2024 Fall Foliage Trip - Apple Cider Donuts, Six Flags Lake George - 2024/10/04

Let's continue our visit up to New York and our time checking out the fall foliage and all the other offerings! 

We had finished our drive up into the Appalachian Mountains to check out the leaves changing colors it was beautiful! On the way home, we stopped by a Costco to grab some extra snacks, and might as well get a cheap dinner while we're at it. 
Ian happened to ask if there was a Chuck E Cheese nearby, and surprisingly there was! It's the last days of our summer of fun pass, so why not use it!  

Their signage says they're celebrating Halloween, but as we've found a few times with CEC, you can't believe everything you read. There was no House Party or free candy in the couple hours we were there. 

There was another sign that said kids in costume got free tickets! Ian and Alli borrowed our sunglasses, zipped up their winter jackets, and tried to convince the worker that they were skiers, but she wasn't haven't any of that. No free tickets for you. 

And none of the "earned" tickets either. Yet another instance where beating the jackpot didn't result in the tickets promised. I visited the main counter to ask them to credit my card, but was out of luck. Boo to you CEC. 

But we still had fun there. Ian won the jackpot on the Crossbow game on his first try!

And Jacob, who said he never gets first in racing games, got first in a racing game!

They even had an Avengers coin pusher! One of Theresa's favorites. 

Trying to get Jacob addicted to it. 

On Friday morning, we were up relatively early and off to some apple orchards! Our first stop was right back to Bowman Orchards where we picked up all those apples from earlier. 

And once again, we could smell all the treats coming from their bakery. 

Cookies and doughnuts. It does look good. And unlike the donuts we could have gotten in Vermont, these are covered in cinnamon sugar! 

There was a downside though. Even though we could see and smell the hot donuts frying in the back, we weren't allowed to buy any. We asked specifically if we could get the hot ones, instead of the ones that were made over the last day or so. No joy. The worker said they never sell their hot donuts. 

And I'm going to say also, I'm a bit disappointed with the portion sizes of their drinks. Alli's hot apple cider was something like $3, while Ian's tiny cup of cider slushie was $5! 

But how are the donuts? 

Well, they're okay. Obviously baked yesterday. They're meh. 

Theresa was quite disappointed in them though and said that this would not be her apple cider donut experience this year. She immediately started searching for another location to find them. 

We had our treats and tried to outrun the bees that always seem to hang out by the food areas at places like this. 

Any more treats? Dole Whip? That sign says they have Dole Whip Apple Cider and Dole Whip Vanilla. I'm pretty confident that Dole doesn't make either of those. I've looked into it pretty extensively (there's a big taste test coming up for it) and Dole makes 10 fruity flavors. None are apple and nothing vanilla. There is another company called Frostline that is owned by the same company as Dole who makes vanilla and other flavors, but to call it Dole Whip? I don't think so. 

Back inside the store, Ian really had his heart set on Watermelon fudge, like his first visit. They didn't have any in stock (thank goodness for the rest of us) and the prices were a bit high too. We promised we'd find fudge elsewhere instead. 

And so, we all hopped back into the car feeling just a little disappointed with our apple farm visit. Hopefully this next spot can cheer us up a bit. 

It's Riverview Orchards just down the road! Walking inside I can already smell what is cooking. 

Oh yes! They're making cider donuts right in front of us. 

Theresa asked if we could have them fresh. The worker asked if we just wanted them warm, or if we wanted them right out of the fryer. Right out of the fryer please! 

Their donut machine working hard in the background. 

While T gets that all sorted, I looked around the rest of the store. 

Hey! I recognize those. Pure Maple Sugar candies, just like our friends the Coutures make! Ouch, the Coutures have much better prices though. It's 6 candies here for $7 ($1.17 each). I think we got a box of 42 for $16 ($0.38 each) when we bought it from them directly. 

They do have a cheap candy wall though. 

The kids got some lollipops and hard candy for the drive ahead. 

And how are those donuts? 

Oh yes. That's what an apple cider donut should be. Still crispy on the outside. Hasn't had a chance to cool and get soggy. Steamy and moist on the inside. Almost too hot to eat, but oh so good. 

And because they were so good, we went back inside and got another half dozen to split between us. Yum! 

Behind the main house are a few goats. 

We said hi and fed them some of the hay that they already had to eat. 

It tastes better coming from someone though I guess. 

And this is Riverview Orchards, isn't it? There was a path surrounded by trees, so I went hiking while everyone else stayed behind with the goats. 

Found it! There's so much forest here, I couldn't look back up the hill to see the orchards, but maybe it was named before all this grew in. 

Pretty changing leaves by the water. 

Well, as promised, we found a Kilwins in a nearby town and stopped to get the boy some peanut butter and chocolate fudge. No watermelon flavored fudge here either. 

And even though Theresa, the kids, and I were just here this summer, it's our first time going to see Lake George! Last time we focused mainly on the Six Flags park nearby. 

But there's the big lake! 

It'll be gorgeous here in a few weeks I bet. 

Just like there is a paid parking lot for the cars, they have paid spots on the dock for boats! Same kind of machine too! Park your boat, go pay at the little stand with your spot number! 

But now, we turn to the second half of our fall foliage trip.

Where are we? Well, I said we were near Six Flags Lake George, right? And we haven't had dinner yet. We get free meals with our passes so... Off to Six Flags! 

They had some pretty good rides here too, so we're excited to be back. 

It's already getting late in the season for being this far north, so the park is only open starting at 5pm. No worries for security. 

But here's where the worries come in. It's Fright Fest! The kids don't really care to be scared. I can't say that I particularly love it either. But, this park is open tonight for all the scare houses, mazes, and scare zones. 

During the daylight, things aren't so bad. We made it through the front gates, hustled over to where our favorite ride is, but were held up. Apparently we need to wait for something called The Awakening. 

It's 5:10 and we want to go on some rides! This Awakening better happen soon! 

And here they come. Scare actors in full makeup and props heading down the street for us. 

Not too bad right now, but once it's dark and the fog machines are going heavy, it'll be more difficult to see things coming. 

Here we are! One of our favorite rides of the summer! The Adirondack Outlaw! First in line! 

Walk right up. 

And I don't know if it has something to do with balance, or not having anyone on the other end of the arm, or what, but Ian and I, were split up on either side of the seats. 

Ready to go! 

What a crazy ride!

Alli was totally against going through a scare-zone. According to the map, the only way to get to this ride was going through one. Luckily there was a closed-off treat trail that was only blocked in one direction. Alli followed Ian and I and we were able to get back to one of her favorite rides without any scares along the way! 

Dinner was chicken strips and fries. Nothing special, but that's fine. And even though it's only 6:30pm, we've got to get going. It's a long 4 hour drive to get back to New Jersey.

Nice photo of this tree Jacob. It's a combination of evergreen and something else, so it's showing all the colors! 

It was a long drive getting to New Jersey. 4+ hours at night can get monotonous. But pulling into the hotel parking lot, we came across a fun surprise! It's the Wienermobile! 

The kids said they remembered seeing the Banana mobile when we lived in Redondo Beach. This is kinda similar, isn't it. (photo from 2017) 

We checked the next morning to see if any of the Hotdoggers (drivers) were around, but sadly the Wienermobile was already gone. I would have liked to get a weenie whistle. 

Nice license plate! 

Well, tomorrow we've got a fun day planned! It's been a great trip so far!