Maple Syrup Festival

Yesterday we headed out to a maple syrup festival at LM Sugarbush, near Salem, IN. A co-worker had told me about years ago, but I just got around to looking into this year. (We happened to bump into her and her family there yesterday, too, which was a fun coincidence.) It was great--lots of things for Lewis to do, especially lots of tractors!

We knew things were going to be good as soon as we got out of the car:

 GATOR! (Lewis started yelling as we were parking)

They had a couple of them pulling hay wagons of people from the parking area up to the festival. Lewis was so excited already.

 The shuttle drop-off was right by this cool old tractor, which Lew could have sat on all morning. He said a few times, 'Go see tractor, again?'

They had a scavenger hunt for kids that we worked on as we walked around. There were vendors (candles, soap, wood crafts, honey, yarn, etc.) and some old time-y musicians playing off and on. There were some Native Americans showing how they used to make syrup, and we could have taken a modern-day tour around the farm to see how they make syrup today (but we didn't know how long it lasted and figured Lewis wouldn't do well on it). They had a couple of campfires going and an old two-person saw where you could cut your own disc of wood and have it branded with a maple leaf at one of the fires. They had an entire building of kids' activities and a small petting zoo. I think those are the highlights--oh, and a store and a building serving food. And a hayride!

They also had a few activities you had to buy tickets for. Lewis and I did the maze:

He made his way through very well! This was on the last straight away when he could see the exit. Go, buddy, go!

Lewis and Kevin did the very primitive Merry-Go-Round:

 Lew's on the far side of the pole and Kevin's on the left side of the pole

 This was him after getting hooked into his seat

He really wanted to ride it, and Kevin and I both thought it would make us puke, so we were planning to send him solo. They ended up needing one more person to ride, so Kevin was the lucky one! Hahaha. (And he did not throw up, thankfully.)

 A calm after the twist

Then they spun around again and twisted the ropes around the other way. It went on for about five minutes, I think? Maybe it wasn't that long.

 This was Lew, mid-spin

He was pushed back against his seat, looking kind of nauseous and/or terrified. I couldn't tell if he was loving it or hating it, but he said he had a good time!

Onto the kids' activity tent--they had face-painting, coloring, candle-dipping, dress-up clothes, etc., but all Lewis cared about were the tractors:

We finally pulled him away from them to check out some other games outside: 

 Here he was digging in some corn for discs of wood.

Then it was onto the tractor hayride, Lewis' favorite part of the day:  

On the ride

They took us into the woods to see where some of the trees are tapped and to one of the big containers that holds the sap as it comes in. It was really interesting to hear what goes into making the syrup, and of course Lewis thought being pulled by a tractor was just the best thing ever. :)

 Tasting his prize for completing the scavenger hunt--maple sugar cotton candy!

He didn't care for it much, but I thought it was delicious and bought some more in the store to take home.

We decided to go ahead and eat while we were there, even though the lines were very long. I waited in line while Lewis and Kevin hung out nearby:

And by hanging out, I mean getting as dirty as possible

Our shoes and jeans were already covered in hay and mud, but Lewis thought it'd be fun to roll around in pine needles, too. Shoo! One very dirty kid. I told Kevin I think he was born to live in the outdoors.

It was a really fun morning!