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🧔🏽♂️ Dad Thoughts: The Children We Were
We spend so much time worrying about the future that we lose touch with the kids we used to be.
I've been looking at old photos and watching old videos lately. People I know, back when they were kids. It's changed how I see them. When someone frustrates me, I picture that kid, with their own dreams and fears. It's a lot harder to take things personally when you remember that.
It's changed how I see Niam too. He's not just 5-year-old him. He's 5-year-old me. So I ask myself: what would 5-year-old Akash want?
Right now, Niam is obsessed with monster trucks. My first instinct was to steer him. Broaden his interests. Think ahead.
Then I remembered when I was a kid. I was obsessed with basketball. And soda. More than once I was told to care less about both. Maybe that was fair. But I hated how it felt. Like I was doing something wrong just by loving what I loved.
Why would I do that to him?
His world is small, but his heart is big. And whatever he's into isn't a hobby. It's who he is right now.
Kids should be kids while they still are. They won't get this time back. And neither will we.
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🚗 FAMILY FUN FIELD TRIPS
Dad-approved outings.
This Weekend → 🍎 Mill Neck Manor Apple Festival
A 70-year North Shore tradition on a Gold Coast estate: fresh apples, cider donuts, candy apples, a pumpkin patch, face painting, live music, and the famous pie-eating contest. Kids roll down the big hill while you load up on strudel, and every dollar supports programs for Deaf and hard-of-hearing kids.
💰 $20 suggested parking donation
📅 Sat Oct 10 & Sun Oct 11, 9 AM–4 PM
🔗 millneckapplefest
🍂 Long Beach Fall Festival
Thousands of pumpkins to pick right in Kennedy Plaza, plus a pumpkin bounce house, a carousel, hay wagon and fire engine rides, a craft tent, and a kids' costume parade Saturday at noon. Grab lunch in town and walk it off on the boardwalk after.
💰 Free admission; attractions $4 each
📅 Sat Oct 10–Sun Oct 11, 10 AM–5 PM
🔗 longbeachny
Next Weekend → 🦖 Final Weekend for LuminoCity Dino Safari at Walt Whitman Shops (Suffolk)
Over 70 animatronic, light-up dinosaurs, some 46 feet tall, across three acres, plus a fossil hunt, playground, and LED dance floor. Saturdays are Dino Fall Fun nights with Halloween activities.
💰 $22.99 per person plus fees; 3 and under free
📅 Sat Oct 17–Sun Oct 18, evenings from 5 PM
🔗 luminocityfestival
🦪 The Long Island Oyster Fest
A waterfront celebration in Oyster Bay with food, music, and a laid-back fall vibe on the harbor. A fun, easy family outing with something for the grown-ups too.
💰 Free admission
📅 Sat Oct 17–Sun Oct 18, 11 AM–6 PM
🔗 oysterfest
🍁 Mineola Fall Festival
A fast-growing village festival in Memorial Park with food trucks, music, kids' activities, a costume contest and a pie-eating contest. Free and easy, the perfect low-key alternative if Oyster Bay crowds aren't your thing.
💰 Free admission
📅 Sat Oct 17, 12–6 PM
🔗 mineola-ny
🎃 ALL OCTOBER LONG
For when the weekend plan falls through.
🍂 Hicks Nurseries Fall Festival
The easy, free, any-day fall outing. Otto the Ghost's animated walkthrough and the indoor Skeleton Estate Garden are spooky-cute, not scary, and on weekends the wristband activities and hay maze turn a pumpkin run into a real morning out.
💰 Free admission and parking; hay maze $8; activity wristband $25 online / $30 in store
📅 Daily through Nov 1; wristband activities weekends and holidays, 10 AM–5 PM
🔗 hicksnurseries
🌽 Heritage Farm & Garden Fall Festival
A true farm-style fall festival without leaving Nassau: a corn maze, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, farm animals, a kids' village, and live music on weekends. Everything you want from a farm day, minus the drive east.
💰 $25 weekend package / $15 weekdays; crafts $5 each
📅 Daily through Nov 1, 10 AM–4:30 PM
🔗 heritagefarmandgarden
🎨 Scarecrow Garden at Old Westbury Gardens
A gentle Halloween stroll through one of Long Island's prettiest estates, lined with community-built scarecrows that run from charming to wonderfully weird. Kids can vote for a favorite by QR code through Oct 24, and the fall color makes it an easy photo morning.
💰 Included with admission: $22 adults / $12 ages 7–17 / free 6 and under
📅 Daily through Oct 31 (closed Tuesdays), 10 AM–6 PM
🔗 oldwestburygardens
🎃 Spooky Fest at the Center for Science Teaching & Learning
The best pick-your-scare-level Halloween night in Nassau. Little ones do the Enchanted Forest Walk with cute dinosaurs, crafts, face painting and glow slime, while big kids can brave the Spooky Woods. A nonprofit fundraiser in a nature preserve that feels homegrown in the best way.
💰 $22 non-scary ticket / $27 all attractions
📅 Fri–Sun, Oct 9–11, Oct 16–18 and Oct 23–25, 6–9 PM
🔗 cstl
👻 Not-So-Scary Days at Bayville Scream Park
The daytime, kid-safe side of Long Island's most hardcore haunt: a pumpkin patch, a Halloween train, haunted bumper boats, pirate mini golf, and a funhouse with no actors jumping out. Built for kids under 10. Just be gone before the nighttime haunts open.
💰 Varies by time slot
📅 Weekends in October plus Columbus Day, 12–5 PM
🔗 bayvillescreampark
🐐 White Post Farms Fall Festival (Suffolk)
A Long Island classic just over the county line: the animal farm, giraffes, a dinosaur exhibit, unlimited hayrides through the cornfields, and family shows, all in one ticket. Pricey, but toddlers through 8-year-olds lose their minds here.
💰 $39.95 cash at the gate / $43.95 online; 15 months and under free
📅 Weekends through Oct 25, plus Mon Oct 12; gates 9:30 AM–4 PM
🔗 whitepostfarms
🕯️ RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns (Suffolk)
More than 7,000 hand-carved jack o'lanterns lining a wooded trail just over the Nassau line. The region's big pumpkin-art night walk, stroller-friendly but hilly. Online tickets only, so book early.
💰 Varies by time slot
📅 Select nights through Nov 1
🔗 jackolanterns
✏️ PENCIL IT IN
Future you will be glad you read this.
👻 Ghostly Gala at the Long Island Children's Museum
LICM's biggest Halloween night: trick-or-treating through the museum, a Monster Mash dance party, a spooky studio with mystery cauldrons, and creepy crafts to take home. Add the Uncle Vlad's Pumpkin Patch theater show for a few bucks more. Spooky, not scary.
💰 $18 non-members / $16 members; theater add-on $5 / $4
📅 Sat Oct 24, 6–9 PM
🔗 licm
🎃 1880s Haunted Halloween at Old Bethpage Village Restoration
Trick-or-treating through a historic 19th-century village, a children's costume parade and contest, and a Sleepy Hollow marionette show. A perfectly spooky-not-scary Halloween outing for younger kids.
💰 $17 adults / $14 kids ages 5+
📅 Sat Oct 31–Sun Nov 1, 10 AM–4 PM
🔗 oldbethpagevillagerestoration
🚀 STEM•X Festival at the Cradle of Aviation Museum
Two days of hands-on STEM inside the museum: robotics, coding, VR, drones and more. A perfect post-Halloween sugar-crash Sunday.
💰 Free
📅 Sat Oct 31–Sun Nov 1, 10 AM–3 PM
🔗 cradleofaviation
✨ LuminoCity Holiday Lights at Eisenhower Park
The LuminoCity Festival Lights comes to Nassau for the holidays. Super early bird 25% off running now.
💰 Adults $36, Children $28
📅 Wed Nov 11–Sun Jan 3
🔗 luminocityfestival
Two Things:
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See you next Thursday,
Akash