I hope this blog post finds you all in a ghostly mood as one of my favorite holidays will be celebrated this weekend.

This Saturday, October 31st, is Halloween night, when costumed kids will be knocking on Boone County doors in hopes of treats. If you’re going to participate, know that both Lebanon and Zionsville have posted 6:30pm – 8pm as official Trick or Treat hours.

The good folks at the Lebanon law firm of Parr, Richey, Obremskey, Frandsen & Patterson have published a most excellent web page on tips to make this Halloween a fun and safe event. To read this web page, please CLICK HERE.

A tip of the tourism hat to the Sullivan/Munce Museum for hosting another successful Ghost Walk weekend. Hundreds attended this event that featured eerie dark night tours of Zionsville’s purported haunted houses, walks and legends. Reports were also spookily good from those attending K&E Farm’s Haunted Hayride and Barn event.

Next year, I hope we’ll see other Boone County towns and organizations get into the Halloween spirit with more haunted houses, fright night events and costume themed parties for our little ghosts and goblins to enjoy. If you’d like some promotional and/or marketing input from the Boone County Convention & Visitors Bureau, give us a call at 765-484-8572 or email info@boonecvb.com

Did you know the Boone County Historical Society is headquartered at the historic Cragun House in Lebanon? This fine organization is on their way to becoming a heritage tourism destination of note as they work to pull together historical groups and organizations in towns across Boone County into one central location to better tell the story behind the interesting and sometimes downright amazing history of our county.

In our next blog we’ll be announcing details of a free Tourism Workshop the BooneCCVB will be hosting for all festivals, events, attractions and other tourism related organizations, stores or committees in Boone County.

And look for me at your door this Saturday. I’ll be the really tall kid in the Headless Horseman costume with a pillow case for my candy sack who really loves Reeces Peanut Butter cups and Snickers candy bars.

As the poet William Herschell wrote, “Ain’t God good to Indiana?” This is the way I feel this time of year when the crops are ready for harvest, pumpkins are on porches and the leaves have turned their golden hues.

It’s the perfect time of year to take a weekend drive across Boone County. Maybe venture to Thorntown and visit the Sugar Creek Art Center. Or head to Jamestown and tour the Press Museum. No matter where you go, you’ll head down country roads alive with Fall colors that make your drive all the more special.

One great overnight getaway is available at the Stone Creek Inn located on Dull’s Tree Farm right outside of Thorntown. Tom Dull has built a fantastic cabin using two different log buildings from the late 1800s and turned it into a great Bed & Breakfast. You can rent the Stone Creek Inn for a night or hold a family get together there. For more information, CLICK HERE

If you’re looking for spooky fun, the Haunted Hayride and Barn experience happens every October weekend at KD Farm. For more information, CLICK HERE 

No matter where you travel this weekend in Boone County, you’re sure to love the trip. As for me, I’ll probably drive the back roads up to Lebanon where I’ll visit Donaldson’s Chocolates and buy my wife some of her favorites (with some chocolates for me as well).

Thanks for reading and please let us know what you think about this blog, suggestions for new articles or just your comments on what’s to see and do here in Boone County.

After 6 straight weeks of attending festivals across our county, it was only fitting that the weather on the last weekend of Fall events in Boone County would be this nice.

A brilliant sunny sky and cool temps greeted the early morning artists setting up their booths at the 1st annual Autumn Artscape in Zionsville. Across the way the smells of chili cooking came from the Friendly Tavern parking lot as contenders in the 15th annual Brick Street Chili Cook-Off prepared their special chili recipes in hopes of winning a prize.

The Chili Cook Off tasting began at noon with hundreds of chili lovers tasting the fare and voting for their favorite. 2 hours later the winning entry, Chili Jac, was awarded “Chili of the Year” by the judges. The big perk to this award is having your winning chili on the Friendly Tavern menu throughout the coming year.

Congrats to Scott Barnes and his Friendly Tavern crew for, once again, putting on an event that’s become the last hurrah for Fall in Zionsville.

The new Autumn Artscape event, sponsored by the Zionsville Chamber, featured a wide variety of artists – from metal sculptures to fantastic glassware creations. Situated on 3 side streets, the Artscape set-up made it easy for folks to stroll the booths on this beautiful Fall Saturday. The different live music – classical, folk and jazz – added a nice aural touch to the event.

With outdoor festivals over for the Fall, it’s time to get spooky with Halloween themed happenings in October.

If you’re looking for the scariest hayride in Boone County, get thee to KD Stables for their Haunted Barn and Haunted Hayride events every weekend evening in October. Located just east of Jamestown in southwestern Boone County, over 20 actors try their spooky best to scare you either on the hayride or as you make your way through the haunted barn. For more information on this great family fun event – CLICK HERE 

Zionsville’s annual Ghost Walk consists of a scary tour of houses and other structures in the Village where you meet some of the spirits from Zionsville’s spooky past. Sponsored by the Sullivan/Munce Cultural Center, the Ghost Walk is held on October 16 & 17. For more info on this spine tingling tour – CLICK HERE

2009 Fall Tourism Event Recognition

After 8 festivals and events in 6 weeks, there are some festival features and special events I want to be sure and recognize.

Best Overall Festival – while the Festival of the Turning Leaves has grown by leaps and bounds, thanks to their industrious event committee, and the Back to the Fifties festival always holds the best classic car event in Boone County, the Zionsville Lions Club Fall Festival continues to up the ante with more events, more booths, more food and more fun. Whether it was the free concert by the Marlins or the flying disc dog show in the Pet Pavilion, the Fall Festival truly has something for everyone to enjoy, with more every year.

Best Signature Dinner – I enjoyed the Lions Club Pork BBQ in Thorntown, the pork tenderloins at Back to the Fifties and the Friendly burgers at Zionsville, but nothing was as well prepared, fresh and tasty as my trip to Hog Heaven at the Advance Labor Day Festival. The Hog Heaven crew put out a generous helping of pulled pork that was cooking right there on a massive grill. Truly delicious.

Best Live Music – The Beatles cover band was surprisingly good in Lebanon and you can’t beat the Marlins at the Fall Festival for a great show, but there was something about the Honky Tonk Attitude that fit the Advance Labor Day Festival perfectly. The boys in the band were all fine musicians with a crowd pleasing personality and lots of country favorites played all afternoon long.

Best Festival Set-up – There’s something neat about driving into Thorntown and seeing Main Street filled with booths and festival fun. This year’s Festival of the Turning Leaves was well organized and offered one of the biggest food court areas of any Boone County Festival. Their parade also featured classic tractors, free bags of Fritos tossed by the tiger mascot and lots of unique parade entries.

Best Featured Event – I’m a lover of classic cars and the annual Back to the Fifties Festival in Lebanon featured a beautiful array of rolling metal from the ’20s to the ’60s. A lovingly restored 1952 Ford Pickup was my personal favorite with its wood bed and black cherry red paint job. The cars were displayed on side street parking lots, which allowed for plenty of up close ogling and chats with the proud car owners. A really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Best Festival Food you won’t eat again until next year – I admit that  one thing I look forward to Fall festival season for is elephant ears. Those deep-fried, crispy sweet, covered in powdered sugar, diet busters that drip with guilt in every bite. The nice lady at the elephant ear booth at the Festival of the Turning Leaves told me, “These are the best elephant ears in Indiana”. And she didn’t lie. My ear was perfectly crisp with just the right amount of sugar.

Best Special Festival Event – The VIP Event at the Zionsville Fall Festival invites special needs kids and their parents to a pre-festival party on Friday afternoon with free rides, free dinners and free carnival games. This year over 400 attended with lots of volunteers escorting the kids through the many fun events put together for their enjoyment. A big tip of the hat goes to the Zionsville Lions Club for organizing this now annual event.

Best Overall Food Served – This was a no-brainer as well as a shameless plug for the annual Taste of Boone County at Anson that featured great menu items from our locally owned restaurants, caterers and bakeries. Cheese stuffed tortellinis, BBQ mini sandwiches, chocolate martini mousse and plenty of Donaldson chocolates make the TOBC the yearly gourmet dining event that’s not to be missed.

Best Place to Be in Fall – Our Boone County towns and cities really put on a great Fall festival season. With new attractions, hard working organizers and fairly good weather for each weekend, Boone County offered all kinds of free family fun in 2009 with even better events planned for next year. I congratulate all the festivals for their excellent events.

With menu items like smoked salmon from Cobblestone Grill or prime rib from Parky’s Smokehouse, there was plenty of great food to sample at the 2nd annual Taste of Boone County.

Temps in the low 50s and light rain didn’t stop area foodies from flocking to the huge party tent at  the Anson development and they were rewarded with an even bigger and better line-up of menu items.

All night long, party goers sampled tasty delights from locally owned restaurants, bakeries and caterers, tapped their feet to the light jazz played and visited with friends and neighbors from cities and towns across Boone County.

Adding to the fun every 15 minutes or so, our TOBC emcee, Lebanon Mayor Huck Lewis, gave away door prize gift certificates from the participating restaurants that included free meals, store gifts and even a great big cake that a lucky winner took home!

It’s impossible for me to pick out any one favorite menu item but I am a sucker for great BBQ and the slider-size sandwiches from K&R’s Hog Wild BBQ were delicious. There was also a chocolate martini mousse from Palomino’s Ballroom that was particularly tasty. And, of course, all the chocolates from Donaldson’s were irresistable.

On behalf of the Boone County Convention & Visitors Bureau, thank you to the great restaurants who participated and to all those who came out to enjoy the evening. We’ll be back next year with the 3rd Annual Taste of Boone County!

Zionsville Brick Street Chili Cook-Off and new Autumn Artscape event is this weekend!

Rounding out the Fall festival season this weekend is the annual Friendly Tavern Brick Street Chili Cook-Off from Noon til 2pm – with free samples and voting for the winning chili to be served at the Friendly Tavern all year long.

After the Chili Cook-Off, head to the inaugural Autumn Artscape, sponsored by the Zionsville Chamber, that will feature 50+ artists showing paintings, ceramics, glasswork, jewelry and more. Live music and refreshments will also be part of this day long event that goes from 10am to 6pm. To find out more – CLICK HERE.

I’ll be back next Monday with a wrap up article on the entire Fall Festival season. Having attended local events for the past 6 weekends, it was great to see the special brand of Hoosier Hospitality on display throughout Boone County this Fall.

And don’t forget to check our website for fun and spooky things to do in October – including a pumpkin launch, haunted hay ride and ghost walk.