Living near Pittsburgh we have plenty of opportunities available to us for fun adventures on the weekends.
One of our favorite places to visit is the Carnegie Science Center.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Science Center
This huge facility has a bunch of different areas that explore everything from space travel, to robots to the human body.
One of our Mousekatot’s favorite places is the miniature railroad.
This railroad has been a staple of this facility for many years and offers an interesting perspective of our local area.
The railroad covers all four seasons and offers a look at all the distinct places and areas that make southwestern Pennsylvania what it is including the steel mills, coal towns, farming areas and also key landmarks in the area.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater
One area that is really fun for your little one is where a volunteer can invite them up to do the train whistle.
Lily had the most fun looking at the different scenes trying to see what the people were doing. She also loved that the scenes would go from day to night and all the lights would come on inside the houses and around the towns.
There is also a surprise train for those who are fans of “Thomas the Tank Engine.”
The cost of the miniature railroad is included with admission to the science center and is a really nice place to visit and teach your kids about the Pittsburgh area and the history of the region.
What are your favorite places to visit for weekend adventures? Leave your comments below.
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.
Beautiful Friendship Hill.
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.
I would love to have the recipe.
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.
Another recipe that I need to find.
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.
WVU Fife and Drum Corps.
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.
We loved picking out our favorite 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 