Fall Is Here

I became too busy these past few weeks and didn't realize it was a month since I made my last blog entry.  Oh well, since the season has just changed I thought of writing something almost every family in this part of the world does every fall.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons because the weather starts to get cool and breezy.  Most people associate autumn to falling off of leaves from tree branches.  But before it happens, leaves must first start to change its colors from green to yellow, red, orange, pink, or deep purple depending on the variety of the tree.  It is fortunate that we live in a place where we can experience the four seasons.  I especially love looking at the streets lined with trees adorned with various colored leaves.  It is always great going for an afternoon or early morning walk feeling the cool wind touching your cheeks and hearing the crisp sound of dried leaves as you step onto it.

Autumn is not only about the leaves.  Most importantly, it is the time when apples are ready to be picked.  It has always been a tradition in my family to go to an apple orchard not just to pick apples straight from the tree but to have fun as well.  Since I am always the one in charge of looking for a place where we could have our adventure, I searched the net to see which apple orchard offers a variety of activities for the young and the young at heart.  And so I found this place where there is a huge corn maze, an obstacle course, a petting zoo, and a play area for kids. 

We arrived at the orchard around noon.  The temperature that day was 39F and it was really cold it feels like winter in fall.  We decided to grab some donuts and hot apple cider to keep us warm before riding the wagon that will take us to the corn maze. 

There were two mazes, a small one and a big one.  We decided to take the big corn maze.  At first, we were with five or six families but as we walk through the corn field, my family was left behind because we were the only ones who brought small kids.  I thought it was easy to find the exit by just going straight and following the path but there were several branched paths wherein we had to decide whether we should go left, or right, or continue walking straight ahead.  At the beginning my husband led the way but then my son started to feel uncomfortable and felt we were lost as we were already circling for 30-45 minutes in a six acre corn field so hubby decided to make marks on the soil just to know that we have already passed by that area.  Around that time, I decided to lead the way and after 15 or 20 minutes we were able to reach the exit.  We were so giddy when we saw the exit sign that we screamed and jumped as if we won the lottery. 

Our next stop is the U-pick apple station.  Upon arrival, we learned that only five varieties of apple (empire, gala, jonagold, cortland, and golden spy) were ready to be picked.  Since nobody in our household likes baked goodies with apple as the main ingredient, we just got gala and some jonagold apples.  My little ones enjoyed getting apples from the trees. 

Then we went to the petting zoo where my son got to feed baby goats and donkeys.  There really was nothing special about the petting zoo since the only animals they have are goats, ducks, donkeys, bunnies, peahens, and some chickens and a rooster. 

Our last stop is the play area.  The kids played the obstacle course for a couple of minutes then we headed to the jumping pillows where the kiddos bounced on huge air bed-like structure shaped like..you guessed it..a pillow.  Then they played in the swing, miniature tractor and train, and slid down the castle slide.

It was a very tiring day but I was glad the kids had a great time.