Columbus Day weekend is when Buells Apple Orchard hosts their annual festival. Food, frivolity, hay rides, music… nothing better. Cool crisp day was perfect for taking the family out to pick apples!
My folks decided to come up, and I had already made plans to take Hope (my stepdaughter). First thing Saturday morning, we picked her up and headed to the orchard. Lots of banter in the car, courtesy of my stepdad, and lots of my folks catching up with Hope, whom they hadn’t seen in a long while.
We were among the first people there, which means we got prime parking (or as my friend Michelle always called it, ‘Princess Parking’). The bluegrass band was doing a sound check. First stop was to get an apple cider doughnut and a cup of apple cider. After buying our bags, we headed down to the trees to pick apples, first cameos, then yellow delicious, and finally rounded it out with some empires.
We decided that we wanted to see what kinds of apples they had on the other side of the orchard, so we hopped on the hay ride and rode down to the pumpkin patch area. We were on the hunt for the elusive ‘Honey crisp’, which sadly remained elusive. We did however find another type of red apple, but as there were no signs, we couldn’t tell what they were. There was debate about whether or not they were mcintosh or cameo apples, but they seemed too sweet for either. Either way, we grabbed a ton, and they will be used in all kinds of fun dishes!
After stopping to have lunch at the orchard’s grills, we headed out to hit the archery range and get some target practice in. I was so ecstatic that I’d be taking Hope to shoot for her first time! We got in, and Kate got her set up with a longbow. She went over the safety rules with Hope and showed her the basics of how to shoot. Like everyone, Hope’s first couple of shots didn’t make it to the target, but she refused to give up. After a couple rounds, Hope said she didn’t like the bow, and we switched her to a compound bow instead. From that moment on, she made it to the target, even nailing a couple of inner yellow hits, and making groupings. My stepdad gave her tips, and she really made improvement in the short time we were there. I was so proud of her!
She loved it. She couldn’t stop talking about it. She kept saying how she wanted to buy her own bow… guess I know what that means. <chuckle> When we took her home and she was asked what she did that day, her first words were, “We went to archery!” I hope later on I can take her again, because it was so much fun to watch her shoot.
