Archives for 2017

Today was a really long, but really great day. Laura and I finally made it out to the coast. It’s been years since we’ve seen the water and I must tell you, it was marvelous. I miss it so much and there’s something different about the water up here in Maine than any other I’ve seen. It’s strange. It has a unique hue to it. It’s smooth. I’m not doing a very good job at explaining it, I know.

Camden, Maine is located south of Belfast and north of Rockland. Basically, it’s about an hour and a half north of Portland, if you know where that is. It’s a tight knit coastal community with a small, but very vibrant and active main street that is chock full of incredibly interesting shops and restaurants. This isn’t a quiet little town that’s hidden back in the woods somewhere. Let me tell you. This town is alive and the stores, well, they are right up there alongside any you’d see in a larger city. Things were priced a bit higher than we’re used to being up in western Maine, but what they were selling was of the best quality. I have so many pictures to show you below. They should give you a good idea of what I’m talking about.

I think we made this trip at the right time. My goal was to get a glimpse of some Christmas lighting as well as some holiday items that people are selling. I’m always nervous when visiting someplace new. I never know what to expect and I get concerned that I’ll be let down. Today, I think my greatest fear was that there wouldn’t be enough shopping. I shouldn’t have been worried because everything was perfect. There was tons of shopping.

As we rolled into town, I first noticed all the lights. They were lining the shop windows and trees on the sidewalks and the Christmas wreaths on the street lamps. The ambiance was wonderful.

Here are two quick shots I took right after we parked and got out of the car. My camera was working the entire day. I have a lot to show you. Let me warn you though, the sky was mostly clear when we arrived, but it started raining shortly thereafter. Then, things cleared up and it began to get dark. The photos down towards the bottom are so much better because all the lights are brighter and more clear.

After we began walking down the sidewalk, I really got into it. There was so much to photograph. We could tell that the folks in this town were very organized and that they put a lot of time into their cleanliness and presentation. There was holiday spirit everywhere and I even noticed how the Christmas lights were all the same color. I’m a huge fan of that. I lost my love of colored lights a few years back and truly appreciate the twinkle of the white ones.

This is the entrance of a really great woodworking store called Once a Tree.

There is a lot more than just woodworking in that store. More on this later.

As we continued our stroll, I noticed a lot of nice looking decorations around or near the windows of each shop. Like I did during our walking tour of Kingfield, I snapped some photos of these decorations.

There are a few landmarks in Camden. You know, the businesses that are more famous than the rest. I took photos of all of them (I think). The first one is the Sea Dog Brewing Company. It’s a restaurant right on the corner of Main Street and Commercial Street.

The next famous business in Camden is called French & Brawn Marketplace. It’s been in operation in this location since 1866. That’s huge in my book. It’s located on the corner of Mechanic Street and Elm Street.

Again, I have nighttime shots of some of these places that look really good. I’ll post them all below. They are much more creative and inspiring than the daytime ones.

If you were to visit town via the Elm Street route, you’d be greeted by Camden National Bank. It’s a fairly large building that stands out very clearly. It’s located on the corner of Elm Street and Bay View Street.

We continued to walk around a bit, just to get the lay of the land. I wanted to know what was available before we starting going inside any type of business. I found a really cool wall that combined the ideas of Christmas and lobster. I find that a little strange. I’ve seen it a lot out there. It just seems like the two don’t go together, but perhaps I’m wrong.

I took a few more photos during this part of our walk. The first one is after we reached the end of the stores on Elm Street. We were heading back down and I thought I noticed the quintessential Maine coastal main street. I wanted to capture it.

I love those kinds of photos.

I also grabbed one of a fire escape. The sun was hitting it just right, so it looked urban and interesting.

And finally, I took a picture of the Nutcracker sign. This show is being offered at the Camden Opera House in December.

Having an opera house like this in such a small town is a big deal. It is to me anyway.

I also snuck a shot in of a place called Stonewall Kitchen. It’s like a gourmet kitchen shop.

Let me tell you a bit about the Maine coast. It’s rather strange. Where we live, it’s fairly hilly. I wouldn’t say there are really huge mountains in our town, but it’s got its fair share of terrain. When you travel from western Maine to the coastal area, things get flat near Interstate 95, but then get really mountainous again near the water. I’m always surprised by this. I’m so used to the topography leveling out near any type of ocean.

Check this out. It’s a photo of a church steeple with Mt. Battie in the background. If you look closely, you’ll see a star at the top of the mountain that gets lit up at dark.

There were so many streets to explore. As I write this post, I’m trying to filter through all my photos. I think I took 139 of them and I know I can’t upload everything here. I still need to get to the good ones later on.

Anyway, as we walked down Bay View Street, we noticed a really nice hotel on its left side. It’s called 16 Bay View Hotel and it looks like something that should be in New Orleans. Check it out. I think I got some night shots of it too for below.

On the same street is sort of like a small outdoor mall. I saw one sign that said Cotton Garden and another that I couldn’t read. Wait, I see the Grand Harbor Inn and Peter Ott’s. There seriously are so many upscale hotels and restaurants in this one town. It’s very condensed and not a lot of room is wasted. Right past these buildings is the water.

Okay, the true centerpiece of town is the Camden Public Library. This is the type of feature that would attract visitors from far and wide. It may even make you move to an area like this, simply because of the future you could imagine. I’ve never seen a library like this in my life. Especially not in a small coastal town.

This is the backside of the library.

The stairs continue down into the Camden Harbor Park & Amphitheater.

This was the real reason I wanted to visit this town. I’ve been looking at this one feature for so long on Google Earth. I couldn’t take it any longer. So now, I’d like to return to the town to perhaps go to a show at the opera house and to explore more of the library and the town itself. There was a lot we didn’t see.

Here are some more parts of the amphitheater and the view out to the harbor. These are two small towers that are situated at the entrance of the amphitheater.

This is a, what do you call this, a small building in the amphitheater. You really need to read the history of this park via the link above. It’s very interesting.

This is the view of the harbor from the park across the street from the library. I mean, really. Have you ever seen anything like this? I really wish it wasn’t raining and the boats weren’t covered, but still.

This is a really cool, really tangled tree that’s next to one of the towers.

And here’s a ship on top of one of the towers and a gold rooster on the other.

I wouldn’t have been able to come up with those ideas.

And here are three random shots of the amphitheater that I’m sure I’ll want to look back on some day.

Back in 1996, the Camden Public Library went through a transition. It was expanded to more than double its original size. Part of the deal was that any expansion of the building couldn’t obstruct the view of the harbor, so they decided to create the extended library underground. Like, you can walk on top of the lower level. There’s grass up there.

Here’s a photo of one of the stones in the foundation.

I don’t even want to know how much any of this cost. I can only imagine. It’s nice though, I’ll give them that. And it’s surely a tourist attraction. When we entered the top floor of the library, I didn’t know the extent of the building. It was only when we walked down three flights of steps that I realized what we were in for. It’s quite remarkable. I’m still thinking about it.

Okay, back to reality. After our initial exploration, we decided to head into some of the shops to see what was for sale. We began with Once a Tree. We looked around for a bit and then I remembered that I was holding my camera. I snapped a few shots of some really nice dishware, or home decor, or whatever category you’d put things like this in.

After that, we went into a candy shop next door and then into a shop called Jo Ellen Designs. All of the shops were so warm and inviting. I was truly impressed by each of them. They were beautiful. Take a look at the interior of Jo Ellen Designs. I took an additional photo of one of the Christmas trees, but it was blurry. That was one of my favorites too.

Everything was so, so nice.

After a bit of shopping, it was high time for some lunch. We chatted with a gentleman (who happened to grow up a few towns away from where I grew up) for a while in the amphitheater earlier on and he told us that the Waterfront Restaurant down on Bay View Street was a good place to eat, so we made our way there. Of course, I had to stop for that random, very photogenic, picture of some Christmas decor during our travels.

It was nice because it was getting slightly darker as we walked. All the lights began to shine more brightly. As we made it closer to the restaurant, I spotted a cool looking store. It was called the Red Barn Baking Company and it had an interesting looking sign. I thought about how good it would look on this blog, so I took a photo. Check this out.

We entered the restaurant, had a wonderful lunch and when we came out, things were really getting darker. I took a shot of the harbor from the docks. Even on a cloudy day, it’s impressive. Very Maine.

This is where things began to get interesting. Remember that hotel I mentioned earlier? The one called 16 Bay View? Well, it looked a lot better at night. Not that it didn’t already look good during the day. I’m just saying the lights looked better.

It’s the little things I noticed, such as how the wall lamps appeared to actually have candles in them. Many places had these types of lamps.

And remember that little mall I spoke of earlier? Well, that was looking pretty fantastic too.

The church on elm Street was all lit up and ready to be photographed.

Everything was very impressive. Here’s another shot of that same church. There were many of them and they were all huge.

As we made it back up to Main Street, I saw a lighted Christmas tree way up in the attic of some building. I had to show you. Check it out.

After that, I went bonkers with the camera. The traffic was picking up, things were getting busier and I knew we were in store for some marvelous window shopping. The town was much more alive during this time of day. We continued to walk down Main Street, towards the car. I didn’t want to leave just yet. I preferred to stroll around some more to see what we could find.

I found the window of the brewing company. That’s for sure.

I also found a stuffed moose. These things were all over the place. I kind of want one.

And finally, I found that Once a Tree was brightening up even more than it had before.

Whenever I see one of those “center of town” hotels, I try to go inside to see what it looks like. I enjoy tucking valuable pieces of information in the back of my mind for later use. Perhaps we’ll stay here one day.

This hotel is called the Lord Camden Inn and it really is situated right in the middle of town. I parked the car right outside of it.

These people weren’t shy about their decorations. I love that. The more lights, the better.

The entrance led back through a hallway to the front desk.

We chatted with the front desk crew for a while, but unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of the inside. It’s just as nice as the outside though. It’s upscale and it made me want to stay overnight.

We left the hotel and found that right next door, there’s a, get this, a real toy store. Just like there used to be when I was a kid. Not in a mall, but on Main Street. That knocked my socks off. Inside the store was another giant stuffed moose. I just had to share this.

There were all sorts of other toys as well. I took my sweet time looking through all the Ravensburger puzzles and then some other Star Wars items. I was amazed at all that was there. And the best part was that there were real shop owners. Adults. Not after school kids working for some corporation. These people owned the place. It was remarkable. Sort of like something from the past.

Okay, don’t worry. I’m almost done. After leaving the toy store, we did a little more window shopping because we really wanted to get our fill. We knew we wouldn’t be back for some time and our cameras were ripped and ready for work.

Take a look at some fresh fruit from the market I showed you earlier.

I believe these next three shots were from the window of Jo Ellen Designs. The items in the window appealed to me because they are so holiday oriented. Little reindeer and all that. I loved it.

I got this one photo for my friends here in town. Many of them have custom license plates.

And finally (yes, I mean it this time), we have some window shopping photos from (I believe) Once a Tree. It was either this store or another close by. I can’t seem to remember right now.

So how was that? I’m not sure if I spent more time visiting Camden or writing this post. I don’t mind. Both were worth it. I hope you enjoyed looking through all of these photos and if you have any questions, I’d surely answer them. Just leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Well, we finally did it. I didn’t think it was going to actually happen this year, but it did. We went apple picking and surprisingly, there were tons of apples to be picked. I thought the trees would be stripped clean, but they really weren’t. So many really beautiful (and huge) apples! I see an applesauce recipe in the very near future. So mark this on your calendars, mid-October – apple picking can totally happen.

Okay, first of all, why is it that every time we get in the car to do something like this, it’s sunny, but by the time we arrive at whatever location it is we’re going to, it’s cloudy? Two o’clock in the afternoon is when it happens. Sunshine makes photography exponentially better and today, we were forced to take about half of our photos under clouds. At least the other half looked good. I’ve got a ton of photos to show you in this post, so settle in and enjoy.

By the way, it’s supposed to drop to 32 degrees tonight. It’s getting chilly out there. I think I might need a fire in the stove tonight.

I’ll start off by telling you where we went. There’s a nice orchard on a really great looking hillside in Farmington, Maine.

It’s called Morrison Hill Orchard and if memory serves, they offer about 15 different types of apples. We stuck to one side of the hill because the other side was picked clean. I think those were the apples that ripen up in August and September. We had fun with the ones that go all the way to late October. The Red Max, Empire, Rogers Red, Cortland and Macoun.

After we got back to the house, I looked up each one of these apple types and I have to tell you, they all look identical. Weird. That’s fine with me though because they were all rather large and super crispy. I did the ol’ eat my way through the orchard thing this afternoon. I’m sure you know how that goes. Really good apples.

When we first arrived, I saw something that looked like a huge slingshot. Guess what – it was one. Check this out.

For two bucks, you can buy a bucket of lousy apples and sling them into a field way down the hill. Since it’s difficult to describe what I’m talking about, I had a photo taken of me demonstrating.

We didn’t buy the apples because I was on another mission – a picking one. Do you see that smile in the photo above? I know, I don’t smile enough. I’m trying.

Here’s the field you can sling the apples to. There’s a board with the furthest distances recorded off to the side.

I’d say this is a pretty good idea for this orchard. I really came this close to slinging some apples.

After I played with the sling for a bit, we did the majority of our picking. The trees weren’t huge, but I had a tough time getting any apples. Because of this, I had to go grab two pole pickers.

We picked a half-bushel. I think that’s what it was. It’s the big bag and it cost $18.

Here’s what the bag looked like.

And this is my favorite apple. It’s pretty big and it’s sitting on my desk looking at me right now.

After the picking, we walked around the orchard for a while taking random photos. There was a lot of good stuff to photograph and it was really enjoyable. This first photo is of the upper portion of the orchard. This is the area where there were no more apples.

I thought this next shot was pretty. I framed the front of the farmhouse with the apple trees. Talk about skill.

Next up, we have the standard apples on tree photo. This is a given. Along with the next apple trees in a row photo.

This is an example of one of the apple trees.

I thought it was pretty cool looking, so I grabbed a picture of it.

I also thought the signs that described the types of trees were cool, so I snapped a few photos of them as well. This first one is for the Empire apples.

And this next one is for the Cortland apple trees.

Hey look! There’s even one of me holding an apple and giving a half smile. I think this picture was taken a second after I thought it was taken.

Here are a few more random shots. One is of an old broken down wine barrel.

This next one is of a pumpkin on a nice stone wall. I thought this was a pleasant touch. It’s so New England.

If you take a look at the photo above, you’ll also see some pretty flowers at the base of the wall mixed in with some autumn leaves.

Okay, this orchard had some chickens in a coop, or a pen, or whatever you call it. One of the chickens got out and was walking around. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world getting a good picture, but I managed to get a few that were presentable. This one was the best.

I’d say that’s one good looking chicken.

I saved the best for last. You’re going to love this story. I paid $18 for a half-bushel of apples. Last night, we had a lot of wind because the temperature dropped so much. It actually woke me up from slumber a few times. Today, while we were at the orchard, I saw a bunch of big bags that were full of apples, sitting every so often throughout the trees. The orchard people usually clean up the dropped apples every day. Well, since there was so much wind last night, a ton of apples fell from the trees. Good apples too! As I was doing my regular picking, I saw them all over the place. I kept commenting on how much of a shame it was to lose so many great apples.

I noticed that they were selling these bags of dropped apples for $7 each. Each bag weighed at least 60 pounds. I inquired about them and the lady said that they “have to” sell the apples as animal feed because they touched the ground, but that she can’t control what everyone actually does with them. We both knew everyone who gets a bag makes pies with them. At the other orchard, they press the fallen apples and make cider out of them. I said to myself, “What the heck,” and I bought a bag.

I put the big bag of apples in the trunk of the car and just opened it a little while ago to see what was inside. Guess what – the apples are perfect! Yes, some are small, but so many of them look just like the apples we picked off the trees just this afternoon. I’m totally washing as many as I can and am going to be doing some serious cooking with these things. And now that I know this place sells fallen apples, I swear I’m going to look at cider presses. I just have to.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I hope you enjoyed today’s post and if you have a comment please leave it below. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday was the day we chose for our yearly apple picking adventure. We’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember, we’ve been late at getting out every single year. Well, perhaps that isn’t exactly true. I can recall times many years ago that we ventured out in September, but the problem with those occasions was that September is oftentimes just as hot as August is. For some odd reason, we seemed to have found the hottest days of the month for our picking. In more recent years, we decided that any time after October 1st is just fine with us. It’s been working out too. The only issue is that many of the better apples are already gone. We manage to get our fair share though.

Last year’s picking was the best. As I wrote in a previous post, we found the most beautiful orchard in the world and it was right in our own backyard in Mercer, Maine. If I had to guess, I’d day the orchard is a good 20 minutes from our house. This orchard, for some strange reason, has the best energy about it. It’s quiet, has a ton of different apple varieties and has a landscape that I could get lost in for hours. It’s stunning. And what’s best of all is that there’s a cat named Felix that lives on the property. Felix just loves to come out to play with those of us who visit to do some picking. Take a look at me falling in love with him just yesterday.

When anyone approaches Felix, he drops to the ground and rolls on his back waiting to be pet. Of course, this is what everyone does. I like to rub his belly and then pick him up for a squeeze. I can remember doing the same exact thing last year. He’s a real highlight at the orchard.

I have a story about yesterday’s picking, but I’d like to start at the beginning of our outing first. Later on in this post, I’ll get to what happened at the orchard.

We decided to take the long way down to Mercer yesterday. There weren’t many people out, so I could drive very slowly like I enjoy doing. When I drive slowly, I see things I don’t usually see. Yesterday, after I pulled off the main road onto the dirt road that leads to the apple place, I passed by a regular looking Maine house. There wasn’t anything all too special about it. As I was peeking in the back yard of this house, I noticed a small cemetery situated along a treeline. I remarked at how interesting it is to have something like this so close to a residence and as I continued driving, I realized that the cemetery was larger than I first thought. I decided to pull over to the side of the road to see what it was all about. Again, we were pretty much alone out there yesterday, so I could have parked in the middle of the road to enjoy a sandwich. Very little pressure when it comes to the driving around here.

The cemetery was beautiful. It had a traditional iron fence that surrounded it and it was in very good shape. I love seeing things like this in the month of October. The weather is usually so good and sometimes, the exploring is even better.

After I took a few pictures, I turned around to notice that I had parked in the parking lot of the Mercer Meeting House.

As I learned yesterday, much of the construction in the area occurred in the 1800s. You wouldn’t know it because so many structures have been re-sided, but many of the original houses and buildings still stand. Don’t get me wrong here, there were never many to begin with. But from what was built, so much is still being lived in and used.

The Meeting House is still in very good shape. I took a few photos of it. I’ll share the best one here.

Sitting all the way over to the left of the building, along the road, was a mill stone with a plaque attached to it.

On this plaque were some words describing an enormous tree that once existed in the town. If you can’t read the words in the photo above, here’s something that’s more clear.

Who knew the largest tree in New England grew in Mercer, Maine? I sure didn’t. I love interesting tidbits of information like this. Of course, I view this claim with skepticism. I have a weird feeling that there are many “largest tree” stories out there. But, without knowing any facts, I’ll give this one to the town of Mercer.

After leaving the Meeting House parking lot, we didn’t get much further than an eighth of a mile before I noticed the most beautiful pond over to our left. There was a sign in front of the pond indicating that the area was, in fact, a bog, which is a wet, muddy area that is too soft for any heavy structure to be situated.

At first, I told myself that this area was particularly beautiful. As I continued to walk down the street though, I realized that the area was actually remarkably beautiful. Take a look at this next photo.

I mean really? How nice does that look? I stood there for a while soaking it all in.

As I walked just a bit further, I saw the coolest grass pathway leading to the rear of a nearby house. I simply love features like this. I have a long history of exploring a variety of properties, and when I can picture myself walking though some grass on an autumn day with a glass of red wine in my hand, I’m a happy camper. Take a look at this path that leads to the area in back of the bog.

I think I like the wooden fence all the way to the left the best.

Across from the path was a dead milkweed pod that was just begging me to photograph it. I love the details in these things.

Okay we’re down to the final photo for this part of the post. As I was walking back to the car, I noticed another mill stone hidden in the high grass, right off the road. Upon closer examination, I noticed that this stone had some writing on it. It said, This wheel was used in the Mercer grist mill to grind grain into flour in the 1800’s.

The road we were walking on was dirt and there was a large ledge right off of it, in back of this stone. As I moved closer to the side of the road, my left foot fell into a hole. I went down all the way to my knee. Apparently, there was some erosion in this area that I didn’t see because I was so focused on getting a picture of the stone. The lesson I learned was that I need to pay closer attention to the environment when I’m in the field taking photos. You know, I’m frequently so enthralled with taking pictures of things that I oftentimes don’t notice the danger that lurks all around me.

Anyway, let’s move onto the apple orchard. That’s where most of the fun happened.

Unfortunately, since we had such a rainy spring this year, the orchard we visited had a tough time with their spraying of the trees. Because of this, there weren’t many apples that were good enough to pick. Sadly, we didn’t fill our bag at all. We left empty handed in that regard. I did, however, take a few bites of an apple during our meandering through the orchard. Also, the owner of the property gave me a red delicious as a gift, which I ate on the ride home. Here’s a picture of me holding the apple I just spoke of.

I also purchased a gallon of freshly pressed apple cider, which I tasted last night and found to be delicious.

We did manage to snap a few photos during our stroll around the property. You know, the usual photos. I was actually kind of nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to get any because I have done such a thorough job of photographing things like this in the past. Sometimes, I feel like I’m writing and sharing the same posts over and over again. Especially when it comes to apple picking. I mean, how many times can I show you photos of apples? I’ll limit this year’s to only a few random shots of the orchard.

The owner of this apple orchard, whose name happens to be Carol, sometimes operates quilting getaways for friends and family. The last time we visited the orchard, I noticed a building that looks sort of like a house, with a sign that read “Quilted Apple Retreat” on its side.

Like I said, I never thought much of the building beyond that fact that it was in very nice condition and that I liked the sign on the side of it. Well, as it turns out, the building is a restored barn and as Carol was talking to us yesterday, she invited us inside for a tour. I was especially glad she did this because, as I mentioned above, I wanted to write a blog post about the day and I didn’t have many photos. I’ll tell you right now, the tour of the barn really helped. It helped a lot. I love the pictures I took of the interior. I’ll show them to you now.

Let me tell you, when we walked into this structure, my jaw almost hit the floor. I wasn’t expecting what I saw. Take a look.

I mean, can you imagine having a place like this? I can’t. I would love it, but I couldn’t imagine ever finding the luck that would allow me to own something so wonderful. Talk about cozy. As we were walking around and as Carol was telling us about the building’s history, I couldn’t help but to imagine relaxing in front of the huge wood stove. This wood stove has a story of its own. It was given to Carol by a group in town that had gotten it from another group. To make a long story short, the stove is considerably old and it has a rich history. It’s also enormous. Check it out.

For some reason, I always picture myself cozying up near a wood stove at night during a snow storm. There’s nothing more peaceful than that idea for me. I love having a wood stove here at the house, but ours is nothing compared to this larger one above. I could get used to something like that.

The building contained so many unique attributes and features. For instance, there was a huge hand-forged chain that Carol’s family found in the back yard during some excavation. The chain was wrapped around a boulder. I guess someone tried to move the boulder, failed and gave up. They simply let the chain sit in the dirt and eventually it was covered by earth. It was found and restored and now it sits upon a beam in the barn.

Here’s a different view. It’s a big chain.

Along the walls are signs from a long time ago. This one that says “Wealthys For Sale – One Mile” is from 1930.

I don’t know the story about these next two, but I thought they were really cool, so I took some photos of them.

Inside this building, there’s a loft, a kitchen and a bedroom upstairs. Here’s the kitchen.

And here’s the bedroom.

I honestly don’t think you can get much more cozy (apparently, I find myself using this word a lot in this post) than this. I instantly fell in love with this place. I really didn’t want to leave.

When I was remodeling the room I’m sitting in right now, I had a great idea. I thought that I would attach cedar shake shingles to the inside of the ceiling. I also wanted to place restored barn wood on the walls. After thinking about this for a while and after adding up how expensive it would be, I talked myself out of the idea. Well, as it turns out, someone else had the same exact idea and actually followed through with it. This next picture makes me want to re-do the room I’m in.

I love the warmth of interior wood. There’s nothing like it.

The last thing I want to show you from the inside of this building is an example of the creative lighting Carol used. I want to copy this idea so bad, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Luckily, there are a lot of folks out there who are now getting into these types of creations, so I might just have to purchase something similar. Perhaps I could hang a few over my puzzle table.

Wow, what a great place. I’m excited to post these pictures to share with you. I also enjoy looking back on them, so this is a win-win.

After our tour was finished up and as we were leaving, I decided to grab some shots of the apple cider press this establishment uses. First, I took a photo of the apple crates.

And finally, for the last photo of this post, I present the apple cider press. I’m starting to think I want one of these. I was watching a few videos last night and learned just how easy making apple cider can be. Believe me when I tell you this, there are apples all over the place up here. All over.

Overall, we had a really great day yesterday. What began as a loss quickly turned into a sheer delight. I loved the adventure and look forward to our next apple picking effort, which might happen in a few days from now.

Thanks for reading!