Like I said in a previous blog post, autumn is my season because I love everything that it has to offer.
One of the highlights in our area during autumn are the various festivals that happen in the area. Local churches and historical sights often are the hosting locations for these festivals.
Albert Gallatin, the former Secretary of Treasury of the United States, built a home in the Laurel Highlands region of Pennsylvania.
Here he spent a lot of time and this is also the final resting place of his wife, Sophia.
This place is called Friendship Hill and serves as a museum and tourist destination.
Each year Friendship Hill, which is also a national park, hosts FestiFall during autumn.
The event transports visitors back in time to the period of when Albert Gallatin would have roamed the halls of Friendship Hill.
Volunteers in period costumes, a fife and drum corps, frontier wedding and foods and crafts from the period were an important part of the festival.
When we first arrived we looked around the area to try and take everything in.
The first thing we came across were the volunteers cooking a huge pot of bean soup.
This seemed to be the popular place as the line was really long and I saw so many people walking around with the little white cups full of soup.
We decided to indulge in some molasses cookies and apple cider. Lily didn’t want to try the cider, but loved the cookies, which was a little big of a surprise given how picky she is.
The cookies were firm, but still soft and with a slightly sweet with a little bit of spice. She ate the whole cookie (even though she had to finish it up in the car.)
One of the events that was really cute was the frontier wedding that occurred in the gazebo that is part of the grounds and overlooks the Monongahela river.
The reenactment was cute, I just wish that it would have used mics so we could have heard what was going on better.
After the wedding the West Virginia University fife and drum corps performed period appropriate music. They were really great and Lily enjoyed listening to the drums.
There were also lots of different booths selling a variety of things and there were three different children’s tents that had arts and crafts, making applesauce and dip candles. We decided to save this for when she gets older.
All in all we had a wonderful time at FestiFall and we are looking forward to going next year.
Lily said that her favorite part of our “Adventure Saturday” was going to FestiFall, especially the cookie. I think a close second for Lily was playing in the leaves.
As cheesy as this sounds, my favorite part of the weekend was spending time together as a family. I know that recently we haven’t been able to spend very much time as a family. I know that Lily is growing up so fast and we try to capture every memory and make every day special.
Do you have any plans to attend a fall festival this year? Leave your comments below.
Mousekatots 