To the Mountains

We had a blissful weekend in the mountains. Brad and I did a little work Friday morning, but the kids had the day off. So, as soon as we could we headed west! We were in Asheville in time for a late lunch, and we found ourselves at Bouchon Creperie, which was incredible. The weather was perfect for eating out on the patio, and Brad and I were so grateful to have children who are not picky eaters. It just opens up so many fun options in Asheville. 

After lunch, we made a detour through a used bookshop, where Issa found a favorite from the library to add to her collections, Daddy found a fun book I won't pretend I can describe, and Evan took a chance on one of their mystery books. It was wrapped in brown paper with a few clues written on the front, and he was quite thrilled to discover he was correct and scored a fun pirate book.

From there, we headed straight to our first orchard:

 Sky Top is quite literally perched on the side of the mountain, and the views were incredible:

 The leaves were at their peak this weekend, and the orchard smelled so sweet. The kids also loved apple picking:

 My favorite:

 Did I mention the views:

 After we had picked too many apples, we took a tractor ride around the orchard. While I should have snapped some views, I did snap this selfie:

 We visited the orchard critters:

 And enjoyed the view of the pond:

 Before getting lost in their bamboo forest:

 We ended our visit with hot apple cider donuts and cider slushies before checking into our hotel. We managed to keep the kids awake for dinner, which helped them rally for an evening swim!

Saturday got off to a sideways start. The plan was to go to our favorite biscuit place, but the line was out the door and there was no parking to be found--anywhere--at any breakfast place. Cue the driving all over the mountains to try to find something and Issa getting car sick. Happy birthday, Daddy.

New plan: Donuts and hot cider at the next orchard. Stepp's was a very different orchard but equally fun! The weather was much more fall like, and the hot cider was especially welcome. We were so excited both orchards had growth charts since our pumpkin patch closed:

 Once tummies were full and everyone was happy again, the kiddos couldn't wait to try the apple cannon:

 It was super impressive. We then ventured through the five acre corn maze before picking apples and pumpkins:

 We found a new apple, Staymans, that we all really love! Which is good, because we brought home a peck of Asian pears and three pecks of apples! The best part of Stepp's was that it had a lot more apples that were easy for the kiddos to pick!

We ended our trip with a BBQ lunch. We were home for dinner on Saturday, which left us Sunday to settle back in. We did take Daddy out to one more birthday lunch before doing all the glamorous things like grocery shopping. We ended up having cheeses, crackers, and apples for dinner, along with an old childhood favorite:

Nothing beats warm, fresh red applesauce. And as I'm typing apple butter is going in the crockpot. A very lovely fall weekend indeed.