Gold-Plated Apples

Yesterday was cloudy and cool and windy.  But we went apple pickin' anyway.

Number one son met us for lunch at the restaurant connected with the orchard.  We don't often get to spend time with my brother and his lovely wife.  Brother's job keeps him away from home much of the time, and his home is over two hundred miles north of mine, so time spent together is precious.  We were able to share a meal and talk and laugh and get caught up on what the assorted kids and grandkids were doing.  Son had to head for his home after the meal, for he needed to sleep a bit before going to his job that evening.

If we do this again next year, I will do some research before.  I didn't this time.  I just picked the orchard that is most well known in our area.  I had never been there before.  Turns out that the place has its own restaurant, motel and gift shops.  There are activities for the kids including pony rides and camel rides.  Yep, you heard me right.  Camel rides.  We had to hold my brother back!

And people.  Crowds of people.  And kids.  Lots of them, too.  And apples.  Highly over-priced apples.  We stood in line to pay for our apples, headed out into the orchard and filled our bags.  And even with the crowds, which I usually would rather avoid, and the blustery weather, we still had a wonderful time.

We came back to my place where we sat around the kitchen table, ate donuts and drank coffee, and talked and laughed.  I put together a pot of beef stew and made biscuits, and we shared another meal, and talked and laughed some more.

Even though the original idea was that my sister-in-law, who is more sister to me than in-law, wanted to go pick apples, it wasn't really about the apples.  It was family and love and laughter, which is what it always is about when we get together.

And now I think I will go peel a few of those gold-plated apples and make a pie.  And think about the man who was father to me and my brother and who made the best apple pie in the entire universe.  And who raised us to love and appreciate one another.  For that is truly what it is all about.