I've mentioned before that fall is my favorite season, but October is definitely my favorite month. Why, you ask? This past Saturday marked Anthony and my first anniversary as a married couple and in another two and a half weeks we will be celebrating 8 years since the day he asked me out in our high school's auditorium.

In honor of our first wedding anniversary, we spent a lovely weekend in West Chester, PA. We love the charm of small historic towns like West Chester, and exploring them is kind of becoming our thing. At the end of March, we celebrated our birthdays (which are exactly 7 days apart) with a stay at a cute B&B in Ellicott City, MD where we visited the B&O Railroad Museum and perused the boutiques and antique shops.

This past weekend, we stayed at the gorgeous Faunbrook Bed & Breakfast, a beautiful Federal/Italianate style mansion that was home to the famous Darlington family of Eastern PA. On Saturday, we met up with Savannah Smith, our wedding photographer, to do a first anniversary/Christmas card photo shoot. We've known Savannah since high school so we had a lot of fun wandering through the streets of downtown West Chester with her.  It was also a great way to scope out some fun shops and restaurants that we wanted to visit later-- gotta love multi-tasking!

My favorite place we stopped by on Saturday evening was definitely Gemelli, an artisanal gelato cafe. Their Sea Salt Caramel and Honeycrisp Apple flavors were majorly delicious and Anthony and I were both really impressed with the shop's unique interior design. If you ever find yourself in West Chester, you have to check them out!

On Sunday, we had an AMAZING breakfast at Faunbrook before taking a scenic ride on the West Chester Railroad to Glen Mills, PA. (I just realized that we've visited two historic railroads so far this year, maybe trains are becoming our thing too!) We got lunch at the Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant before heading back to York County-- making a quick detour to my parents house to pick up our frozen slices of wedding cake!

We had such a fun and relaxing weekend, but if I have one regret, it's that we didn't get a chance to visit Longwood Gardens this time. Luckily, it's only about an hour and 20 minutes from home so maybe we will go back in December to see their Christmas displays! 

Living in South Central PA, there are so many interesting and historic places within an hour or two of home.  We can't wait to plan our next mini-vacation! Have you gone on any fun weekend getaways lately? I would love to hear about it! Share your favorite places to visit in the comments below!