My favorite must-do activities for Fall

Before I start this week’s post I need to shout out my fabulous roommate, Ava, for this week’s post topic. I was struggling about what to write that’s relevant and she had the brilliant idea of doing my “Favorite Fall Activities” so here we are! Fall is absolutely my favorite season. A great example of this is the fact that I’m literally writing this post dressed as a scarecrow in full hair and makeup for Halloween. I love Halloween and the buildup to the end of the month is always spooktacular. Here at school, my friends and I love to get festive with every holiday. That includes doing every possible activity related to that season. Personally, I feel that Fall has the best activities, foods, and traditions. With that being said, let’s get into some of the most festive Fall activities I did this season and loved!

Of course the first has to be apple picking because why wouldn’t you pay $30 to snatch apples off a tree and dress in a cute sweater? Honestly, I do feel like apple picking is one of those Fall traditions that are extremely over-hyped, but I also feel like it’s one of those Fall traditions that you simply have to do. This year my roommates and I went to a Pippin Orchards in Cranston, Rhode Island. It was a pretty tiny orchard, so we really had to scope out the best tree to pick from and gatekeep it from everyone else in the orchard. We filled our bag, took some pictures, and had literally one of the best frozen apple ciders of my life (which I didn’t know was even a thing but I wasn’t complaining.) And the best part is that once we got our apples home, we did absolutely nothing with them! Yay! But seriously, while apple picking can be a little “basic” I do enjoy going every year and it always signifies the beginning of Fall for me which I do love.

Another Fall festivity I absolutely adored was the Pumpkin Spectacular at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence. This was one that we have never done before but are all so glad we did. We had absolutely no idea what we were walking into, we just knew there would be some pumpkins. Tickets were $20 with tax to go on a weekday and we decided to spend the money and check it out and it was honestly the most magical thing I think I have ever experienced. The only way I can describe it was like that one scene in Tangled when Rapunzel was watching the floating lanterns from the boat. There were literally hundreds of pumpkins all throughout the zoo. There were some on the ground, on stands, and even hanging from trees. I literally felt like I was walking through the town from the Nightmare Before Christmas. I also thought it was so cool that they separated the pumpkin carvings by decade. For example, the 80’s section had Queen, MTV, and David Bowie. They also had random ones like tarot cards, Jack Skellington, and a chipmunk on the moon. All of them were so creative and fun and I really wish they had something like this for every season. I’m going to be bold and say that the Pumpkin Spectacular was my favorite Halloween activity I have ever done. It really put me in the spooky spirit and if you are ever in the Rhode Island area during October, I highly recommend going.

This next one wasn’t so much for me as it was for my roommates, but the weekend before Halloween, I took all of my non-Massachusetts friends to Salem for a little day trip. Now I won’t go into too much detail because everything we did was basically just what I wrote about in my Salem blog post, but what I will say is that the costumes people were in were insane. Random civilians were all out in costumes. We saw the clown from IT, an undead funeral procession, and a nun on stilts that flirted with my roommate Sarah. The streets were packed with people and it was honestly such an experience. Coming from a Salem local who goes every other day in the summer, I didn’t love the crowds but all of my roommates thought it was so fun. I also thought it was fun to watch their reactions to everything because to me, the crowds and costumes are so normal but to them, it was like they were in another world, and watching them laughing and enjoying themselves was so sweet (love you guys!)

Another tradition we do every year as a friend group is pumpkin painting. Now I know most people carve pumpkins but hear me out: painting them is so much better. No gross slimy pumpkin guts, they last longer, and it gives you more creative freedom. This one is definitely my favorite tradition we do and is always a hit. We got our pumpkins this year from a local church and then got to painting. We all get so creative with our pumpkins and spend hours trying to perfectly execute our designs. Last year I did a Harry Potter-themed pumpkin and put the Hogwarts castle on it (free-hand might I add!) This year I did Toothless from HowTo Train Your Dragon. We sit around a table for hours talking and listening to music, painting and it’s just so therapeutic. At least for me, it’s therapeutic until I mess up the paint job and start yelling because I have the patience of a child.

The last and most recent Fall festivity my roommates and I did was decorating Halloween cookies. Sarah’s mom sent us a whole kit complete with pre-made cookies, frosting, sprinkles, and even fondant (which Ava did try and eat by itself and she is asking me to tell you all that it turned her teeth black and was a very big mistake.) And I’m not kidding when I say that we went all out. My Highlights were Frankenstein and a mummy, Sarah made an incredible skeleton and Ava made Shellsea from fishhooks. We also did this the night before Ava and I had a quiz on rhetoric and probably should’ve been studying but the universe aligned perfectly because the next day, all classes were canceled. I’m very proud of my creations and hold a bit of an attachment to them. Whenever our guy friends would come over and ask to have one my response would always be “Yes just don’t eat the mummy.” Unfortunately, I broke the mummy in half while emptying the dishwasher and have been upset ever since.

And that’s my list! I know Fall isn’t over yet, but I figured I would give you all some inspiration if you haven’t lived out your Fall fantasy quite just yet. I kind of want to do this for every season so this might be the first of a series (exciting!) To keep up with my day-to-day life, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @spititout_blog! Also, I think I fixed the subscription button so now whenever I post those who are subscribed should get an email. Sorry about that to those who were confused!

Hope you all have a lovely week!

-Meg

P.s. Here are some photos I took this past month! The first is from the Pumpkin Spectacular, the next is my friend Ava and I with our frozen apple ciders from Pippin Orchard, then there is the Halloween cookies we decorated, my friends and I in Salem, and me dressed as a scarecrow 30 minutes before I sat down to write this post! Enjoy!