Check out all the fall things I’ve been doing this season!
I seriously can’t get enough of fall. I originally wasn’t ready for summer to end because I had such a fun summer, but now that fall is here, I’m all in, baby. I’ve been leaning into all the fall things – Halloween stuff, pumpkin patches, apple cider, pumpkin-flavored everything… You name it. I want it. Besides pumpkin spice lattes. I’m not a coffee gal.
Here are all of the fall things I’ve been getting into lately:
LOVER FEST EAST
Okay, not technically fall-related, but I just want to talk about this because I’m way too excited. In some miracle, my two college besties and I scored three tickets to see Taylor Swift at one of her Lover Fest East shows in Boston. Not only am I excited to see Tay for the FIFTH time, I’m also excited to, of course, reunite with my gals because we all live in different states and to travel to a new city and state I’ve never been to. So many checks are going to be made on my life list, and I seriously cannot wait.
ALL THE HALLOWEEN DECOR
If you caught my blog post about 4 easy DIY Halloween decor ideas, you’ll have seen how much I decked out my apartment in all the Halloween decor. In addition to what’s in the photos, I’ve also added some more black spiderwebs to the top of the cabinets because why not? I also have a small Halloween throw pillow on the couch that I got from the Target Dollar Spot.
USS NIGHTMARE
I love doing spooky things (at least I thought I did), so Kyle and I were dead set (see what I did there?) on going to some kind of haunted something this year. We decided to go to the USS Nightmare, which is a boat that they turned into a haunted house. I was so excited to go, but the line was so long that I ended up getting overrun with anxiety during my waiting time. I felt so bad for being a grouch, but Kyle is an angel and helped me through it.
The haunted boat ended up being so much fun. I had a lot of jump scares, and I can’t control my screaming when I’m spooked, so apologies to the four other people who went through the haunted boat with us. Even though the wait time was awful, and I had an hour of my anxiety just being at an all-time high, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It wasn’t actually too scary, but what I was most impressed with was the decorations. You can tell they had fun decorating that spooky boat, and everything look amazing.
KLEATHER’S PUMPKIN PATCH
I love a good pumpkin patch, and when the weather was that perfect amount of sunny with a cool chill in the air, I convinced Kyle that we simply needed to take advantage and go to the pumpkin patch. Kleather’s Pumpkin Patch is one of the most highly-rated pumpkin patches in the area, and even though it was a 30-minute drive, we didn’t hesitate to do. We also brought Gunther along because he deserves to experience all the lovely things about fall. I put him in his “Boo Crew” Halloween sweater, and naturally, he was a hit at the pumpkin patch.
Kleather’s is a small pumpkin patch, but it’s so cute and homey. They have little wagons that you can use while you’re shopping for your pumpkins. They have a huge variety of large and small pumpkins and everything in between. They have a store inside that sells all the fall things, such as pumpkin and apple butter, different flavored popcorns, seasonings, soaps, and lots more. They also serve hot apple cider and apple cider slushies, along with donuts and other fall snacks.
PAINTING WITH A TWIST
I went to Painting With a Twist many times when I was living in Louisiana, and for whatever reason, the PWAT in Dayton started showing up on my Facebook page. They got me. I texted my girlfriends and asked if they wanted to go. We ended up painting a cute Halloween cat on a pumpkin. I loved how mine turned out.
Something different about this location in Dayton was that they didn’t actually serve alcohol. You could bring your own. I chose to bring some bubbly Moscato and some orange juice, and the girls and I indulged in some mimosas. I’m fully convinced that they helped bring our paintings to the next level.
OKTOBERFEST
Kyle and I have been to multiple Oktoberfests this year, and I love it. My favorite thing about Oktoberfest is the fun music and all the snacks. I love getting giant pretzels with beer cheese.
In my last friDIARY, I mentioned that we went to an Oktoberfest in Springboro. That was our first Oktoberfest of the year. Since then, we’ve been to two, and both of them were in St. Louis. If you want to read more about those, check out my St. Louis post!
RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL
I had never been to a Renaissance Festival before, but last year, I heard some people talking about it because apparently, Ohio does it big. Every weekend in September and October, they have a different theme at the Renaissance Festival. Kyle and I went during fantasy weekend. Nothing could have prepared us for the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It’s like a whole Renaissance land. There are tons of different shops and booths with food. There are different stages and performances going on throughout the day. There’s jousting!
We managed to snack on a few items, except they didn’t have any kind of rotisserie chicken, which is what I was craving because, hello! Renaissance! We enjoyed some ciders while we walked around and took it all in. We saw a few shows, including a strange comedic interpretation of Dante’s Inferno and a duo that did all kinds of acrobatic tricks with fire. As mentioned, we saw some jousting, which was kind of insane. Our knight lost though, so that was unfortunate.
On the way out, they got me with a little pickle wagon. I spent $2 to get a huge pickle, and it was so worth it. That pickle was De. Lish.
KYLE’S BIRTHDAY
If y’all saw my last Gem City Sunday post, you know that for Kyle’s birthday, we went on a brewery hop around Dayton, which was so much fun. The night before Kyle’s birthday, I baked him his favorite cake – yellow cake with strawberries. After an actual breakdown when the buttercream recipe wasn’t working for me, everything turned out delicious, and Kyle loved it. On his actual birthday, Kyle’s sister treated us to dinner at Jay’s Seafood. It was our first time going, but we’ve been wanting to try it since we moved here. We were just waiting for an occasion. Seafood is easily my favorite food category, and Jay’s did not disappoint. I had some crab legs, and Kyle had the salmon. We shared a few appetizers, and legit everything was amazing. It was a delicious way to celebrate Kyle’s birthday, and I’m glad I got to reap the benefits as well.
What fall things have you been enjoying this season?
