(Historic Hammel Inn located at 121 S. Main St. Waynesville, OH)

🍂  Fall is here and seniors living in Cincinnati know that means it's festival time! Fall is here and seniors living in Cincinnati know that means it's festival time! There are plenty of weekend events to enjoy this jacket season. Here are our picks for five of your best opportunities to harvest some fun:

Iron’s Fruit Farm’s “October Weekends”

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1640 Stubbs Mill Road

Lebanon, OH 45036

Just north of Cincinnati, up in Lebanon, is one of the sweetest little country orchards you’ve ever seen. Iron’s Fruit Farm has become a north side go-to for fresh apples — McIntosh, Red Delicious, Gold Delicious, Jonathan, Melrose and Stayman Winesap — and pre-Halloween family fun.

On October weekends, Iron’s hosts hundreds of people daily for pick-your-own pumpkin ventures, free hayrides, live music and more. Every fall, the farm builds a new corn maze — perfect for wandering around in the crisp autumn air, or for playing hide and seek with your grandkids.

The farm even has its own bakery. Try a piping hot apple fritter and some warm cider — we promise, you’ll come back again and again for those alone!

The Ohio Sauerkraut Festival

Also up in Warren County, in “Ohio’s Most Haunted Town,” is the annual Ohio Sauerkraut Festival, this year taking place Oct. 8-9.

A must-go fall event since 1970, the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival began as a simple community dinner given to attract people to a sidewalk sale in Waynesville’s historic antiquing district. That year, the Merchant’s Association served 528 pounds of sauerkraut to 1,500 hungry visitors; over the years, the event grew in popularity and scope.

Today, the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival serves 7 tons of sauerkraut and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. They come not just for the food, but to shop downtown, to browse hundreds of craft booths and sample foods from dozens of local vendors.

And, if you’re brave enough, you can stick around after close to take a ghost tour of the town and stay overnight in the historic Hammel House Inn.

HallZOOween

Weekends in October, the world-renowned Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden hosts its annual HallZOOween festival. It’s a perfect opportunity to spend quality time with your grandkids, or to gather together a group of friends for a senior’s day out!

While the kids enjoy safe trick-or-treating, you can take in Phil Dalton’s Theater of Illusions. Take a ride on the zoo’s train or the carousel. The animal exhibits will all be open for learning and discovery, plus scavenger hunts, strolling characters, face painting and pumpkin decorating stations to enjoy.

There will also be plenty of special events and animal encounters, including Pumpkin Panda-monium, Snow Monkey Pumpkin Hide & Seek, Elephant Pumpkin Smash, Indian Rhino Apple Bob and the Polar Bear Pumpkin Bob!

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Lantern Light Wagon Rides

Bonnybrook Farms

3779 State Route 132

Clarksville, OH

In the fall at Bonnybrook Farms, just outside Clarksville in Clinton County, the annual Lantern Light Wagon Rides entertain Tri-Staters with a family friendly, history-based ghost tour.

Visitors can travel the old stone roads of the historical farm, just like frontiersmen, trappers and settlers did way back when hand-held lanterns were the only way to keep from tripping in the dark. The tour features visits with professional re-enactors telling stories of the Northwest Territory and of the Civil War.

The wagon ride stops along its route to visit a graveyard, the old railway, Underground Railroad ruins and more. Afterward, enjoy hot cider, kettle corn and other seasonal foods, then gather around the campfire for ghost stories and tall fall tales!

Fall-O-Ween

For more family fun, gather up the grandkids and head over to Coney Island for the annual Fall-O-Ween festival. The kids will enjoy classic Coney rides, a petting zoo and pony rides. There are magic shows, musical entertainments and a spooky Halloween light show after dusk.

You can take a riverside hayride, navigate a hay maze, or play 18 holes of Halloween-themed mini-golf. And young and old alike will love the Pumpkin Launch game, where players try their skill at catapulting pumpkins at flying ghost and goblin targets, or decorating their own jack-o’-lanterns at the Pumpkin Painting station.

This fall, get out and have fun!