Team Barron: Apple Pick'n

It's finally FALL in VIRGINIA!

I LOVE FALL! It's my favorite season. VIRGINIA -There is NO other place I would rather be to enjoy fabulous fall foliage, crisp weather and many a fall festival. Today was the first cool day (high of 60) and slightly cloudy so I decided to kick off our fall festivities with a trip to the apple orchard. September is the best month for pick'n, and I knew we'd miss our window if we didn't take advantage of this weekend. There are just not enough weekends in the fall to explore every fall activity Virginia offers. I am tell'n ya, Fall fun is endless out here.

Despite the cool temps and chance of rain, we left around 8:30 am in hopes of being early bird pickers and avoiding major crowds. As we got closer to the orchards it began to pour rain. I was slightly bummed, but I knew the orchard would be open rain or shine. And, William was excited to try out the handy pick'n stick, so I figured Dada could stay in the car and I would venture out to the trees with WBB.

Once we got there, the rain had reduced to a slight trickle, so we grabbed out pick'n stick and our apple map and headed for section #2. The ground was wet and it was chilly, but that was not enough to keep us from having a great time. We found wonderful trees just busting at the leaves with red and green apples! William tried out his pick'n tools and I got a few shots of him in action.

Adeline slept the entire one hour trip to the orchards. When she woke up and found herself outside among some trees and a damp drizzle, I think she was slightly confused! I couldn't get her to smile (which is so unusual) the entire time we were there. She just stared at us, stared at the trees, and watched intently as William hoisted his stick up into the trees. I am pretty sure she thought we were crazy. Dada picked an apple and offered Adeline a bite. She got REALLY excited and licked it a few times. She waved her hands a few times and reached out to the trees like she wanted to pick a few Red Delicious herself.

William had a great time wandering through the trees. He studied the tree limbs and thought up strategies for shaking the apples down from the tallest limbs. Once our bag was full, we headed to the orchard's general store for some fresh baked bread and apple fritters. YUM!

The apple orchard adventures will always be some of my favorite memories about Virginia. I love the idea of living off the land and hiking through rows and rows of God's Golden Delicious gift to us.

I think William was 7 months old the first time we took him to the orchard and today, 3 years later, we returned with our baby girl. For a moment, I stood still in that damp drizzle on top of a hill surrounded by those beautiful apple trees and I just watched. I watched the joy in William's face when he would shake an apple off the tree and I watched the wonder in Adeline's eyes as she studied the fruits of the earth.