Fruit Loop Tradition

It's Tradition! For the past several years my friend Bess and her husband Royce along with Steve and I have enjoyed an annual trip to the Hood River Fruit Loop. It is only an hour away from our home near Mt. Hood. We enjoy going in the fall to one of their festivals, usually the apple or pear festival. This year we opted for the apple festival and we were not disappointed. The weather turned out fantastic and we had a tremendously good time. 


On our way, we stopped for coffee and gave Gabriel a treat, hot chocolate. He loved it. The hot coco goatee, makes him look way to old!

We always start our trip out by going to Apple Valley Country Store. They have the most delicious jams and pies around. They usually have dumplings too. They always have a smoked BBQ beef/pork/chicken with pear coleslaw and baked beans. Sitting under the open tent, listening to live music, breathing the crisp autumn air and eating this feast is wonderful, especially shared with friends! This year we took time to play, since Gabriel was with us, and we explored the tractor, tire swing and fall leaves.

From there we drove over to Packer Orchards. They have huge bins of apples and pears to select from along with a large assortment of giant baked cookies inside. What a treat! Gabriel enjoyed having things at his eye level and reach. Don't worry, all fruit touched by his little fingers was purchased and consumed. 

Our last stop is one of our favorites. Rasmussen Farms has a huge pumpkin patch as well as a corn maze along with the aforementioned fruit. We enjoyed watching Gabriel run all over in both the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. He had such a great time! 

We finished our day with caramel covered apples. They were delicious and the perfect end to our day.

We took SO many pictures, I reduced them by half and made a slide show. Enjoy!