At the Orchard

Two posts in two days...say what?! I know, I know, you can thank me later ;).

Anyways, this was the last football game of the season, so of course everyone had to go. However, we were playing another inner-city school that no one had heard of, it was cold, and it was senior recognition night. That means literally every.single.senior. in the marching band, chorus, and color guard, as well as every player on the football team would get individually introduced and congratulated. If you're a senior, and you know who all of these people are, I'm guessing you would enjoy it since this is your last high school football game ever. But when you're a freshman, all that talking gets pretty boring, so we ended up leaving during the third quarter, in favor of a much more enjoyable venue.

I also discovered that Krispy Kreme donuts, as delicious as they are, somehow taste even better at 11pm after you've been standing on freezing bleachers for 3 hours. Also, if you haven't tried the Pumpkin Spice donuts yet, do.it.now. If you like the old-fashioned donuts from Starbucks, and you like pumpkin, you'll be very happy with these. 

The next day I got up extra-early (not intentionally, but it Daylight Savings Time started and threw me off), and went with two of my friends to Carter Mountain to go apple picking! It's about an hour's drive nearly straight up the side of the mountain. 

In this picture there are guardrails along the edge, but believe me when I say that in about 30 seconds those rails disappeared and the road starting rising straight up. The fact that we essentially risked our lives for some apples says a lot about how delicious they are. Well, we also went for the apple cider and Carter Mountain's world-famous apple cider donuts (I don't have a picture-the four of us gobbled up an entire dozen of them before I could get my camera out!). We sat down at the picnic tables and struggled to keep our hair down in the freezing wind as we sipped our apple cider and ate our donuts. Sitting at the top of that mountain, the view of the valley beneath us nearly took our breath away. 

After we'd had our fill of the view (and the food), we hiked up to the orchards. We headed straight for my favorite apples, fuji! Luckily this section of the orchard had just been opened up for the season, so we practically got first pick. 

After we'd picked more apples than we could carry, I bought another half-dozen donuts to take home for my family (I ended up eating most of them ;)), and we headed on home. There's just nothing better than apple picking in the fall!