Potato peels that look like Miley Cyrus, the world’s largest ball of twine, butter sculptures, or historic advertisements for Spam may not rate a room at the Louvre, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth seeing. Or laughing at.

For our weekly pursuit of fun, we asked Sandra Gurvis, author of "America’s Strangest Museums: A Traveler’s Guide to the Most Unusual and Eccentric Collections," to cite a few of her favorites for our FWW ladies.

Not only will these exhibits bring out the kid in you – you can take the kids too. Who knows? Your pint-sized Picasso may be inspired — and so will you.

The Museum of Bad Art , Massachusetts

“My kid could do that!” In this museum, it is true. The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) in Dedham, Massachusetts, south of Boston, boasts a collection of works by artists who go beyond the merely incompetent and soar into heights of banality, sloppiness, sentimentality, and pretentiousness.

MOBA presented its first show in March 1994, in someone’s basement. Since then, MOBA's collection and ambitions have grown exponentially. The collection is now housed in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater, next to the men’s room. Admission is free, and the art can be seen any time the movie theater is open. (Right now, “The Women” and “Nights in Rodanthe” are playing). Bonus: wine is sold at the refreshment stand. Best to consult the movie theater’s schedule for hours. The theater (and art museum) are at 580 High Street, Dedham, Massachusetts. New acquisitions can be seen at www.museumofbadart.org (or check out a charming example, right).

The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, Minnesota

Two hundred years ago, John Chapman's calling became clear — to spread apple trees across the American frontier. The entire country has benefited from the man known as Johnny Appleseed, because those apple trees spread with the country all the way to the Washington State. What is more American than apple pie? What is a cuter celebrity name than Apple, Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter. And what is sweeter than hearing you are the apple of someone’s eye. The Big Apple, anyone?

Fall is apple-picking time, and September is National Apple Month. Whether it's a weekend trip or a first date, apple picking is as American as it gets. FWW asked Nancy E. Foster, president of the U.S. Apple Association, a national trade association, for her five favorite areas in the US for picking apples. Here they are, along with our picks for the best orchards in each.

Hudson Valley, New York

Only an hour or two north of Manhattan, Empire and Red Delicious varieties beg to be picked. There are dozens and dozens of orchards, most open for pick-your-own on weekends through October. Favorite spots include the Wilkins Fruit Farm in Yorktown Heights, Westchester County; Fraleigh's Rose Hill Farm, which has been on these same rolling hills, and in the same family for 200 years, in Red Hook, Dutchess County (845) 758 4215; and the Mead Orchards, also in Dutchess County, in Tivoli. Late in the season, try the firm, juicy, sweet Macouns, an apple developed right in New York State.

Apple Hill, California

Girls just want to have fun. And what better way than to go to a weekend festival that’s either free or less money than a Cosmo or CVS lipstick.

Full of interesting people and passions, these festivals can be bizarre, silly, humorous, and an adventure — and they’re certainly more fun than watching “Seinfeld” reruns at home.

Grab a girlfriend or go solo. Plus, helloooo — unless you go out, you won’t meet anyone. With your good time on our minds, we asked author Chris Epting, who has spent a lifetime documenting this information, to share the best festivals for October:

Alabama

The National Shrimp Festival, held
 October 9-12 in Gulf Shores, Alabama 
is one of the nation’s premier outdoor festivals, featuring more than 300 fine art, arts and crafts, and retail marketplace vendors… plus lots and lots of shrimp!

California

Do you love avocadoes? Believe it or not, you don't even have to like them to enjoy the annual Avacado Festival. This three-day extravaganza brings together three stages of musical acts and entertainment, a kids’ petting zoo, vendor booths, contests galore (such as the Largest Avocado or Best Dressed Avocado), and food, food, food. Amazingly, this event is free and one of the biggest festivals in the U.S., boasting the largest vat of guacamole you’ll ever see. October 3, 4, & 5, 2008.

Maine

Hey, I know it’s not quite October, but the Farmers Almanac predicts a wet, cold winter, and I like to be prepared.

Every woman I talk to is questioning whether a new winter coat is even on her to-buy list now. This is partly due to fashion’s emphasis on layering, which happens to add warmth in addition to style, our communal dislike of big, bulky (read fattening ) puffers, and daily reports on global warming plus a tanking economy.

Frugality is “in” whether you have a corner office, worker-bee cubicle, or a desk and computer stashed in your bedroom. Funny how quickly coat designers learned from last year’s forced markdowns and clogged sales stock to rethink the entire category.

This year’s trenchcoats, those sexy-but-sensible staples (they also never go out of style) are hitting store racks in droves. What started out as a military item has shaped up to be a fashion icon — and nearly every brand is counting on its appeal to revive coat purchases.

Let’s be realistic: For truly hideous weather — treks through snow and storm — those down coats in the backs of our closets are always welcome, but trenches have an offhand glamour that’s irresistible. Trench legends like Audrey and Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich are part of the allure, but every front-row chic-ette from Carla Bruni to Catherine Deneuve have been spotted recently in one. They work easily over trousers and pencil skirts, sheath dresses with heels, or jeans with boots — and every brand and designer has a trench in their lineup this season.

Get the double-breasted, notch collar style, and knot the belt bathrobe-style at the waist for definition, even if it has a buckle! The evolution of style has made some changes, a more fitted silhouette, a higher armhole, and leaner shoulder (even those that have epaulettes).

It can be fun when it’s you flying solo, but not when it’s your kid. Your heart suffers more turbulence than a plane caught in a Kansas tornado. But divorced moms must face the reality of sending their kids off alone on a plane for a scheduled visit with Dad.

However, don’t labor over it — even on Labor Day weekend. There are several procedures you can follow that are as essential as safety belts and more healthy than popping Valium:

• With the increase of divorced kids flying alone, airlines now make provisions for them. The kids are called UM’s – as in unaccompanied minor. Instead of making their airline reservation via internet, you should call the airlines, since they require information on who will deliver the child and who will pick the child up at the destination.

• The person who delivers the child to the plane and the person who picks the child up must both have photo IDs and cell phones.

• The parent will be given a pass to accompany the child to the departure gate and must stay until the flight takes off. Kids age 5 to 7 can fly nonstop only.

• UM’s require an extra payment – usually around $25 – and this will include the cost of the airline staff watching over them on the flight and ushering them to meet the other parent at arrival gate. If there are two kids flying solo, it will be only one fee.

• Prepare your child by calling it an adventure and spell out all the procedures so that he or she will know what to expect.

• Don’t rely on Jetblue’s TV screens to occupy them the whole time. Just in case, send them off with coloring books, cards, and a few games.

• Pack an extra snack because, just like you, they may sneer at airline food – if they are offered any. Hungry kids are cranky kids. You don’t want passengers to howl in protest.

After a divorce or any life changing event, we reevaluate . . .our lives, our relationships, our history. While the process is integral to your sanity, it's often uncharted, uncomfortable territory. But I found a hobby that makes the healing a whole lot happier.

Scrapbooking.

Yep. That Martha-Stewart-esque-photo-cut-and-paste pastime. It's a downright fun way to organize and make sense of the feelings and memories in your head.

Pull out that box of photos in the attic. Get some adhesive (glue stick is fine) and scrapbook paper at any local craft store. Put the photos on the paper and write down on the paper what the photos contain and your thoughts and memories of those points in history. In the process of remembering and writing it down, a miraculous thing begins to happen. You begin to heal your thoughts, your heart, your soul.

It's the combination of the photos and the journaling that does it. Writing alone, does not remind you of all the parts of yourself the way contemplating a photo does. Writing and making art around those photos, even the simplest kind of art, is altogether healing. It's more powerful than any psychiatrist's couch.

And ninety-eight percent of scrapbookers are women. Much like the quilting circles of generations ago, scrapbook "crops" are weekly events where women gather to work on their craft while sharing the ups and downs, sorrows and joys of their daily lives. Just gathering in a community of women regularly makes scrapbooking a strengthening experience. Throw in the actual process of "scrapping," and you have the means to heal your life.

I have a saying, "Scrap strong sistah." It means scrapbook your life fearlessly. Uncover and discover yourself. Reclaim those parts of yourself you forgot. Venture backwards to conquer going forward. And make some really good art in the process.

Scrap strong sistah. Scrap strong.