Fall is the best time of year to visit Delaware beaches. Tourists return on weekends to enjoy numerous free festivals, but the beaches are pristine and uncrowded on weekdays.
If you visit the Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier midweek you'll have your pick of spots to cast your fishing pole into the Delaware Bay and the weather may still be warm enough to wear shorts. Conversely, you may need long pants and a jacket, but even if you do, inhaling the salty sea breeze adds an intoxicating element to the crispness in the air, and the changing leaves bring a welcome splash of color.
FABULOUS WEEKEND FESTIVALS
Beginning in October, there are festivals every weekend which draw droves of tourists back to the beaches, and the beach towns pulse with music, entertainment and fun for people of all ages.
The Sea Witch Halloween and Fiddler's Festival is held at the end of October in Rehoboth Beach. A not to be missed highlight of the event, especially if you have kids, is the Saturday morning parade. Thousands of costumed participants will march down Rehoboth Avenue to the tunes of the Woodland String Band Mummers and a score of local bands. Another crowd pleaser is the NUR Temple Shriners in their decorated mini Corvettes. On Saturday afternoon, fiddlers and banjo players get the crowd stomping their feet as they perform lively fiddle, bluegrass and banjo tunes.
On Sunday, pets take center stage in the Best Costumed Pet Contest. Both owners and their pets strut the boardwalk, some dressed in co-ordinated costumes such as Anthony and Cleopatra, Tonto and the Lone Ranger or Frank Purdue and a chicken. Other owners showcase only the pet dressed up as police, chefs, lifeguards or almost anything else you can imagine.
There are hayrides, pony rides, scarecrow making, face painting, horse shows on the beach and many more things to do at this unique festival. For complete information contact the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce at 800-441-1329 ext. 0.
CAN PUMPKINS REALLY FLY?
Answer this question as quick as you can. "The thing I most associate with pumpkins is......"
If you answered cannons instead of the "smell of baking pie," or "jack-o-lanterns," or "Halloween," it's a safe bet you've been to a World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition or seen one on TV. Or you've read, "Pie in the Sky: the Authorized History of Punkin Chunkin" by Bob Kotowski.
What began as a 1986 challenge to see who could throw a pumpkin the farthest has become one of the largest events in Delaware, drawing tens of thousands of people to Sussex county each fall to watch grown men shoot 8 to 10 pound pumpkins out of awesome looking mechanical cannons. Some competitors are hardcore engineers while others are backyard tinkerers who trailer their homebuilt contraptions to a large open field. The 2010 competition will be held November 5 through November 7 at the Wheatley Farm in Bridgeville, DE. For more information about this event log onto www.punkinchunkin.com. You can also watch cool videos and see other Punkin Chunkin facts, trivia and quizzes at http://science.discovery.com/tv/punkin-chunkin.
If you can't be there in person you can watch this year's event on The Science Channel or Science Channel HD on Thanksgiving night. The Science channel is following select teams as they journey from machine design to testing their equipment to the competition itself right up to the finale, where every team dreams of reaching the one-mile mark.
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Delaware tourism & sightseeing
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