Cherry Crest Adventure Farm (Lancaster County, PA)

This is the second year the kids and I have gone to Cherry Crest Adventure Farm, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It is AWESOME!  The kids love it and we stay from open to close (10 am - 5 pm!)  A farm has to be pretty amazing to keep us all happy for 7 hours, but this place is.  There are more than 50 fun activities and they are all really cool.  I literally took hundreds of pictures of my kids (and their cousins who met us there), but I'll try to narrow it down to a few collages so you can get an idea of all the place has to offer.  Without a doubt, I'd recommend it to anyone with kids who will be in the Lancaster area.  (Oh, and I'm not being paid to write this post and I didn't get anything for free ~ we just really like it!)

First, a few of the really fun activities...

 

 As you can see, the kids had a blast!  There are big slides down the hill and a giant slingshot (my son's favorite).  They jumped on a giant bouncy pillow, rode pedal carts around a track, climbed on a giant web, went through a Simon Says maze and more.  


Next, the farm experience area...

We went back to this area to hold the baby chicks at least three times!  The kids loved it.  And those baby goats?  They were only 2-3 weeks old and so unbelievably cute and fun to watch.  The kids liked feeding the animals by hand and also using a special pulley system to feed the goats who were up high on the bridge.

Finally, a truly amazing corn maze...

We had so much fun doing the maze.  It's a huge 5 acres and you can see from the aerial view that it's designed like a giant baseball player.   They have several options for going through it ~ you can follow the yellow ribbon for an easy walk through (good for really little ones who want the experience, but not a lot of walking), take a medium route and use special hint signs, or take the "extreme" version and tackle the whole maze.  We opted for the hardest version and made our way through the whole maze, looking for special numbered mailboxes.  Each mailbox has a sticker that you paste on your map to complete a picture of the maze.  Your group can carry a large flag as a marker and wave it if you need help or directions from the staff.  It's also fun because when you turn some corners in the maze, you'll find a little playset ~ a slide, zipline, rope climbing, etc.




If your kids are train enthusiasts, they'll love that Cherry Crest farm is a stop on the Strasburg Railroad.  They can watch the train come through the tracks on the farm, or even take a ride.  (Discounted tickets can be purchased at the farm)

We opted to bring our own lunches to eat in the covered picnic area, but there are several concession stands with a variety of foods at the farm.

One last thing that's really cool.  If you visit any time during the summer and have a special photo taken, you can come back as many times as you like for the rest of the summer for FREE!  (until Sept 21st)  Even though the farm is about 1 1/2 hours away from us here in Baltimore, we definitely plan on returning at least once more this summer ~ the kids really love it!

Herr's Snack Factory Tour (Nottingham, PA)

Another trip we took over Spring Break was to the Herr's potato chip factory in Nottingham, Pennsylvania.  It's a real, working factory making all sorts of chips and snacks and the tours are FREE!  It's about an hour north of Baltimore and an hour south of Philadelphia, so it would be a fun side trip if you're near either of those cities.

Nope, my son didn't suddenly turn into a girl.  

We had a friend with us and my son wasn't feeling photogenic

at picture taking time.

The tours are free (woo hoo!) but they recommend calling ahead or registering online since they can only accommodate a certain number of people at a time.   Our tour started with a short movie about the history of the company and then we had a tour guide lead our group of about 25 people through the factory.

Cameras aren't allowed inside the factory itself (you can see a few pictures here) but on the day we went we were able to see them making pretzels, corn chips, popcorn and potato chips.  You're usually just feet away from the big machines and conveyor belts (usually behind glass).  The kids and I loved watching everything being sliced, mixed and packaged up.  Our tour guide also told us some interesting tidbits ~ like the fact that the snacks that fall onto the floor during the packaging process are fed to cows on a nearby farm!

After we watched and learned about them making the potato chips, our tour guide went out onto the production line and scooped up a tray of still-warm chips that we got to sample (HUGE hit with the kids!).  At the end of the tour, we all also got a free snack size bag of chips (and lots of regular sized snack foods in all sizes available for purchase).  

The whole tour lasted about an hour.  On the day we went, we stopped first at Annie's Playground to play and have a picnic lunch, but there's a cafe/snack bar there at the factory if you wanted to eat before or after your tour. 

I've known about this Herr's factory for years (maybe from a Girl Scout trip ages ago), but when I was in the gift shop I saw this book  with all sorts of factory and company tours from all over the country.  It looked to be really informative, telling the cost, about the tours (like whether it was the actual factory or just a demonstration), etc.  Even if you're not here on the East Coast and able to check out this potato chip factory, I'd definitely recommend seeing if there is a similar tour near you ~ the kids and I loved it and it was a great way to take a look at all that's involved behind the scenes.