October 2, 2012

September 29th and 30th, 2012

It took us no time at all to settle in and make a mess of our room (as usual).  George had a couple of tall boys and watched football, I planned our trip for today, and Clayton got to run around and play.  He even got to visit with Matthew and his brother Dilynn for a minute.
We got an early start today and were headed out of the city by 8 a.m.  We went up Riverside Drive on the west side of Manhattan and took the George Washington Bridge to the Palisades Parkway,

 
Then took the Palisades Parkway to RT 287 (New York Thruway),




Finally we got off at RT 17 South.  Loved it.  This place has my heart.  Maybe not this place particularly, but New England in general.  I just love it.  I've always been drawn to it.  All the farmhouses and red barns with silos and quintessential colonial homes.  Love it!!!



And the sweet little towns with their outdoor markets,






That brought us in Orange County which was home to the Town of Warwick which includes the Villages of Greenwood Lake, Florida and Warwick.  Online, I had found at least four or five orchards in Warwick, so we knew it was a sure thing.  I had looked and looked online trying to decide which orchard would be the best one to visit and I'm so happy I picked the orchard I did.  We ended up at Apple Ridge Orchards off of Jessup Road and it was perfect!  We stopped off at two other orchards that day, but just drove through and visited their stores.  Apple Ridge Orchards was a small, very authentic orchard that was perfect for us.  It was not anywhere near as crowded as the others (which was best with Clayton) and the experience hadn't been "over done".   We were able to pick apples,





check out the pumpkins,



And enjoy apple donuts and fresh, REAL apple cider...AMAZING,


All with a beautiful back drop,




 But Clayton's favorite part (aside from the pumpkins) might have been...the chicken!



He liked the chicken a lot!  I think the goat might have been feeling left out though,



As long as we did exactly what he wanted to do, he loved it.   He definitely has a good time running through the pumpkin patch.  He even fell down and head butted a pumpkin and started laughing at one point.  After we stocked up on apples, we headed out.  We decided to stop in a couple of other orchards we passed that we had decided against just to see...



 Pennings was definitely to commercialized and to crowded.  Maskers on the other hand was very authentic, it was just enormous and therefore also very crowded, but driving through Maskers was beautiful.
















Yep, we definitely made the right choice.  Apple Ridge Orchards was much more low key and not as commercialized as Pennings and just not as big and crowded as Maskers.  I would highly recommend Maskers to a family with older kids though.  Well, as much as I would love to pretend I write a travel blog, let me wrap this up...
 From there we just took the scenic route back to the city, because we had to be back to give Clayton his shot and hopefully to avoid the influx of traffic coming back to the city on a Sunday evening.






And we're back...but it was a great day!





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