Sweater Weather in the Chippewa Valley

It’s that time of the year again… The time of cozy drinks, oversized sweaters, crisp air… and of course, tacky Halloween decorations. In fact, September 22nd is the first official day of autumn!

Fall is my favorite, and no matter how much I do during this season, I always feel like it’s not enough. This time however, I decided to take it upon myself to ask library staff what their most treasured traditions are when the leaves are golden.

For starters, have you considered browsing our DVD/BLU RAY/4K collection of horror movies and cozy fall TV shows? I might not be a kid anymore, but I’m not too old for a sleepover. You can always invite some friends over, bake some seasonable snacks with one of our cookbooks, and spend a rainy night on the couch. Halloween pajamas are a plus! For younger audiences I’d recommend Over the Garden Wall or Gravity Falls, and for adults, The Haunting of Hill House and Castle Rock are both equally binge worthy.

Or you can take it one step up from film and see one of the seasonal performances at the Children’s Theater. This year, the ECCT is having productions of “Jekyll and Hyde” (Oct 1-3) “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (Oct. 14-17) and ”Evil Dead” (Oct 28th-30th). The performances are conveniently located near a riverside bike trail and the Brewing Projekt – a great opportunity to take a scenic walk through colored leaves, or have a drink before the show! Other beautiful areas for enjoying the foliage include Pinehurst Park, Putnam Trail, the Northwest Community Park, Chippewa River Trail… the list goes on. For a full list of bike trails of the Chippewa Valley, feel free to find maps to keep here at the public library.

Finally, my favorite fall tradition is to take a Saturday and hit up the very last of the garage sales around town. Afterwards, we end the day at Autumn Harvest winery where we enjoy a sunset over hills of red trees and a bottle of wine. If you’re lucky, you may even catch a live music performance while you’re there! Other popular locations could include the Glass Orchard, which is a unique glass studio and orchard combined. It also happens to be right across from Ferguson’s Orchard, which has a lot less glass art and a lot more giant inflatable pumpkin jumping pads. And by a lot, I mean one. But really, isn’t one enough?

For more ideas, you can visit Volume One’s local event Calendar, or you can always pop into the library! If you have your own that you’d like to share, feel free to leave them in the comments below.