Sunday at the Apple Farm and Beach

Sunday was one of those perfect fall days — sunny with cool weather and a slight chilly breeze — so we decided to do some exploring in our own back yard. First stop, Kilcherman's Christmas Cove Farm, where they grow 250 varieties of heirloom apples. Honestly, I didn't know that 250 types of apples existed, period, much less that they're available in one place. Big apples, little apples, green, red, putty colored — it's amazing all the types.

The apples are sold from a barn between the Kilchermans' home and their orchards. The barn walls are lined with John Kilcherman's collection of 10,000 pop (soda) bottles because — well, what else are you going to do with 10,000 pop bottles? The apples are in baskets on long tables, grouped by type, with a small note next to each describing that apple variety's history. Various family members are there to help customers decide which apple is good for baking, or eating, or whatever else you can do with an apple.

After stocking up on apples and cider, we headed across the peninsula to Christmas Cove Beach and Peterson Park Beach to poke around on the beaches. The two beaches, only maybe a mile apart, are very different: Christmas Cove is very sandy while Peterson Park's beach is very rocky. 

One oddity: At Christmas Cove, someone had buried ... something ... something named Yinzy under a nice, 3-foot tall wooden cross. My guess is that Yinzy's resting place probably won't be restful for too long as it sits on a public beach that gets hammered by storms, especially in the winter. Yinzy, whatever it was  — dog, cat, turtle, whatever — will probably be carried out to sea by spring next year.

But maybe that's the plan.