Hatfieldadelphia

On Friday night Katie and I went on an adventure. Every time we drive down 20th North in Orem on our way home, we see this castle off to the right... That's right, a castle! We like to do crazy things and explore, so on Friday we decided to figure out what a castle is doing in Lindon UT. It took us awhile to find the entrance to the place because the property is huge. Upon arriving at the entrance, we were greeted by "No Trespassing" and "Beware of the Monkey" signs. Being the adventurous sort that we are, we decided to at least pull in and take a look around. I mean... "turn around". Inside, we found a courtyard full of statues of giraffes, lions, monkeys, a life sized rhino and more. It is actually really creepy in the dark, and the huge gorilla freaked Katie out. We thought maybe it belonged to some sort of cult or something. There is, after all, a witch's cabin on the property. There is also a gazebo with a top that resembles the top of a sultan's palace (think Aladdin). Which led us to believe this might belong to some sort of foreign dignitary (Think Punjab from 'Annie'). After looking around a bit we were totally weirded out and decided to take off before we got eaten for dinner. As we were leaving, we noticed a sign that said, "Welcome to Hatfieldadelphia...

Frankly, everything we had imagined about Hatfieldadelphia was far more interesting than the truth. After a little research we learned that Mr. Hatfield, our rich, semi-neighbor has built a fantasy land in his backyard for his grandchildren. There is a castle (with a MOAT), witch's cabin, playground, sand volleyball court, go-cart track, Indian teepee, paths and parks, and all sorts of statues that look creepy in the dark but aren't actually that creepy when you know what they are.

It turns out that Hatfieldadelphia is only open to the public once a year for a Little Princess Festival each August. Don't tell Chase, but next August he may have to don on a princess outfit so that Katie and I can further our investigation of our neighborhoods castle :)

It was a good adventure.