A Day in Georgia Apple Country

The annual tradition lives on!

On Saturday Jason and I headed out with my Dad and Ashley to the North Georgia mountains! When I was a kid we used to go up to Elijay (a town about 1 1/2 hours from Atlanta with a lot of apple orchards) every year to pick apples. But somehow life got busy and we stopped going. You guys might remember that I rekindled the tradition on my own in Virginia with Jason (I wrote a post on our visit in 2011 and even made an embarrassing video of our 2012 visit), but this was my first time apple picking in Georgia in at least 15 years!

It was so great to be able to share this trip with Jason. I think one of the only things we miss about living in Virginia is how close the mountains and other beautiful things were from where we lived. It’s easy to forget that Georgia has all those things too!

The last time we went picking down here was before Ashley was born, so this was her FIRST time doing it! She loved being in the mountains just as much as I do!

There are a ton of great farms in the area, but this time we decided on B.J. Reece Orchards because of how many activities and extra things they have.

It’s late in the season, but we were happy to still find plenty of apples on the trees.

Her first apple!

We did a lot of picking, but we also did our fair share of photo taking! It’s bound to happen with our family!

We spent a couple hours wandering around the orchards and picking Rome Beauty, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, and Fuji apples.

We were filling a half bushel bag, so it was a LOT of apples! The bag was so heavy that carrying it back was a team effort.

Once we were all picked out, we headed to the orchard market for a little shopping. They had a massive selection of pumpkins, bagged apples, and all sorts of other produce on display.

Inside the market there was also a bakery featuring their famous fried pies! Each of us decided that we couldn’t pass up trying a fried apple pie.

That sucker was good! It wasn’t as heavy or sweet and I was expecting, and the apple filling inside was really good.

Walking away with a bunch (or a half bushel to be exact) of fresh, local apples is a real treat, but it’s the memories of the day that always make these trips worth it. Long after the apples are devoured I will remember seeing Ashley’s excitement at picking her first piece of fruit, hearing her and Jason competing for who can find the most ridiculously small apple (Ashley won), discovering a new form of entertainment called an “apple canon”, seeing a sign advertising ‘pig races’ (totally normal), breathing the clear mountain air, and taking a million pictures of our family together. It doesn’t get much better.

 

You probably can’t tell from these pictures or the tone of the post, but I found out on Friday that I failed the bar exam. Thankfully, Jason passed. I can’t really explain it, but I’m not angry or sad about it. Ever since I walked out of that exam room, I just had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be my time but that it WOULD be Jason’s. I had known that and come to peace with that over all these months while waiting for the results. Those of you who are married know that your spouse truly becomes your family and your teammate. The way I see it, our team wins on this one. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

-Lauren