Vancouver: Part One.

We're just back from an overnighter in Vancouver with Nathan and Auri. We left early Saturday morning and crossed the border after a short 2.5 hour drive. Behaving like native Pacific Northwesterners, we headed straight for an "apple festival". Along the way, we began daydreaming about all of the yummy apple treats we would eat: apple fritters, apple streudel, apple pie, applesauce, caramel apples, and even apple sandwiches (Shawn's idea). All of this to be washed down with, yes, hot apple cider. Once we arrived, we discovered that the festival was actually an apple tasting event. Apparently, there are more than just "red" or "green" apples--hundreds of varieties, in fact. The first building we wandered into was proudly displaying many of these varieties on table after table. Better yet, there was also an impressive sampling of apples riddled with different diseases. Our favorite: scab.

Thinking this was the best the fest had to offer, we walked away feeling a bit discouraged. Luckily for us, we soon realized that we had overlooked the path to the main events--the apple tasting tent and food booths. The food booths offered treats more along the lines of what we had been hoping for. So, like good Americans, we sat down and ate some apple pie. We contemplated heading into the tasting tent, but decided that it might be too hardcore for us. We had slowly begun to recognize that there is a whole subculture of dedicated apple lovers that we didn't know existed. This was confirmed as we headed out and overheard a man saying, in the loudest and proudest voice, "...and that was the first time I tasted a Jonah Gold!"

Part 2 coming up soon!