Apple Picking in Mansfield, OH

We didn't really have any tentative plans of what we wanted to do during the day when we went camping.  We figured we'd probably go hiking and maybe check out Mansfield or the carousel again.  But then a couple of days before we left for camping I stumbled across Apple Hill Orchards online.  After our lack-luster experience last year at Irons' Fruit Farm, I was anxious to try out another pick-your-own apple orchard.  And my sister had surprisingly never been apple picking before, so we decided it was a definitely must...

Apple Hill is about 15 minutes from Mansfield and they apparently have another orchard in Fredericktown, OH.

Unlikely Irons' Fruit Farm where they've only really had a couple apple varieties to pick at a given time, Apple Hill had about six or seven varieties and they were all pretty plentiful! 

I can't really remember all the varieties, but I remember what was everyone's favorite...the ginger gold!

Cheese posing with the half bushel we picked, notice all the ginger gold on top!

All the trees were pretty low so the apples were pretty accessible for everyone and you didn't really need apple picking baskets, like I've used before. There were a lot of families there with young children and it was nice that the kids could pick some themselves without much effort.

More pictures of Cheese, because he's just too adorable!

What a ham!

They had a nice little market inside the barn where you could buy pumpkins, gourds, fresh apple donuts, apple cider and a variety of other delicious treats!

It's like Glamour Shots but with a tipi and a basset hound!

Ha!

We had a really great time at Apple Hill and I would really like to go back next year!  This time around I made a couple apple baked goods (apple cake and pie) but we mostly just ate the apples straight-up.  I took one almost everyday for lunch and they were delicious.  That's all for now, I'll share more from our camping trip this week.

Camping

Please bear with me as I'm a tad behind in my posting (as usual), but I'm now officially less than a month behind!  Yay, go me!  Anyway, let's talk about camping.  Before I started dating Antoine I had never really been camping.  I grew up in the country and it seemed like camping just wasn't a thing for country-folk.  Why go camping when you could just pitch your tent anywhere on your 16 acres of land?  So when A and I started dating he introduced me to the ins and outs of camping and I realized liked it.  I then proceeded to tell my sister, brother-in-law, and best friend (all of which hadn't really been camping either) that we all needed to go camping together.  And finally, after like 5 years, we finally did and it was good times!

We decided to keep it simple for our first group camping trip and stayed in Ohio, meeting up at the Bulter/Mohican KOA, that way we could go hiking or check out fun country stuff like apple picking, cute quaint towns, etc.  Since it was pretty late in the year for camping (mid/late September), there really weren't many people at the KOA, which was nice.  We chose three sites on the KOA's little pond/lake...

View of a site opposite from our sites.

I think Cheese really enjoys camping...all the smells and being outside.  Plus, extra people to pet and love him!

View of the little lake.  When Antoine and I arrived there were a bunch of Canadian geese on the other side, but they flew away shortly after and only returned briefly.  Though there was a giant fish in the lake that we all found very entertaining.

On Saturday evening the KOA offered a free hayride around the property.  Michelle proceeded to convince Amanda to go with her...because no one else would go.  I should mention, we were all pretty intoxicated already!

After a full day of apple picking and fun Cheese proceeded to pass out Saturday evening in the warm sun.  So adorable!

Antoine and I did most of the cooking, which we did over the fire.  I was specifically in charge of making the morning coffee, and I'm very proud of how my first attempt at campfire coffee turned out...if I don't say so myself!

Cheese (on Sunday morning) after his morning scratches and pets.

So, how was your weekend?  Mine was delightful.  Antoine and I decided to check out the Cincinnati Nature Center for the first time.  We'd been meaning to go for a while now, but just hadn't made it out there.  It is quite tempting to just explore French Park with Cheese when it's five minutes down the road.  But it's also nice to mix things up and try a new park every once in a while.  We spent a little over three hours hiking around with Cheese and then we finished off the night with Chinese take out from Yat Kat Mein (always good!).  How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun?  I'm already looking forward to this weekend, it's our annual trip to Yellow Springs to pick pumpkins and I can't wait!

Campfire Magic

Since it's Friday and I've been slacking on posts lately (and I have a thing for posting gifs on Fridays) here's a couple gifs of the campfire from our recent camping trip in Mohican...

There's just something so magical about a campfire!  It's so warm and mesmerizing.  Though I only got to enjoy one campfire this summer, I'm hopeful that next summer will be filled with lots of camping adventures and campfires.

Happy Friday everyone!  Any awesome plans in the works this weekend?  A and I were hoping to go see Gone Girl, but I'm still working my way through the book so that'll have to wait.  Instead we might check out the Cincinnati Nature Center which I've never been to but have been hearing awesome things about for years.  Have a great weekend!

Richland Carrousel Park

Back in August when we went to the Mansfield Reformatory, Antoine and I decided to check out the Richland Carrousel Park after lunch (at Doc's Soup Herb Deli) since we were in the area.  The Carrousel Park is another one of the spots, like the Reformatory, that I had never been to even though I grew up just 40 minutes away.  I had heard about the carousel before but had kind of forgotten about it until I was recently reading up on the Cincinnati carousel, named Carol Ann's Carousel, that is planned to go into the Smale Riverfront Park in the Spring of 2015.  The Carol Ann's carousel and it's creatures are all being created by the Carousel Works in Mansfield, OH, which created the Richland carousel in 1990!  (I highly suggest you check out the video on the parks website and those on the Carousel Works website...the whole process of hand carving and painting the characters is really cool!)  Anyway, Antoine and I had fun checking out the carousel and taking a ride (it went much faster that I expected) and we fully intend to return someday [hopefully] soon...

Look at that adorable token to ride the carousel!  One eyed pirate cat, which is the one I happened to ride right next to, on the Siamese cat!

Hand-carved/painted pirate cat!  How is that not the coolest thing ever?!  Also, not obvious from the photo, he had a parrot and a peg-leg!  Best. Carousel. Creature. EVER!

While the pirate cat might be my favorite of the creatures...the sea-horse is definitely my favorite of all the carousel horses!  And it also happens to be the one that Antoine rode.

If you're ever in the area I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you have kids (though we weren't the only kidless-couple enjoying the carousel that day)!  I'm really looking forward to seeing the Carol Ann's Carousel once it's completed!  There are supposed to be a lot of Cincinnati-specific characters...so there will have to big a couple pigs and at least one will have to be flying, right?!  Anyway, that's it for this week!  I'll be back next week with more camping weekend photos to share.  Have a great weekend everyone!