Things to Do in Emmaus

Players at Lehigh Valley Paintball wage simulated war across a variety of battlefields, choosing from a variety of play styles on both speedball and woodsball fields. The staff can also customize markers with engravings or leather wristbands, useful for proudly showing team affiliations, graphic designs, or helping identify guns that have escaped.

Two former Air Force officers with a passion for teaching children put their minds together to create Bricks 4 Kidz. The lab integrates scientific play with LEGO projects that vary by week. Depending on the week's theme, kids might build and program a satellite, model the Empire State Building, or create an alligator whose mouth snaps shut any time mom tries to feed it peas. Each project combines the fundamental principles of science, architecture, technology, and engineering, thereby supplementing what children learn during the school day. When children complete their project, they transition to free play, tapping into their imaginations or imaginary friends to built whatever they want.

At The Grid Code, an 8,000-square-foot arena lays the field for bouts of recreational trigger pulling. The indoor NERF arena shelters players from the elements as they duck behind tires, wooden structures, and poles to elevate these Hasbro instruments, which expel soft foam ammo, to a truly competitive degree. Alternately, the indoor and outdoor Airsoft fields proffer space for Airsoft play, during which combatants wield replica firearms that shoot plastic pellets to win games, replicate military training, or hit targets. The Grid Code rents out all necessary safety gear, masks, and supernatural force fields, and can organize spaces to accommodate parties and corporate teambuilding.

Since 1939, three generations of the Grim family have nurtured stalks of wheat, corn, and oats, and raised more than 3,000 chickens, on their picturesque farm. Now operating 10 greenhouses, each fall, they open up the premises to the public for activities including hayrides and a pick-your-own apple orchard, where guests can choose from varieties ranging from honey crisp to autumn galas.

During the farm’s Fall Festival, which runs from September 8th to November 4th, the grounds buzz with additional delights. Visitors can wend their way through a 6-acre corn maze during the daylight hours, or bring flashlights at night for an authentic taste of farming before the sun was invented. Alternatively, they can select their favorite gourd from the thousands that populate the pumpkin patch, or sample homemade apple cider donuts, apple cider slushies, or pumpkin ice cream.

The 43,000 square-foot facility of America On Wheels is dedicated to preserving and showcasing the expansive history of American transportation. Within that, 23,000 square feet are devoted entirely to exhibit space, where guests will find a variety of classic cars, racing vehicles, trucks, and motorcycles. Rotating exhibits have included topics such as classic cars of the 1930's–including a 1933 Buick–, muscle cars, and trains. In addition to offering family memberships and group tours, the facility hosts rentals of its space and a museum store, as well as a classic café complete with ice cream, shakes, floats, and hot dogs.