A Day at the Orchard/Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch!

Housekeeping Item First: If you missed the Saturday Six a couple of days ago, you might not know that I have a book giveaway running until the end of this week. If you or someone you know has experienced pregnancy/infant loss, I am giving away a book that is a fantastic resource to comfort the grieving mama's heart. It's Sarah Philpott's new book, Loved Baby. Really, really well written, and I just wanted you to know you can find the giveaway here!

So this weekend, Ryan and I had the chance to enjoy a really wonderful, restful, much-needed getaway, and I'm going to tell you about it over the next couple of days! Ryan has pretty much not had any time off this whole year. Well, he had a week in January, but that was his gallcation, and he felt pretty lousy for that week, so that didn't count. We did take a 3 day weekend in May for our birthday getaway to Saugatuck, Michigan, and that's been it for us this year! His only fun time off. He needed a mental break, and I needed a couple of days of not sharing him, so we carefully planned this weekend for a few months, and I stopped just short of making a paper chain to count down the days until its arrival. I was so excited.

We actually turned the mini-vacation into a three-county tour, so you'll get to see the full county recaps here soon. But today I just want to tell you about the orchard/corn maze/pumpkin patch! Ironically, this was not even on our radar when we left home. We were at a store and saw a card advertising a corn maze. We had several hours up for grabs Friday afternoon, and it was just about the most perfect weather day, so we decided to try a visit to the County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana.

I'm not gonna lie: I panicked a little when we drove up and saw this:

But this place was SO HUGE that we didn't find ourselves overrun by herds of hyped-on-natural-sugar kiddos!

We got in line to purchase an activity package, and yes, we were the only people there without kids. LOL!! (We got the Explorer pass, so it was just $7 for each of us. That gave us access to the corn maze, trolley ride, and u-pick apples. We didn't pick any apples, but we felt like we got our money's worth with the rest!) Just for funsies, we took a wagon trolley from the main barn to the very back of the property. We weren't too lazy to walk. We just thought the trolley would be fun!

We started with the corn maze. For the most part, we didn't run into too many people (astonishing, if you could have seen the parking lot and all the cars!), and those we did see mostly just politely nodded and walked by. There was one little group, though, that was in its own world of fun, and I think we were cramping their style. We decided they should never take up burglary. Stealth was not their forte.

This was the maze:

 (Hobart is in Lake County, which is the farthest northwest county in Indiana - practically a suburb of Chicago - hence the Cubs loyalty.)

 (Took this one while trying to avoid "the group.")

Of course we had to find all the markers. We compromised and decided it was okay if we didn't find them all in order, but we were not leaving that maze until we found them all!

#8 was our last find. The post was missing, and the sign was on the ground, BUT WE FOUND IT!

After we left the corn maze, we had so much fun with all the photo props around the farm. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

 (This is what happens when you don't think you're going to need your tripod, so you leave it in the car. Improv!!)

We did a little Christmas shopping/birthday gift shopping/apple cider donut shopping. Look how big the barn is!

A couple more photo opps in the parking lot...

Thanks, County Line Orchard, for a fun (and unexpected!) date!

Linking up with Tamar!