To the Apple Orchard: The 2020 Pandemic Edition

 

The pandemic has changed most of our anticipated fall adventures (Will and I should be just about packed for Florida by now, with a zillion SWAPS ready for the Girl Scout Convention and handmade Mickey ears ready for Disney World), but one adventure that thankfully stayed the same is our autumn trip to the local apple orchard.

Per usual, this kid picked approximately one apple--

--and then headed off out of sight with her bestie:

Fortunately, this other kid of mine is still willing to hang out with her parents in an apple orchard. It IS the best way to get the sweetest apples that only live way up high, after all!

Unfortunately, I think we hit up the apple orchard a little late this year (and to be honest, we almost didn't make it on this day, either--there was exactly one hour of work that I'd wanted the kids to do before we left that they refused to do, so I got pissed and flipped the breaker FOR THE ENTIRE HOUSE until they did it, and it still took until significantly after noon for the work to get done. The good news is that we saved on a few hours of electricity, I guess!), and so there were only slim-to-none pickings left. 

But every single apple that was left on a tree in early October, after a cold snap?

We picked it!

I'm pretty sure that the person who enjoys this yearly trip the most is Luna. The first time we took her to the apple orchard with us was the first time that we discovered that Luna LOVES apples, and since then, every time we go she acts like she's come to a wonderland full of yummy treats that fall from the sky and then lie on the ground waiting for her to eat them.

I mean, she's not wrong...

This trip is also one of the very few times a year that I can convince the entire family to sit still and let me take their photos together.

Well, almost the entire family...

She's chomped another apple off the ground and is running off with it so we can't make her share.

Syd and I saw a TikTok that claimed that if you hold your camera upside-down when taking someone's picture, the picture will have a cool and unusual perspective. I don't think it really works, though:

The apple orchard is extra efficient because the kids can also pick out their Jack-o-lantern pumpkins there:

One kid always picks out the biggest pumpkin she can find--this year, her pumpkin weighed 25 pounds! The other kid always manages to get painfully attached to the weirdest pumpkin in the patch. Can you tell which one the kid below is?

Just as we were finishing up our apple cider slushies, apple turnovers, and elephant ears, the sun FINALLY came out, and I was thisclose to making everyone tromp back into the trees for a set of photos taken with proper lighting, but first we took a swing through the general store for cider and another peck of apples, and while we were in there a mask-less child coughed directly on Will--like, DIRECTLY ON HER. FROM APPROXIMATELY SIX INCHES AWAY. WITH NO ATTEMPT TO COVER ITS MOUTH--and I freaked out and hauled Will away from the family by her elbow while they gave me the stink-eye as if *I* was the one acting crazy and Will loudly protested, because of course she was utterly oblivious and also thinks I'm just crazy in general.

So that kind of killed the mood, and I lost my urge to Fight for the Perfect Photos, and instead we headed home, because even during out favorite time of year, at one of favorite places in the world, doing one of our favorite holiday traditions, it turns out there's still a pandemic going on.

P.S. Want to see what we're going to do with a bushel of apples, a gallon of cider, and two Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, one very large and one very weird? Follow along on my Craft Knife Facebook page, where cider cocktails and caramel apples are made, and teenagers are in charge of the applesauce!