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Penn State Master Gardeners of Erie Pumpkin Walk 2021

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Penn State Master Gardeners of Erie Pumpkin Walk 2021

We’re doing our best to find unique Fall events in Erie, PA that will be fun for everyone, and we think we found a great event in the Pumpkin Walk put on by the Penn State Master Gardeners of Erie at Waldameer and Water World!

Location:

This super fun pumpkin walk in Erie, PA is located at 220 Peninsula Drive, Erie, PA 16505.

This Fall event in Erie, PA takes place October 8 and 9 from 5:30-9:30 p.m. in 2021.

Property Description:

The Pumpkin Walk in Erie, PA takes place at Waldameer and Water World, and begins and ends at the Water World entrance. You’ll be walking in various areas throughout the park, but it’s not the park rides and entertainment that you’ll be paying attention to. You’re eyes will drift towards the ground and the tops of tables as you gaze at hundreds of pumpkins!

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What to Do:

First and foremost, you’ll park in the Water World parking lot, right off of Peninsula Drive. You’ll then make your way towards the entrance and pay your entry fee. It’s $3 to enjoy the festivities, and the littles under 2 are free. You’ll get a piece of paper detailing where all of the different groups of pumpkins are located. This will help tremendously for those of you looking for the pumpkin that you entered, or a pumpkin that a family member or friend entered! There’s also a QR code that you can scan on your phone once inside, if you did not receive the paper guide.

Once inside, you’ll begin walking. Decorated milk jugs will light your way through the pumpkin walk, and you’ll see various pumpkins and displays as your walk starts out.

Soon enough, you’ll see the carousel which is up and running. If you’d like to ride, the carousel rides are $2.50 per person. This is the only ride in the park that will be operational during the Pumpkin Walk.

We were told to look for a pumpkin on our walk; his name is Pete the Pumpkin. Once you find him, take his picture and email it to eriemg@psu.edu by October 12, 2021. One randomly selected winner will win a professionally carved pumpkin! We found him, will you?

After you pass the Pete the Pumpkin information, you’ll see a table selling glow necklaces for $1 per necklace to your left.

Continue on, and you will be walking down paths through hundreds of pumpkins. These pumpkins we carved by groups all around Erie, from day cares to senior centers, high schools to WQLN and even the Erie Roller Girls. It was really cool to see the variations in pumpkin carving talent; some were even painted!

As you near about a little more than three quarters of the way through your walk, you’ll pass through a snack concession stand. You will need cash for tickets, and we believe we saw a sign that mentioned they were fifty cents a ticket.

After the concession area, you’ll see pumpkins carved for the sponsors of the event. These pumpkins were beautifully carved, with business logos and Halloween flair.

Around the outskirts of the concession pavilion, there are a few photo opp displays set up. One with pumpkins and holes in them, another with hay, mums, pumpkins, and tinsel cats, and a couple more with hay and mums. This presents a great opportunity to grab a photo or two to capture some memories of your pumpkin walk.

You will then continue on through more pumpkin displays, until your walk brings you back to where you entered.

Who Can Go:

Everyone is welcome to take a walk through the pumpkins! We will note that you’ll be walking on a few different types of terrain, including grass and gravel; however, most of the time you’ll be on cement. We found it quite easy to push our stroller for a majority of the time.

You can also feel free to dress up the kids for this event! We saw so many adorable costumes!

Final Thoughts:

This is the first time we’ve ever attended the Penn State Master Gardeners of Erie Pumpkin Walk and we loved it! The littles loved looking at the hundreds of pumpkins as we walked around Waldameer! We highly recommend attending, if you can! This is such a great opportunity for Fall fun in Erie, PA! We attended early in the evening, but we imagine that it was an even cooler experience as the sun went down! And again, don’t forget to bring cash in order to get in!

For more Fall fun, click here!

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with the Penn State Master Gardeners of Erie or Waldameer Park and Water World in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard.]

Pumpkintown at Mason Farms 2021

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Pumpkintown at Mason Farms 2021

One of our favorite things to do in the Fall is to visit Pumpkintown at Mason Farms. We have so many childhood memories from Mason Farms, and there’s just something about a country oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Peninsula Drive.

Before you dive deep into the fun of Pumpkintown, we want to let you know that this post is specifically about Pumpkintown. To learn more about Mason Farms in general, click here to be directed to our last wandering to this location as Summer 2021 was rounding out.

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Location:

Pumpkintown at Mason Farms is located at Mason Farms Country Market, 839 Peninsula Drive, Erie, PA 16505. You won’t miss it, it’s a much different atmosphere from the rest of Peninsula Drive. From the road, you’ll see cornstalks, mums, pumpkins, and everything Fall.

Pumpkintown is open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Property Description:

The outdoors of Mason Farms Country Market is transformed into a giant Fall Fest for Pumpkintown! If you go into the entrance of the large store as normal, you can continue your way through the store and into the greenhouse. Once you get inside the greenhouse, go into the center aisle and turn left. Continue until you have exited the back door. There you will see a farm themed petting zoo straight ahead, and if you turn to your left again you will head towards the snack and ticket stand, which is right after a Paw Patrol pumpkin display. Once you pass the stand, you will see a photo opp set up, and beyond the photo opp, you’ll see several inflatables set up, as well as a corn maze and picnic table eating area.

What to Do:

There are so many fun things to do at Pumpkintown! First and foremost, you can pick out some pumpkins! There is a large selection of pumpkins available, whether you want them untouched or painted. Several colors and sizes are available.

We know that picking out pumpkins isn’t going to be the most fun thing for the kids to do, as clearly our littles couldn’t wait to get to the fun that awaited them in the inflatables! There are several different types of inflatables for the kids to play on, including a massive slide, a smaller mountain with smaller slides, an obstacle course, a smaller course, and a bounce house! Oh, and make sure you bring socks with you (or your kids are wearing them when they leave the house) in order to go on these inflatables, because they will have to take theirs shoes off!

Let’s talk Mason Farms Pumpkintown ticket prices. Each inflatable will cost you a certain amount of tickets to enjoy, or you can purchase an all day pass or season pass. $11 will get you a strip of 10 tickets. A Ride A Rama is $12 after 1:00 p.m., and $30 will get you a season pass! For us personally on this trip in particular, we chose the the 10 ticket strip, because we had limited time and multiple littles wanting to go on rides.

You can purchase a variety of refreshments at the concession stand, including little souvenir bottles of apple cider. This was a hit with out littles, as one of them would not let go of the bottle the entire time we were there. They also have slush puppies, water, popcorn, pepperoni balls, candy apples, hot dogs, brownies, pretzels, and much more!

Another fun thing that the littles love about Pumpkintown at Mason Farms is the petting zoo! We love the animals that are there this year, each one was super sweet and good with the kids! We saw llamas, goats, sheep, and even two little black pigs! You can feel free to pet them and to feed them. There are feed machines near the pen and it will cost you a quarter to give them a pretty decent amount of food. With one quarter, our littles got about 7 turns to feed the animals. We put the food in their hands from the big pile we got from the machine, and gave them a smaller amount than what would be a handful for them.

A tradition we’ve always remembered from Mason Farms is looking at all of the pumpkin displays! From the three little pigs to Paw Patrol, they have such a great variety of scenes to check out this year! And don’t forget to find Granny, she’s somewhere in Pumpkintown!

Who Can Go:

What we love about Pumpkintown is that it is definitely for everyone, people of all ages. Even if you’re simply young at heart, you can enjoy all of the displays and Fall feels. On our trip, we saw a few wheelchairs being pushed, and the smiles on faces as they looked at displays were priceless.

There is more than enough room to push a stroller or wheelchair anywhere in Pumpkintown and in the store. We actually highly recommend strollers for the little littles, as there’s a lot to get into! We actually opened the back of the car to grab ours, and realized we had forgot it at home! Always double check before you leave the house!

Final Thoughts:

Mason Farms Pumpkintown is always a favorite thing of ours to check out in the Fall. Whether you want the kids to play on the inflatables or not, we think it’s worth a visit! You don’t have to check out the inflatables to have a good time. Being there just puts you in the Fall spirit, whether you’re looking for all the Fall things or just browsing the market.

For more Fall fun in Erie County, click here!

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with Mason Farms in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard.]

St Joe’s Oktoberfest 2021

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St. Joe’s Oktoberfest 2021

As we try to go back to the way it was, festivals are coming back in the Erie area. With the ability to be outside, even though we assumed large crowds would form eventually, we thought it would be great to stop by Oktoberfest at the beginning of the day, when they were just getting started. Keep reading to learn more about Oktoberfest and what we did while we were there!

Location:

Oktoberfest hosted by St. Joe’s is located at 147 West 24th Street, Erie, PA 16502.

Oktoberfest at St. Joe’s is held 5 p.m.-11 p.m. on Friday October 1st, 1 p.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday October 2nd, and 12 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday October 3rd. This festival has free parking and free admission.

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Property Description:

This Oktoberfest in Erie, PA is located on the property of St. Joseph Church. You will find a few large tents set up, most with tables in them, and a few tables set up outside of the tents. You do have the ability to go inside of the community center to get your food and purchase raffle tickets. We will say, when we did go inside it was very crowded, so just be aware of that.

What to Do:

First and foremost, in order to purchase your food at Oktoberfest, you’ll need to purchase tickets, so find a ticket sales table and purchase your tickets! We found the ticket sales pretty easily; we can tell you for sure that one is located inside of the community center and another is located in the beer tent. Each ticket is equivalent to $1.

There is a TON of German food available at Oktoberfest! Although we weren’t there to eat a meal, we saw a lot of people enjoying some delicious looking eats and treats. You can get a bratwurst sandwich, sauerkraut balls, a Limberger cheese sandwich, Oktoberfest pizza (mustard sauce, Swiss cheese, bratwurst, and onion) or cheese/pepperoni pizza, German waffles, German potatoes, and so much more! There are also full dinners available inside of the community center! Those dinners include pork and sauerkraut, Sauerbrauten, and Bavarian goulash.

There is a Bavarian Coffee House hosted by The Tipsy Bean located in a tent outside, where you can get a ton of sweet treats and different types of coffee. We kept it simple and got some cut out cookies that were adorned as beer mugs, and a very large lemon cookie with an Oktoberfest design on it.

There is also a mini store set up across from the Bavarian Coffee House, where you can get German souvenirs of all sorts! They had a great dachshund hat that appeared as if the dog was laying on your head. They also had several flower headbands and crowns, and even headbands with little Bavarian hats on them! And you can get the Bavarian hats as regular size, too! There were also many German t-shirts available for sale, as well as other German trinkets and decorations.

Being at Oktoberfest, we just had to try something from the beer tent. Although there were several beers available inside the beer tent, we didn’t opt for a traditional Oktoberfest beer. We did, however, try a hard cider with a black cherry spin on it, and it was really good. There are also 5 different wines you can try while you’re there!

One thing that we did at Oktoberfest that we definitely want to highlight is watching the dachshund races! Unfortunately, this event is only available on Saturday, so if this is something that interests you put it on your calendar for next year! The famous dog Max from Bianchi Honda was there to cheer on his fellow dachshunds. All of the little wiener dogs were so cute, and the announcer was hilarious as he set up the competition! It was so funny to watch the dogs run, as some of them had no idea what they were doing. The races featured pups of all ages, including a 10 week old puppy! So cute! All in all, it was a great experience and the littles loved to be around all of the dogs! Because of these races, Oktoberfest is a dog friendly event! We saw a ton of different dogs, leashed of course, walking around with their humans! So if you’re looking for a great time and the ability to bring your dog, head over to St. Joe’s!

They also have over 170 baskets inside that they are raffling off, so be sure to get your raffle tickets! Basket tickets are 50 cents, but there are also 8 premium baskets, for which tickets are $3 each.

Who Can Go:

Everyone is able to come to Oktoberfest. Be aware that crowds can develop, so if you’re pushing a stroller or wheelchair you may have a hard time getting through at times. and remember, this event is dog friendly outside!

Final Thoughts:

For never attending Oktoberfest at St. Joe’s before, we thought it was really cool to finally see it in person this year. We think it’s one of those festivals in Erie County that we will continue to attend year after year. With no fee to get in, it’s a great opportunity to get out of the house in the beginning of Fall and enjoy all things German.

For more Fall events, click here!

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with St. Joe’s Oktoberfest in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard.]

Vanco Family Farm Oktoberfest

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Vanco Family Farm Oktoberfest

Although we may not be ready to admit it yet, we are officially in the season of Fall. The weather may be getting a bit cooler, but that doesn’t stop the fun in Erie County! In fact, the fun is just beginning, especially when it comes to Fall Festivals in Erie! We recently found out about the Oktoberfest at the Vanco Family Farm, and had to check it out for ourselves!

Location:

Vanco Family Farm is located at 12210 Silverthorn Road, Edinboro, PA 16412. If you take I-79 from Erie, you’ll get off of the highway at Exit 166 and head towards Washington Township. Then make a right onto Silverthorn Road. You will find the farm in less than a mile.

Vanco Family Farm Oktober Fest runs September 24, 25, and 26 from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and October 1, 2, and 3 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in 2021.

Property Description:

Vanco Family Farm is a working farm, but when you go for Oktoberfest, you’ll be focused on the shop and the area around the shop. The shop is a small building that is panted red with pumpkins, decor, and country charm surrounding the exterior. Directly behind the shop is Face Painting. To the right of Face Painting (if you’re looking from the side of the shop), you will find Funnel Cakes from Ross Concessions and Fresh Cut Fries from Larry’s Tater Shack. There are tables to the back left of the shop to enjoy your food at. If you continue walking back towards the giant barn and silos, you will find a small petting zoo area with a pony and a goat.

What to Do:

Although this is a small Fall Fest in Erie County, it is well worth coming to. There are a few things to do, and we were able to spend about an hour enjoying the property and checking out all they offered.

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First and foremost, we went into the shop. We absolutely loved the atmosphere inside of the Vanco Family Farm shop; with country flair and modern farmhouse inspired decor, it gives off such charm. You will find anything from their locally grown fruits and vegetables, to pumpkins for decorating and eating, to local honey. You can get candles, floral displays, buckets, and pots. You’ll find a plethora of small table decor and signs to hang up throughout the shop; everything is lovely and gives off farmhouse vibes. Outside of the shop you’ll find plenty of pumpkins and outdoor decor.

The face painting station was great, with a lot of different options for the kids; we saw a lot of children running around with painted faces! We decided to check out the food, and got a funnel cake with powdered sugar and a lemonade. The funnel cake was good, and served hot. And the lemonade was a hot commodity, with the littles fighting over who got to hold it!

The small petting zoo is really cute, with a pony and a goat for you to get to know while you’re visiting. Of course, this was the favorite part of our littles, and we had to go back a few times so they could get their “cute animal fix” in. And we do have to say, both of these animals are super adorable.

Who Can Go:

Anyone can enjoy this Fall Fest in Erie County. Be aware that you will be walking on grass, gravel, and wood chips, so the terrain isn’t exactly smooth. However, you can definitely push a stroller or wheelchair through the outside.

Final Thoughts:

We really enjoyed our trip to Oktoberfest at Vanco Family Farm. They have been serving the Edinboro community with fresh produce for over 100 years and if you haven’t been out to the farm, make some time to check it out! We think that this Oktoberfest makes for a great excuse to check out the Vanco Family Farm, and you may just decide to grab more produce from this farm in Edinboro, PA throughout the year!

Click HERE for more Fall fun in Erie County!

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with Vanco Family Farm in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard.]