Went to Bull Run Festival of Lights last night

Artslvr · November 2011

We arrived right at 5:30, which is when it opens and the sunset was just winding down. My mom went with us, and she'd read all these horror stories on line about people waiting 1-2 hours just to enter the park. There was no line at all last night, so that was a great surprise!

It was really pretty cool and longer than I thought. Took about 20 minutes to drive through at 10 miles an hour. My 4 (more like 4 3/4) year old liked it the best, mainly because she "got" it better than her 2 (well, 2 3/4) year old sister. There are different themes to recognize - Wizard of Oz, Babes in Toyland, etc and I think she liked it more because she knew these characters. I held my 1 yr old DS in my lap (call CPS!) so he could see out the window. He squealed a few times.

All in all I think worth going, especially since there wasn't any traffic going out 66 last night (a miracle in and of itself) and again, no line to enter the park. I'd "liked" them on FB so I got a $5 off coupon which is good until Dec.2, the it turns into a $3 coupon. I'm sure you can probably find the coupon on their FB page.

I'd read the Our Kids review of the Christmas Village at the end of the Light Show route, and we opted out. It looked very cool, and last night would have been a great time to hop out of the car and ride a ride or two, but we had already planned on not staying for that part because the rides cost money (tickets) and the food of course is (according to the Our Kids review) "festival" prices. We decided to save our sheckels because our kids are little and I think in a year or two all three of them would be able to enjoy the attractions a little more. Besides, we'd made plans with my mom and dad to enjoy turkey leftovers for dinner, so we went home. But I will say the Ferris Wheel was lit up and beckoning and I was very tempted! I felt like a little kid - like "I wanna go I wanna go!"

All in all I recommend it. Now, had we had to wait in line for a long time, the only way to make it worth it at that point to me would be to stay and go to the Christmas Village at the end and sort of make a night of it. I'm glad we didn't wait 2 hours for a 20 minute experience. My kids go to bed at 7:30 so getting there right at 5:30 worked well, and the fact that it was not a night with rush hour made the traffic non-existant. I think the planets all aligned for us.