#fallfestivities

FALL IS HERE!

I love Fall.  For rilsies.  I get so excited to do fun seasonal things, like wear warmer clothers, eat lots of soup and devour anything that has anything to do with pumpkins.  And the leaves!  I am obsessed with changing leaves.
 In moving back to New York, I discovered the Fall tradition of apple picking.  Well, I went for the first time this weekend and fell in love!  Apples+friends+treats+me=happy.

Brendan, Deb, Abby, Jeff and I went to see Brendan's mom and step-dad upstate in Bainbridge.  It was really too bad about the view behind their house.  I didn't take a million pictures of it or anything. Not even a little bit.  We also got a little touch of history with Brendan's Senior
picture. 
I mean, that smolder.  And we won't even talk about the hair.  OK, we will.  It is huge, and red from Sun-in.  And it was all made even better when he told me that his tux was actually just a half shirt they all put over their clothes for the picture.  I love him. 

Back to the weekend.  We started the festivities with going to the Lafayette Apple Festival.  The biggest thing I got out of it was feeling a little more festive, laughing my guts out, and starting off the apple-themed eating for the weekend.  Apple cider (the good stuff that I crave every Fall, not the crap from a grocery store), cider donuts, and real apple fritters.  Let's talk about those apple fritters.  I have had them before, or so I thought.  I have had the ones from bakeries, that are usually a yummy pastry of lots of glazed dough with some apple chunks strewn throughout said glazed, fried dough.  I had no idea what I was getting in to, actually.  At this here apple festival, we are talking thick slices of cored apple, encased in dough and deep fried, then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  WHAT.  I can't.  But I did.  Like, four times over I did. 
The day just got better as we made our way over to an apple orchard for the actual apple picking.  I swear I was in the Garden of Eden.
 (I know, I know, I said Seattle was the Garden of Eden.  Details, details.)  We just loved it, and picked enough apples to last us for a while back in the concrete jungle.  How do you like them apples?  I will tell you.  A lot.  I think the world "frolic" is apropos here.  We frolicked in the orchard.  (Side note: I just discovered by looking at the above picture that I hate the way my sunglasses look on my face.  That will be remedied with a new pair very soon.  How have I owned them so long without realizing they are terrible? I digress...)

Back to the gorgeous home of Lori and Bob to do the baking.  Did I say baking?  I mean BAKING.  I kind of love baking in the Fall. There is something about it that is so comforting to me, and super yummy, of course.  Weird that I would think that...Apple pie, sour cream apple cake, and apple crisp.  It's fine.  Sitting on the kitchen floor, just pounding apple pie at 11pm will live on forever in my memory of moments that made me really, really happy, and really, really full.  It hurt so good, I tell you. 


 
This morning we went to church and came back to a brunch of baked french toast and the aforementioned apple crisp, with some amazing bacon and sausage.  After a leisurely few hours of sitting on the huge front porch of a country home in upstate New York, we left.  And came back to our real home in the City.  And I am hurting from everything I ate.  Worth it. 

Don't worry that this happened over the weekend, and Abby, Jeff and I may or may not be introducing polygamy to Harlem. Brendan and Deb were paired off, so...it's a thing.   (Not really).


My friends are the best.  And so is Fall. 

PS- One more shout out to this view.  Isn't it fantastic?  I thought so.