One Of The Best Places In The East To Enjoy Fall Is New Hope Bucks County In Pennsylvania

Credit: Washington Crossing Historic Park

Festival season is heating up in Bucks County! The changing of the leaves ushers in a new time in Philadelphia's countryside. Stroll through larger-than-life scarecrows at Peddler's Village; partake in not-too-spooky fun at Sesame Place, and welcome a blockbuster exhibit to the James A. Michener Art Museum.

Located only 75 miles from NYC and 125 miles from Baltimore, Bucks County is a great weekend escape for fall fun. Check out www.VisitBucksCounty.com.

• Roll out the red carpet because royalty is coming! An exhibit honoring Grace Kelly is  making its ONLY stop in the United States in Bucks County this October! View hotos, couture fashion, awards and other personal artifacts at the "From Philadelphia to Monaco: Grace Kelly Beyond the Icon" exhibit, at James A. Michener Art Museum, October 28 through January 26.

• Warm apple pies, cool apple cider and sweet caramel apples are just some of the delicious treats available at the annual Apple Festival at Peddler's Village November 2 and 3. The shopping village will be filled with juried crafters peddling their wares and demonstrating their work. This 18th-century inspired shopping village is also home to the larger-than-life scarecrows handmade by local businesses and organizations and displayed throughout Peddler's Village. Stroll through the annual Scarecrow Competition & Display, September 9 through October 27.

• Celebrate Halloween with all of your favorite Sesame Street friends at The Count's Halloween Spooktacular at Sesame Place. Stroll through two themed mazes, take a hayride with Sesame Street friends, and enjoy a special Halloween performance. The not-too-scary fun starts September 28 and runs through October 27.

• Take an old-fashioned wagon ride to the pumpkin patch at Shady Brook Farm. Open Fridays through Sundays in October, Pumpkinfest features a Giant Corn Maze and inflatable attractions for the kids. When the sun goes down, the farm takes a dark turn and is transformed into HorrorFest. Enter the Barn of Horror or see the fields turn red with "blood" at Carnage.

• It's scary how much fun you can have at the House in the Hollow presented by Midnight Productions. If you survive the 17 rooms or frightening fun, hop on the wagon for a hayride through the haunted woods or venture through the corn into the Field of Fright, open September 28 - November 2. If you're looking for a real scare, Ghost Tours of New Hope will show you all the best haunts, including the Aaron Burr House where visitors have seen the founding father's ghost staring back at them with sightless eyes, tours every weekend through November.

• Can you handle a terrifying ride aboard the New Hope & Ivyland? The Haunted Train rides take riders through the darkness of the countryside while ghosts tell of their gruesome deaths through the month of October. For a scenic trip through Bucks County's countryside, hop on the 2.5 hour long Fall Foliage Train, all season long.

• Gorgeous weather and beautiful artwork come together at the Doylestown Arts FestivalSeptember 7-8. The two-day festival is Doylestown's largest annual festival, with more than 150 exhibitors set up throughout downtown. Grab a bite to eat in the food court or relax while you listen to one of the many bands performing live throughout the day.

• Fall back in time at the Historic Fallsington Day. The annual event at the 300-year-old Quaker village takes place on October 12 and features living history demonstrations by skilled Colonial craftsmen. Colonial and Native American dancers, folk singers, jugglers, puppet shows and more will be on hand entertaining visitors all day.

Where to stay:  Special Packages Bucks County Fall Foliage by Plane- Train- or Automobile!  See package details in our new bloghttp://www.foxhoundinn.com/blog/ Trick or Treating for the Young at Heart- Complimentary Wine and chocolate tasting at Lisa's favorite local winery with a 3 night weekday stay in a romantic room with gourmet breakfast each morning. Now thru November 21. Mondays-Thursdays     *Fall concerts in New Hope*Joan Osborne Jefferson Starship Howie Day Rhonda Vincent

Exhibit Coming To Pa. Looks At Life Of Grace Kelly

Contributed by Joanne Lovigolo, AP.

 The world thinks of Grace Kelly as a fashion icon, movie star, princess, wife and mother, but in Philadelphia she's first and foremost remembered as a hometown girl who never forgot her roots. So it seems fitting that an exhibit on Kelly's upbringing, Hollywood career and storybook ascent to royalty will make its only U.S. stop in the area where she spent her early years, organizers said at a news conference unveiling details of "Grace Kelly: Beyond the Icon" at an event Thursday that was held, aptly, in the Hotel Monaco in downtown Philadelphia.

 "She never lost touch with her family and the Philadelphians that she grew up with," said Kelly's nephew Christopher Le Vine, who recalled his aunt packing up some Philadelphia scrapple - a love-it-or-hate-it loaf of pork scraps and cornmeal - to bring back to Monaco so the palace chef could re-create the humble dish. "She was going to tell him that it was a certain special pate from Philadelphia ... for petit dejeuner (breakfast)," Le Vine told the laughing crowd. "She had her Philadelphia roots with her wherever she went." 

The exhibit opens Oct. 28 at the Michener Art Museum in suburban Doylestown, not far from where Kelly made her professional stage debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1949. On view will be personal photos, love letters from her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco, her 1954 best actress Academy Award for "The Country Girl," film clips and home movies, as well as iconic fashions from gowns and the Yves Saint Laurent "Mondrian" dress to the Hermes "Kelly" bag she made famous. Monaco's ruling sovereign, Prince Albert II, said in video-recorded remarks his mother "was indeed a talented woman who became an international fashion icon but that is just the surface of her life."


 "Those of us who were fortunate enough to know my mother, her family and friends, knew her to be a genuine, warm and loving woman - a woman who always put her family first," he said. "I hope that through experiencing this exhibition you will be able to get a glimpse of the real Grace Kelly, the woman behind the icon, my mother." Monegasques appreciate their late princess, who died in 1982 in a car crash in Monaco, less as a screen legend and more as a humanitarian and philanthropist responsible for making Monaco a vibrant arts center and protecting the rights of vulnerable children, said Maguy Maccario Doyle, consul general of Monaco in New York. "There are many places in Monaco that today remind us of her presence," she said. "Her memory endures, and certainly the principality of Monaco will forever bear the imprint of her presence and the heartache of her absence."


 ___ Online: Michener Museum: www.michenerartmuseum.org