Whew!

I am ready for bed! We had a fun but tiring day!First we headed out to go apple picking! Here is Miss Fern during her picking peak, she tired out soon!
Riley was amazed at this large apple, he looks a bit like Johnny Appleseed hu!
How sweet is this!
Hey look I really was there too!
YUMMMMM!
Hey where is Jake!!??
We ended up with all 4 of the bags FULL with apples, now to make apple sauce, apple butter to can, and a couple apple pies to enjoy! :)
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After the picking we ran over to the Meridian mall to pick up a couple things and then we saw a sign to Hubbard Park and Castle Craig. Well we had always wondered what that castle turret was we could see from the freeway, so off we went on another adventure (I told you we were tired)!

Here is the placard, I looked it up online and unfortunately it is not the highest point, but almost! :)
Here is Riley standing near the castle, awesome view isn't it!
Here we are at the base of the castle (yea it is just a turret I was expecting a little more when they called it a castle).
And Fern on her way up, there is a metal stair case going up, lucky for me it was only 4 flights of stairs, my knees don't handle stairs too well!

Here is Dan and I, we could in fact see the Long Island Sound and Long Island! Also New Haven, Hartford, and beyond!
And my babes, they were not too keen on the top. Probably because Dan's fear of heights kicked in and Riley feeds off any nervousness we show, and then the other two react to that! :)
Hi Mama!
Back down safe and sound! :)
We then decided to sit and have our apple and animal cracker snack, Fern thought this was a good spot. :)

But we settled out on the cliff, we had a great view!
Here is the view of the castle back down the hill in Hubbard Park.

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Then we were on our way home, until....

We saw a sign for "Lock 12 Historical Park and Museum", well the museum was not open but we read this!
And then the boys tried to fall into the canal, Fern was snoozing in the stroller, Dan was on his phone and me? I was snapping pictures as usual! :)
Here are the locks from the other side, plus we found a WONDERFUL area to walk! It is paved, goes right by the locks and along the canal, plus it is FLAT!! That is hard to find in Connecticut and a blessing to my knees! It is only 10 min drive from our house and now that we know the jogger stroller can fit in the Honda (after we take off all the wheels) I am in luck! We will be going again soon!

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There will be more nature pictures from our day on the nature blog!

But maybe not tonight I am tired!

WHEW!