Apple Butter Fest

I had the best date with my daughter this morning in Grand Rapids, Ohio for the Apple Butter Festival.  Another exquisite fall day that makes you feel lucky to be alive.  

I really had no intention of spending much time in the streets with all the shoppers.  I just wanted to enjoy all the fall-ish side stuff:  visit the mill and the old locks at the river, check out the colonial camp set up, taste and smell all the yummy food vendors, see the fall colors and hopefully ride the little train over the river that they've had decorated and making festive trips for visitors.  

Unfortunately, the train wasn't running this year.  They're supposedly making renovations.  Bummer.

But we made the most of the trip and enjoyed our morning together. 

This was a birds-eye view from the top of the mill.  Sophie and I climbed all the rickety old stairs inside to get to the top.  It was really neat inside!  And almost no one was there.  All festival visitors were busy shopping.  :)

Our favorite part of the morning:  sitting on the porch of the mill building in the rocking chairs.  Again, there were very few people on this side of the river and the view and atmosphere was just lovely.  Sophie curled up in my lap and we rocked and looked out over the river and talked.  They even had a checkerboard set up on a stump between chairs that we attempted to play... by her made-up rules.  :)

Crazy!!

Spontaneous game of hide-and-seek.

Finally, we crossed the river on foot with the rest of the visitor pedestrian traffic and walked through the non-shopping side areas.  Animals, tractors, food, colonial camps, musket shooting, etc.

There was kettle corn, homemade fudge, fresh cider, etc etc.  Sophie could pick whatever she wanted to eat as a treat... and she picked hard serve strawberry ice cream.  Definitely my child.

A small glimpse of the shopping crowd approaching the main drag.  (We were walking away from it.)

A look down the train track that leads across the river.  Hopefully, next year it's back in working order.  We've never ridden it before but it looked so cute all decorated and festive.  And super fun!  I know the kids would love it.

The kids are so much fun when we're just one-on-one.  I had an awesome day with my girl.

Sauder Village

We spent the morning in Archbold, Ohio today visiting Sauder Village and checking out farm life as it was a century ago.  I think I was in junior high the last time I visited this place.  The day was gorgeous and we happily wandered around watching the period-dressed folks spinning wool into yarn, pressing apple juice, drying fruit, woodworking, milking cows & collecting chicken eggs, etc.

Our little map-reader and tour guide directed us from place to place.

Grandma Verna uses this very thing for making homemade applesauce.  In fact, Sophie and her preschool friends just did this with Grandma at school in preparation for their Thanksgiving feast in a little over a month.  They peeled, cut, cooked and pressed the apples into sauce, to be frozen until feast day!

Cracking up and Will being daddy's little shadow with map tucked into back pocket.  ;)

A straw maze was set up inside one of the barns.  Both kids LOVED it.

Craig trying out the various methods of cabinet making on display.

We washed hands in the restroom and Sophie got the biggest kick out of this unusual hand dryer.  We packed lunch for this trip and ate in the car before heading home.