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Kids & Family

Day Trips: DogDaddy Fest, Hex Barn Tours

Find local attractions you can visit on about one tank of gas.

Want to get out of town and go for a trip, but looking to save money?

Try one of these trips you can enjoy on just one tank of gas: New Hope's DogDaddy Fest and the Hex Sign Barn Tour in Kutztown.

3rd Annual DogDaddy Fest

Address: New Hope Solebury High School, 182 W. Bridge St., New Hope
Time: Sunday, Sept. 9, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $5; Children 10 and younger, free.
About: DogDaddy's goal is to have fun with dogs and family, which is exactly what happens at DogDaddy Fest. At the third annual festival, a pup parade featuring dogs in costume, an adoption event, face painting, live music and more will take place. Additionally, there will be trainers giving live demonstrations and more than 30 doggie vendors.

Links: DogDaddy Website

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Hex Sign Barn Tour

Address: Begins at Kutztown exit of Route 222, Berks County
Admission: Free
Hours: Any time
About:  Take a ride deep through the greater Reading area's farm country and discover hex signs, a uniquely American art form and best known symbol of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau offers a free Hex Tour brochure that you can download online. The 28-mile self-guided tour starts at the Kutztown exit of Route 222. Call the bureau at 800-443-6610 or 610-375-4085 for more information. According to Wikipedia, "Barn paintings, usually in the form of "stars in circles," grew out of the fraktur and folk art traditions about 1850 when barns first started to be painted in the area. By the 1940s commercialized hex signs, aimed at the tourist market, became popular and these often include stars, compass roses, stylized birds known as distelfinksheartstulips, or a tree of life. Two schools of thought exist on the meaning of hex signs. One school ascribes a talismanic nature to the signs, the other sees them as purely decorative, or 'Chust for nice' in the local dialect."

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