Jonagold

This morning started as all Sunday mornings start for us:  at church.  Today's Under the Sea theme was the next-to-last message of the series, which just illustrates further how fast all these go by.  This has easily been one of my favorite things we've ever done.  It has been daring, different, and so amazingly creative.  This morning, we took a slight break, showing clips from the movie "Dolphin Tale" and using that to show how kids can overcome, and inspire.  Just like Winter the Dolphin.  Because it had that theme to it, you can imagine that Madison really liked the service.

After church, we headed west - to Ellijay!

Jonagold is a cultivar of apple which was developed in 1953 in New York, a cross between the crisp Golden Delicious and the blush-crimson Jonathan.

Here's Madison in Ellijay, on our annual trip to the apple orchards to go apple picking.  Daddy remembers going to upstate New York for apple picking, so we're blessed to continue the tradition here, making about an hour drive to the west, and upwards in elevation.

The obligatory hay ride.  Actually, it's a nice hay ride up the dirt road a bit to our destination, an apple orchard resting on the side of a mountain.  We go to the Red Apple Barn, which is on the western side of Ellijay, so it is a bit further of a drive for us.  But it isn't quite the amusement park the other orchards have become.  This month there are so many people driving through Ellijay, all lined up to do some apple picking, or just go for a drive through the mountains.  Or, milk a cow.

Okay, so not a real cow.  Up against the railing like this, you could say this cow was lean beef.  If it falls over, it will be ground beef.  Anyway, we like the Red Apple Barn because of the hay ride up there, and the variety of apples to try out.  We had some Jonagold apples this time around, and Daddy has determined that this is his favorite type of apple.  It only took a few decades to come to this decision, but these things do take time.  We had a lot of fun wandering through the orchard, hundreds of trees, trying all kinds of different apples.  Madison was sampling more this year than ever before.

We had one bag with us, and slowly but surely, we filled it up.  Daddy was carrying the bag for a bit, that is until Madison offered to help:

Quite a haul - and quite a day!  We went back to the barn afterwards, riding our hay ride back to towards our car and away from the orchard.  There at the barn was a place to get apple cinnamon doughnuts, and apple cider - part of the fee for the whole experience.  On a deck overlooking a field below, we sat in rocking chairs as the sun was starting to retire for the day.  The weather was so remarkably pleasant today, everything just right for the picking.  We couldn't have picked a better day to go, in fact!