Deb Thompson Photography

Sunday was road trip day for the family. I had heard about this apple orchard in Northport, MI (about 90 minutes north of us) that has a large variety of apples. Sunday was beautiful weather here so we decided to take a little trip.We had so much fun. We took our time getting up there stopping at yard sales and art galleries along the way. The scenery is so beautiful in this part of Michigan. We stopped at Peterson Point Park in Northport. This park sits up on a bluff and overlooks Lake Michigan. There is a long stairway down to the beach. Of course we headed right down there--can't keep this family away from the water :D. One of our favorite activities to do as a family is rock hounding and this beach was all rock! We were so excited and began searching for Petosky stones. Dylan was the only one that found one on this trip, but of course Emma found many rocks she just couldn't leave behind. Usually we take the bucket with us to carry our rocks. However, we forgot it in the car this time. Emma carried all these rocks back up all the steps to the car. She was serious about bringing them with her :D ). After we completed our search we headed to the apple orchard.The orchard is owned by a lovely older couple who grow over 200 variety of apples. They have a large pole barn set up with the apples on tables. There is a brief description of the apples so that you know what you are getting. I think they must have had 60 varieties out when we were there. In addition, they have the largest painted bottle collection in the world---I mean seriously, you just have to see it to believe it. I think Alan and Dylan were more impressed with the bottle collection than the apples. We ended up buying 4 different varieties. Emma picked Snow, Dylan picked a variety from Turkey--can't remember the name, Alan picked Wolf and I picked Strawberry. Yumm-o!!! They are so good. Here's the link to the farm so you can check it out. http://www.applejournal.com/christmascove/farm.htmlI think its so cool that places like this still exists--oh, btw, they have great apple cider as well. [Photo]