Bi-Water Farms
It is fall, so we needed to check out some of the local farms and orchards in the area. We usually go to Evan's Orchard, but have heard such great things about Bi-Water Farms, so we decided to check it out. It is located in Georgetown at 877 Cincinnati Road and is open Monday through Thursday 9am to 6pm, Friday and Saturday 9am to 9pm and Sunday noon to 7pm. So, it is one of the few places in Lexington and the surround that are actually open on a Monday! In fact, Monday is probably the best day to go because their website says that field trips are only there Tuesday through Friday. But, they are only open during the fall (this year from September 10th to October 31st).
We went on a weekday and I did call beforehand and to see how many field trips were scheduled on that day. It seems like everything in Lexington is totally packed with field trips this time of year. They said there were just a few, but when we got there, there were about 10 school buses and a ton of cars. If this was just a few field trips, I don't really want to see them on a crowded day!
There is a decent amount of parking up near the store and a large field for parking down the hill a bit. You go into the store to pay for admission. It is $10 per person and children under 2 are free. Which, I think it is a bit steep in price, especially if you have multiple kids. Personally, I am not a huge fan of places that charge admission for adults to kid play area. The store also has jams, jellies, apple cider and cider donuts. But, and you may totally disagree, I thought the cider and cider donuts were the worst I have tried locally. They aren't tart at all and have an almost synthetic flavor. But, I did think the large sugar cookie was yummy.
We headed up the hill to start playing and the first thing you come to on the left is the Trike Track and li'l Pumpkin play area. They are both geared towards younger kids and weren't very crowded when we got there. There is a small track that the kids can pedal trikes around and 3 or 4 good sized dirt boxes with shovels, dump trucks, and other digging tools.
My son loved this area and played for nearly 45 minutes here. There is a bit of shade here, so it is a good place to spend some time. There were also some see-saws, tires to climb and corn stalk tunnels. There were a few benches to sit on here as well. If you go to the right, you will find all the animals to feed as well as a small haunted house. The animals there were goats, rabbits, chickens, turkeys and I think a pig, if I remember correctly and they have food machines that cost $0.25 for feed. There is a change machine up there as well. Personally, I thought the animal areas didn't seem that well kept and the area had a very strong smell of poop and there was quite a bit of it on the ground. Not sure if I got there before they cleaned up for the day, but I felt a bit bad for the animals. They were all just laying around the front of the pens and didn't move around very much for feeding. On your way out of the animal area, they do have a large area for hand washing. And, shocking, it was actually stocked with soap! As a mom with a kid whose hands always end up in his mouth, I really appreciated that! There are no permanent bathrooms, but they have a large number of porta-potties in this area before you head all the way up the hill. Not the best for kids, but better than nothing.
Up the hill, you will find my son's other favorite place we ran into. Inside a greenhouse are three singing pumpkins. They have faces projected on them and sing a few different songs. My son was freaked out at first (don't blame him) but ended up loving them and we spent a lot of time in here. I also thought it was pretty darn cool and have never seen anything quite like this.
If you continue up this hill, you will run into another smaller toddler playing area with wooden tractors to climb on and into as well as swinging tubes that kids can stand on. You will also find two large enclosed slides, a bunny area, another goat area, a corn maze, paint ball (additional fee), miniature golf (additional fee), and another small haunted house for kids. To be honest, we were there for an hour and a half, and my son just about had it at this point. So, I took a picture of the things down the hill, but we didn't get to go play on them.
But, they had a zip line that looks like kids just go crazy for, a basketball area, tons of large slides, big tubes that kids can walk in or push along, a large pirate ship that they can climb up and slide down, a corn pit, and another large dirt pit with trucks and diggers. I think that is about it, but again, we didn't even venture down here, so I could have missed something. But, it looked like the kids down there were having a blast.
They also have food available in a little cafe right outside the farm store. And of course, I cut off the picture. But, you can generally see what they offer and the general prices. I thought it looked a bit on the expensive side ($2.00 for a 20oz drink?), but the kids menu seemed reasonable. There are picnic tables directly behind the cafe area.
They have hayrides that take you up to the pumpkin picking area (sorry, we didn't actually see this) and they had pumpkins along the path for you to purchase as well as outside the farm store. The pumpkins were $0.45 a pound, which was pretty reasonable.
Overall, we had a pretty good time but I don't think this orchard is our favorite. At $10 a pop, it becomes pretty darn expensive especially if you have a big family. And, if you are planning on eating there, that will get pretty pricey. And, if you are planning on getting pumpkins too, you will definitely be dropping some serious money here.
This orchard has a lot to do! Definitely the most of any we have been to. But, I think they may be better focusing on a smaller number of things and keeping those up instead of sprawling out with new play areas everywhere. The play areas were also really spread out and required a lot of walking, which can be hard for smaller kids. And, I think they were more geared towards older children. They did have some areas that were specific to toddlers, but I wasn't overly impressed with these. Some of them seemed old and weren't particularly well kept. And, my heart went out to the bunnies whose food was being dropped into food bowls with inches of water already in them. So, I think this is an instance of bigger isn't always better.
I also worry about safety when there are a lot of older kids on field trips at places like this. My son is pretty small and tends to get knocked over and pushed a lot, which isn't very fun and stresses us both out. And, since they are only open during fall field trip season, it is pretty hard to miss large groups of kids on a trip.
Also, I really didn't like how the tractors took the hayrides down the main path for your kids to take to get to the play areas. I prefer to just let my son walk around and explore on his own but couldn't really do this as much here because every few minutes a tractor would drive through and I would have to make sure he didn't go running up to it. This would be even harder with multiple kids and one parent.
So, I am glad I tried it out and my son had a decent time, but I think I will wait to go again until he is a bit older.
