Holly's Birthday at the Orchard

Yesterday was Holly's birthday. She turned 25 this year and our yearly tradition around her birthday is to go to an apple orchard and pick apples. Luckily it was a beautiful day in Milwaukee for a trip to an orchard. We drove almost to Madison to find an orchard that had Holly's favorite Haralson apples. Haralson apples are Minnesota apples that become ripe right around this time of the year. I spent some of the week trying to find these apples at orchards in Wisconsin and I guess the Badger state doesn't like things from Minnesota. When we got to the orchard, we went into their shop to find our Haralson apples. They only had 4 apples left- that's right 4 single apples. We couldn't believe it. We drove all that way for those and only got 4. But 4 is better than nothing. Next we went out into the orchard because picking your own apples is the only way to go to an orchard for apples. The pickings were pretty slim. They only had four different varieties of apples to choose from. No Haralsons but we found some other apples that were tasty.

 The apples we picked from the four varieties were: Blushing Red, Empire, and Jonagold. This is Holly reaching for some of the Blushing Red apples.

This year the apples ripened early so there weren't many great apples since we went so late in the season. The good apples were all the way at the top of the trees. It was hard to reach the good apples and sometimes I ended up lost in the trees in the process.

 The best part is that if you get hungry while at the orchard, there are plenty of apples to choose from. Just don't let people see you eating them. Holly was trying to be sneaky here.


After we left the orchard with our bounty of apples we had plans to go to dinner. We had some time before dinner to explore. In the city where we were going to eat there is another orchard. It is called The Elegant Farmer.

 The Elegant Framer is a very commercialized orchard. It is not really the kind of orchard that Holly and I like. The main problem is lots of people. Too many people make it feel like you are just at the grocery store- they even sold things making it feel even more like a grocery store. 

 We did have to buy some things though. These apple pies that they bake in paper bags are apparently so good that even Oprah has talked about them according to Holly.

 This is another part of The Elegant Farmer we didn't like. They had a place for making your own caramel apples. Everyone was sitting in here eating caramel apples instead of going out and picking their own.

 Plus, GROCERY CARTS should not be allowed at any apple orchard. Little wagons like they had at the other orchard we went to are allowed.

 At the orchard we go to in Minnesota, they have Cider donuts. They did have them at The Elegant Farmer, the only real plus side for me.

 After the Elegant Farmer, we went to dinner in a town called East Troy. Melissa, one of Holly's friends from nursing school, lives in East Troy and her mom owns a restaurant called Ivan's "On the Square". It is a very cute place that is decorated just like something Holly would do herself. The food was very very good. I had steak and Holly had scallops. No pictures because it was so good.

We came home to open presents. Holly was lucky to have many family and friends send her things.

See, look how happy Holly is with some of her presents. These were a few things she got from her parents.

She also got these pillows for our futon in the spare bedroom. I am sitting on the futon displaying how nice the are.

This is all the presents that Holly got for her birthday. Overall it was a great day and nice to get away from the city for a bit. Holly was able to enjoy her day without having to worry about school plus now we have tons of apples to enjoy for a while. Holly would like to say thanks for all the gifts and cards from everyone.