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10/05/2004 Archived Entry: "apple pickin' Dodgers"

Yesterday was just long and exhausting. But, very fun and I'm glad we did our two activities. First we headed off to the San Bernardino Mountains to do some apple picking. This is not something I've ever done but it sounded like the perfect family fall activity, so off we went. Once we get there we are greeted with a loud buzz. It's a school group. I expected to see one so we were not taken unawares. The odd thing is the school was a Christian school in our city. Considering we were 75 miles from home, that was a bit coincidental. To cap the coincidences, one of the mom chaperones was someone I went to Jr. High and High School with. We were never friends or anything, so I didn't talk to her, but she looked at me funny a few times too so I think she realized that she had at least seen me before.
Anyway, back to the apples. You have to check in at the general store and that's where the 3rd graders were. This store was small and packed with lots of 8 year old, teachers and some parents made the place unbearable so we waited. And waited. When they were finally done with there 15¢ stick candy purchases, we were able to purchase our bag for the apples. We chose the large one, Chris grabbed an apple picker for the high fruits and off we went. First stop was the Granny Smith orchard. They were positively huge! We grabbed six of those so I can make a pie that someone gave me a recipe for. After that we headed off for Tabitha's favorites, the Red Delicious. They were mixed in with the Romes and it was hard to tell the difference at first. We're all used to seeing Red Delicious in the stores where they are highly polished and waxed and have a very bright sheen. Not fresh off the tree, let me tell you. Covered in dust, they look just like the Romes. But we found a few trees and we can tell the difference in the varieties by their shape. Tabitha picked so many of those I lost count. We also topped off the bag with three Romes that were the size of a softball. Turns out they grow 'em big in the country :)
After we filled our bag, we headed back to the store where we all picked out some candy and then went for a drive around the rest of Oak Glen to see the other orchards. We stopped at a village that would be very entertaining had it been a weekend, and then stopped at another farm to visit their shop before heading home.
We only stayed here for a couple hours though because yesterday was rally day. Major League Baseball has started a new tradition and declared the first day after the regular season has ended "Rally Monday." Rallies were held in every city that had a division winning team. Los Angeles would be one of those cities. So we went to The Grove last night along with 10,000 of our closest friends to support our boys in blue. It was, um, interesting. I can't say I expected the turnout and didn't realize quite how big of a deal it was going to be. Every news van in the city was there plus a few copters. It was the lead-off story on the channel 13 news which we recorded because Tabitha was interviewed, but alas, she didn't make the cut. Anyway, it was overwhelming and it had been a long day and not even the potential to win play-off tickets in the raffle could convince me to stay until the end. We were there almost three hours by that time and I think I had had my fill of cheering for every little thing. But now we know and next year when the Dodger's make the play off, I'll be in the right frame of mind because I'll know what to expect.