Slide Rock Apple Fest

Ah, the trip to the Apple Fest.  Blue skies, sweet crisp apples, leisurely strolls among local craft booths.  NOT!  This has to be one of the most comical, bizarre day trips I've ever experienced and I think Mom would agree.  I was hoping to take the girls to an apple orchard in the fall to pick apples but since we were a little too late in the season, I was happy to hear about this apple festival in Oak Creek Canyon.  I had visions of eating homemade baked apple goods and hanging out in the sunshine, but apparently something went terribly wrong in the world and damaged the apple crop, THUS leaving the festival with no apple pies, no apple strudel...no APPLES at all!  And to top it all off, the sunshine that greeted us early in the day turned into a sky full of thunderstorms!

But wait, it gets better.  We took a trolley to the festival in Oak Creek Canyon and left our car in Sedona.  My sweet little Gracie managed to sneak her blue purse on board the trolley after I told her to leave it at home.  Why would I deny a 6 year old her favorite purse, you ask?  Well because the purse was filled with her coin collection, mainly the quarters and pennies and must have weighed ten pounds!  We noticed the purse sitting next to Gracie on the trolley but it was too late, we couldn't turn the trolley around!  We began to laugh with thoughts of how ridiculous it was going to be lugging this money bag around the festival.   Mom is a problem solver though and  quickly had us buying necklaces with the quarters and paying for a train ride in pennies and quarters.  Hmm, I wonder if the people behind us in line were just a bit annoyed.  Oops!  We eventually donated the rest to the 4H club after Katie milked a goat.

We never found any apples but we did visit the old apple sorting shed which was creepy interesting.  Actually we took shelter in there after the rain started.  It would have been really cool if there were apples inside instead of just the apple memories of yesteryear.  Have I mentioned that I thought there would be apples at the festival?

After standing in the shed for some time, we decided to brave the rain and head toward the trolley stop.  The rain eased up and as the trolley approached, we were greeted with yet another bizarre happening on this day.  I got my first bee sting.  And guess what...I have a bee allergy.  I almost died.  Well maybe it wasn't that dramatic but I almost blacked out and saw only white for a while.  What a day!  I think I'll be a little better at planning our apple field trip next year.