Fall Fun

I was originally going to do this for Show & Tell last week, but I was on a field trip all day Friday!  

My parents and aunts were visiting over the past two weeks, so I didn't have much time online.  We did a few sightseeing trips and went out to eat or shop a few times.  One day we drove to Hanover and Gettysburg and on the way home we stopped at a pretty park.  I snapped a few pictures of the kids enjoying the playground, and glimpses of fall colors in the background.





















At home, the kids got a little help from Papa in putting together a new "watchdog" for our woodpile:



 Last Saturday, we went with my Mom and Dad to Duncannon, to visit Old Sled Works in Duncannon.  There is a large antique mall, a penny arcade, and an old-fashioned soda fountain there.  We'd hoped to have lunch at the soda fountain, only to find out that it isn't open until the end of the month.  So we wound up going to one of the three (yes, just THREE, as far as we know) restaurants in town for lunch - the pub!  But the food was AWESOME.  Seriously.  I told DH that I was willing to go a little out of our way when we travel to visit his family so we can get one of our meals at the pub.  LOL  Anyway, back to the sledworks... It is so called because it was the factory building for Standard Novelty Works which built Lightning Glider and other wooden sleds.  Part of the building is still devoted to a museum of sorts, showing some of the memorabilia from the sled works.  This is the telephone switchboard from their office:



And a vintage baby sled:



Plate maker:



Something else the Old Sled Works is known for, is the Forest Fire Lookout Tower on the property.  It is a 110' tower that was moved there and reopened for visitors to climb.  Our whole family made the trek to the dizzy heights of the tower. (good for the thighs!)  The shadows made pictures in the lookout rather a challenge.















No picture of me, because I had the camera.  And no picture of Harrison, because he got to the top first and promptly went back down because he was "scared of the hornets"    Yeah, there were hornets/wasps/whatever, but the majority of them were OUTSIDE.  Nut job.  Here's a slide show of pics I took from atop the tower:

And this sign is at the bottom.  "Caution Falling Ducks"      I don't get it.  LOL





And finally, in our fall tour...  autumn is definitely the season for bonfires.  But we have just enough pyromaniac and/or redneck blood in our veins that we can't stop ourselves from wondering "what would happen if we threw ------- in the fire"  The following is what happens when you burn an old string of Christmas lights:

I'm sure you have always wondered... and now you know.  The pictures really don't even do it justice - the colors were actually more vividly green and blue and purple than what my limited photography skills and simple camera can show.  So if you've got some old strings of lights that don't work any more, get a little more color enjoyment out of them by burning them in the trash barrel.  Provided that doesn't violate any laws or open fire restrictions in your jurisdiction, of course.  And I wouldn't recommend toasting marshmallows over this kind of fire.  I'm just saying.