It’s finally here! I look forward to this festival as soon as summer is over. When I was a kid, my mom was a member of a club that did a food booth at the festival each year, and she was always in charge of it since she works in the restaurant industry.  So, from the age of about 9 until I was in my teens, I would go with Mom to the festival and help out with the booth getting it set up at first.  Then to get out of people’s hair, I’d be turned loose. Of course people were a lot more trusting back then, and the thought of me getting kidnapped by some pedophile never occurred to anyone – and of course never happened. The entire downtown area gets closed off, and the streets are lined with booths of all sorts of crafts and demonstrations. It’s just amazing. So, as a child, I leaned all the little back alleys and cool places no one ever sees just by driving through town.  As a result there are so many memories from my childhood that are associated with this fesitval.

DH was still sore from his catheterization, so we got him a really nice walking cane from a drug store, and headed off to town. Parking was actually pretty easy, and the weather was awesome. In fact it was a lot warmer than any one I remember. It is usually either cold or raining.

The kids were more interested in getting icies and doing bunjee jumping and rock climbing than looking at the boring stuff LOL.  So, after DH got a gyro pita from a food vendor, we went to the kids area. Around then is when we met up with MIL who lives there in my hometown. 6 did the bunjee jumping and 10 did rock climbing. 12 and 16 went ahead on to my sister’s coffee shop. They were there nibbling on banana bread my BIL had given them when we all regrouped there. Then we took off to look at the stuff.

It stretches just as far the other direction too, plus side streets.

Some of the crafts available.

An angora goat being sheared for the wool.

DH managed to get the camera and snapped one pic of me (in the background of another pic LOL)

I love these wreaths.

I wanted one of everything! I did get some great inspiration for making my own arrangement though.

These are so gorgeous.

This woodworker is so talented! Beautiful.

This is another wood craftsman who builds incredible models.

These wind chimes are as chaotic as I am LOL!

The smell in this Heritage Apples booth reminded me of the orchard at the house when I was little.

One last view before we go. We had a wonderful time!

We took a ton more pics, but they have kids in them, and I want to keep this blog as anonymous as possible. We definitely had a great time, and I am so thankful that DH was recovered enough to walk around and enjoy it too. He kept thanking me for a wonderful day. It was just what we needed.

For those of you who come here often, you may notice I change the way the site looks now and then. I think I am finally happy with this one. It’s simple and it has all the info and links I want. Since I have so many posts now, I’m working on tagging and categorizing them to make it easier to go look up more info on something.

While we were out doing a little shopping before taking 16 to the Homecoming game, we took some pics of the gorgeous mountains. The leaves are turning and even as far as away as we are from them, you can still see the brilliant red colors in the sunlight. They were too gorgeous not to share.

Tomorrow (well, later today actually I really need to get to sleep) we’re going to the big Fall Festival in my hometown. I’ll be sure to take pics and post them later on too.  Is anyone else going to a Fall Festival? I heard there’s a Woolly Worm Festival and a Black Walnut Festival.  I love living in Appalachia

I posted earlier this morning, so check that post out as well!

I love the barn in this one.I couldn't resist this one!

This is actually the view from the Walmart parking lot!