Last Chance to prance...

..in the great outdoors.
Or so is my prediction. We've not had much of a fall, and before that not much of a summer. We'd planned on taking in an apple orchard "in the fall" which quickly became October. But with the snow flying on Columbus day and cold weather and rain the rest of the days we could go, yesterday was the the first good opportunity to visit a local orchard. I've given up hope on an "Indian Summer". So in the winter jackets it will have to be.

Grandma Candy was off work, so she joined us in our journey out to the White Bear Lake area. Pine Tree Orchard.



Your Dad and I had gone out here a few years ago - actually several. And we both thought at the time that it was the kind of place we'd like to go back to when we had kids. And here you are, so off we went.

I think as you get even older you'll like it more. Thru the wooded neighborhood, over the railroad tracks (we even saw a train - choo choo)...It's near a lake, so there's a nice little area to sit outside by the lake and you get a nice view when you walk up the hill to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. We'll be back.






Yesterday was cool and I thought one thing that would have made it perfect were fresh roasted chestnuts- like your Grandpa and I had in Italy. Mmm good. I've never seen them here. [editors note: Your mom's memory can be sketchy. I think they were chestnuts, or perhaps she thinks they were chestnuts because of the "chestnuts roasting on on open fire" line in the Christmas song. At any rate, your Grandpa and I enjoyed them from a vendor out on the street in Italy. Verona, maybe? Maybe. 2001? Maybe. Sometime around then :)].