Harvest time for apples in the PNW

It's that time again when the apple crops are booming and varieties you've never heard of are out and about.  I love it.  So much flavor, texture, coloring and sweetness to get into, and it's always worth trying out new apples that you've never heard of before.  From past trips to Kygyzstan to research apples with my friend Eliza, to working on an apple farm in Virginia, I've had some great times with apples in the past, and one of the best parts of currently living in the Pacific Northwest is the Apple Festival at Portland Nursery every October.  I've been a few times in the past, and went recently with some friends to get our taste on.

Imagine 60+ varieties of apples with names like Hampshire Beauty, Arkansas Black, Mutsu  and Northern Spy, all cut up, ready for you to work your way through, tasting each one, making notes on sweet vs. bitter, texture, etc.  It's an awesome time, and it's free.  Can't beat that.  And you can't beat that the apples are on sale for .99 cents, mainly from local/regional farms.  Simply amazing.  Life is good when you get to hang out with Mother Nature in the form of apple tasting.

Look who was farming for apples along with us!

Sunny baseball end of summer

On the end of a great trip to visit friends in Santa Cruz, several of us cruised over the hill to Oakland to catch an A's game.  3rd year in a row for this group and it was just as amazing as always.  Great weather, barbecuing out in the parking lot before the game, bleacher seats where you can sit wherever you want and a A's win made for a grand trip.  For such a large concrete monstrosity surrounded by parking lots, I'm a fan of the Oakland Coliseum.  Quite a fun crowd despite the top seats covered off, you always have a good view of the baseball diamond and can get pretty close to the fielders.

A highlight is of course the classic mascots racing around the track.  Ricky Henderson, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, with their ginormous heads, race from left field underneath us, out around the bases to right field.  We had prime seats for the start of the race, and Eckersley gave me a shout out as seen in this picture.  I didn't tell him that Kirk Gibson hitting that infamous World Series home run over him is one of my favorite moments in Dodgers history.

And you know we went to In N Out after.  California!