Like TravelingFinanceMom, I tend to stay closer to home during the Labor Day weekend. In fact, my family usually savors the holiday as our final "do nothing" weekend of the summer season.  However, today was just too beautiful to waste hanging out indoors. We took the half hour trek to Lyman Orchards to check out the Sunflower Maze, which was introduced a couple of years ago as another of the facilities seasonal attractions.

The Sunflower Maze opened August 29 this year, a bit later than expected because of the heavy rains earlier in the season. Approximately 235,000 blooms have been planted in the shape of a guitar, with twists and turns that walk you among the yellow and deep red flowers. At various checkpoints - there are ten in total - you must answer a trivia question in order to determine whether a left turn or a right turn will get you out of the maze.

For each admission ticket sold, $1 is donated to Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut.  If you go online to the website, you can print coupons for $1 off each admission ticket. The Corn Maze is also open, and you can purchase discounted combination tickets for both the Sunflower Maze and the Corn Maze, good either for the same day - or you can use one set of tickets on the return trip ot the orchard. We typically visit in October to pick apples so we decided to save our Corn Maze tickets until then.

A few tips if you decide to visit the Sunflower Maze.  Bring your camera - the blooms are magnificent.  Also, remember that September sunshine and sunflowers are the perfect combination for bees. While the little buzzers were quite busy pollinating the blooms (and quite fascinating to watch) and generally left the maze crusaders alone, my insect averse daughter and I had to get use to the idea we were going to share the same paths with our flying friends. Finally, as the Sunflower Maze is fairly new, the signage isn't as prominent as for most other activities at Lyman. The Sunflower Maze is nestled near the "pick your own" area and frisbee golf.