Ahhh Fall

Yesterday, I got a couple of hours to myself, so I picked up some Starbucks and cruised around the area. Some trees are already in full Fall bloom around Winston-Salem. I ended up at Salem Lake and wanted to share it with the family, so after Ian woke up for his nap, we went for a little walk around the lake.

This little outing inspired us to take a trip up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We traveled up to Sparta, a little town off the Parkway. We had lunch at a local cafe and then drove north on the Parkway to meet Samuel and Sarah at an apple orchard close to Mt. Airy. The drive was beautiful in spots. I wouldn't say the area is peaking yet, but there is a lot of beautiful color out there.

This year we went to Levering Orchard. We tried to go to the place we went last year, but it was already closed. This made us very sad, but Jill went on a hunt and found this place (thanks for the leg work, Jill). At Levering, you could pay for pre-picked apples or take a little one lane road down to the orchard to pick your own. We wanted the full experience, so we went off-roading. Payton asked, 'Why is there grass in the middle of the road?' I was thankful for two things while on this road: 1. I'm glad we didn't run into another car going the other direction. 2. We didn't ever hit high center. Once we got to the orchard, we could pick Granny Smith apples or walk 1/4 mile to Mutsu (Crispin) apples. Of course, we walked to get both kinds. It was a little a wild under the trees and you needed a ladder to get some of the best apples. The ladder was actually the kids' favorite part - it was either that or the tractor.