pumpkin painting, and and the Salmon Festival at the amazing Oxbow Park in one weekend. But we did, and it was super fun. And all in the sun, no less. Feeling the love for Stumptown.
What is your family's just-can't-miss fall event or fun family activity in the Metro area? While I feel lucky and satisfied to have enjoyed these three, I know there are loads more, not to mention fun at-home activities like making apple sauce, collecting and pressing leaves, the list goes on (sour apple dolls, anyone?)
Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch seems to be everyone's must-see, but I have a few we LOVE!
Fir Point Farms
www.firpointfarms.com
Liepold Farms (great corn maze!)
www.liepoldfarms.com/
and we just heard about this one, it looks like a blast:
www.thelakeviewfarms.com/pumpkinpatch.html
ENJOY!
Posted by: Rhonda | October 13, 2008 at 05:28 PM
And I gotta say, THIS maze looks pretty great:
http://www.baggenstosfarms.com/products.htm
Posted by: Rhonda | October 13, 2008 at 05:44 PM
We've gone to Lakeview Farms (out by North Plains) every year for the past 4 years. You can either ride a boat across the lake to the pumpkin patch and the train back, or vice-versa. Nice little farm and shop, too. We usually stop for lunch at McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse and take a walk around the grounds. Makes a nice day outing.
Posted by: sharai | October 13, 2008 at 07:46 PM
Though I do enjoy the great photos taken by the pro photographer at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie's, the crowds are unbelievable as is the traffic!
Our new favorite is Plumpler's Farm just north of NW Skyline and Cornelius Pass Road in the beautiful country side. Older kids will love the pumpkin launchers. I see they also have live music some weekends.
http://www.plumperpumpkins.com/
I think we will also check out Lakeview Farms:O) Thanks for the link.
Posted by: bearlee | October 14, 2008 at 02:34 PM
I went yesterday to the apple tasting, purely by chance -- we needed herbs -- and I have to say: weekday afternoons make it SO much easier! the boys and I tried every. single. variety of apples and pears, and some many many times. (we loved 'elstar' and 'galer' and everett insisted we take home 'comice' pears)
so maybe others could fit that in friday afternoon :) they close the tasting at 5.
as soon as I clear a place in my backyard orchard, I know which trees I'm planting.
we're planning to go to the pumpkin patch this weekend, too, and I'm trying to decide where to go (and whether to bike or drive w/aunt abby). now i have more choices, hmm, hmmm...
Posted by: sarah gilbert | October 16, 2008 at 01:20 PM
Where was the apple tasting Sarah? Thanks.
Posted by: mardi | October 17, 2008 at 11:06 PM
mardi, the apple tasting is here in town at Portland Nursery on Stark (50th I think).
and I guess the Lakeview Farms description was good enough to get four urbanMamas families out there! they sell "tickets" to the pumpkin patch for $4 each (except for kids under 1; they didn't quibble when we brought 15-month-old Monroe in w/o a ticket). the tickets pay for two train/boat rides, and each is good for a $1 discount on pumpkins. both are cute little rides but you could just walk over to the pumpkin patch if you felt short on cash. the pumpkins ended up being a great deal; five pumpkins, one of them so enormous i had trouble lifting it, cost $15.50.
we drove but you could conceivably bike there if you have an xtracycle or other configuration that would fit on the max; you could take the max out to the last stop, hop on glencoe road, and you'd have 5-6 miles to lakeview farms.
Posted by: sarah gilbert | October 18, 2008 at 06:34 PM
We decided to get out of town for the afternoon and drove out to Parkdale to Kiyokawa Family Orchards. Picked a bunch of apples to make applesauce tomorrow, listened to a great mariachi band, got a lovely pumpkin and some apple cider, went on the hayride and learned a lot about the orchard and a cool new apple variety called Hidden Rose (it's bright pink inside!), and enjoyed beautiful views of Mt. Hood and Adams.
Posted by: jj | October 18, 2008 at 06:49 PM
We also opted to head out to Lakeview to try out a new patch, and to avoid the crowds at Sauvie. It was fun running into you Sarah :-) We had a good time there as well. We arrived at around noon. Had a picnic by the the little train...it was really hard keeping two very anxious little boys focused on eating their lunch when all they wanted to do was ride the train. Yes, the pumpkins are nice, but the wide open spaces, fresh air, and beautiful surroundings were the perfect ingredients for a fall outing. The kids had just as much fun in the mini-hay maze and jumping from the hay bales as they did looking for worms in the pumpkin patch. It also satisfied the kettle corn, hot apple cider, and caramel apples. Oh, and we did pick up some pumpkins as well.
Posted by: hau | October 19, 2008 at 08:39 AM
We spent last weekend enjoying fall too! We went to Plumper Pumpkin for pumpkins, mazes, pumpkin slingshots, animal petting, bowling, rubber ducky racing, and huge and fun slides!!! Then over to McMenamin's Rock Creek Tavern (5 mins down the road) for dinner by the fire!
Plumper Pumpkin
11435 NW Old Cornelius Pass Rd, Portland, OR 97231
(503) 645-9561
Posted by: Meg | October 17, 2009 at 11:35 AM