What To Do In The Fall

Michelle Morey
Staff Writer

The leaves are changing colors and the air is becoming brisk. This can only mean one thing: autumn has arrived! The weekends are a great time to take advantage of this beautiful weather and do some fun things with friends and family. Long Island alone has endless possibilities of fun things to do, but LIU Post is close enough to New York City so that students can experience some of the events the city has to offer during this time of year as well.

Long Island is a great place to be during the fall. If you have a car, you can travel out east to some of the pumpkin farms, such as Schmitt’s Farm in Melville, to pick out that perfect pumpkin for your jack-o’-lantern. While there, Schmitt’s Farm offers free hayrides and a corn maze you can get yourself lost in, plus other various attractions. The farm is open seven days a week and there is no entrance or parking fee, so for college students this would be perfect. Who doesn’t like something free? The pumpkin picking season for them started on Sept. 28, so head over there for some pre-Halloween fun.

Jacqueline Marino, a junior in the Medical Imaging Program, said “I went pumpkin picking this weekend and I had the greatest time ever. I went with my boyfriend and afterwards we went back home and carved faces out of the pumpkins and painted the little ones.”

Long Island also has a variety of apple farms, including Fort Salonga Farm, in Northport, which is about 30 minutes from campus. There is a $15 minimum for adults, but they do provide you with a bag to fill up on all the apples you want. If apples aren’t your favorite fruit, the farm also has an option to pick raspberries for a $5 minimum admission charge. For the raspberries, you are given a container that will

allow you collect up to one pint. Alex Ochoa, a junior Accounting major, said “Probably my favorite part about going apple picking, or pumpkin picking, is buying the candy apples at the food stands in the farm.”

Huntington will be hosting a Fall Festival at Heckscher State Park from Friday, Oct. 11 through Monday, Oct. 14. The admission is free, and throughout the weekend there will be different carnival attractions, food, crafts and retail vendors, and also live music.

Oyster Bay will also hold its annual Oyster Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20. According to the Oyster Festival website, the festivities will go on rain or shine, as they have been for the past 30 years. The Oyster Festival offers many different shopping stands, rides, and, of course, seafood! Volunteer chefs from all over set up stands of different kinds of seafood, primarily featuring oysters and the many different ways they can be served. Like the Huntington Fall Festival, the Oyster Festival will also feature live music.

If you would rather travel into the city, then you might want to check out the Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 14, starting at 11:30 a.m., which has been going on since 1929 on 5th Avenue. The parade features many different floats and also live musical performances.

Another parade that might be interesting is the Halloween Day Parade in Manhattan. It will be the 39th Annual Village Halloween Parade. TimeOut.com describes it as “a drunken event of hundreds of people dressed up in Halloween costumes consuming New York City.” They also mention if you’d like to take part in the parade you can head over to 6th Avenue between Canal and Spring Street at 6:30 p.m., in costume. The parade goes from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Make some of these ideas your own. This weather doesn’t last very long before it starts snowing, so take advantage of the things you can do on Long Island and in Manhattan.