champagne apples

Ariel joined us for our trip for Dixon apples on Saturday. The local media had been reporting heavily on the smaller crop this year, and the orchard has become intensely popular the past few years with long lines for cars and another line of people with wheelbarrows waiting to get into the apple shed. I should have known, but apparently it was being reported on Saturday morning that the first day was Friday and there were three hour waits to get apples.

We left around 6:30 in the morning. The boys were rustled out of bed in their pajamas. We grabbed a few snacks and headed out. We arrived before 7:30. There was no wait for a parking space and only a short line of wheelbarrows in the orchard. We dawdled a bit and within an hour of arriving left with 4 bags of champagne apples. (About two bushels in all.) There was no cider available.

It reminded me of balloon fiesta, which begins this weekend. You get up before dawn, put the kids in the car with their pajamas still on, bundled in blankets, get in a long line of cars, park, then into more lines and a crowd of people milling about, sipping their coffee, enjoying the brisk fall morning, and talking. Instead of green chile breakfast burritos at the balloon fiesta, you have apple fritters at the orchard.

The morning was gorgeous in the canyon. Jack wandered a bit around the orchard, while Ry steered the wheelbarrow. On the way back, we toured the Cochiti campground, another Corps of Engineers campground by a man-made lake, and stopped in Bernalillo at The Range Cafe, where we had excellent Huevos Rancheros, a breakfast burrito, tortillas, red and green chile, pancakes and scrambled eggs. A quick stop for clipboards and a pencil sharpener and before noon we were home, ready for a nap. A very nice Saturday morning.

Ariel took a few apples, and Jack took some to school for show and tell.