Why Fall Rocks! (And why I already miss it...)

Fall has to be the best time of year. Crisp weather, honeycrisp apples... Ok, ok, I'm a broken record on all that.

But now the nice part of fall is over. It's cold, dreary, cold, dark early, cold, brown, and cold. The leaves are gone or ugly and apples are beginning to be in short supply. With snow in the forecast for Sunday, it's time to clang the gong for fall.

However, this past weekend I had the most fantastic wrapup to my fall. I hit 3 parks (state, regional and county), and spent pretty much the whole weekend enjoying the fall colors in the 50 and 60 degree weather. Can't ask for much more!

Saturday I ran the Nerstrand Big Woods Race near Faribault. It's a half marathon and the course is on very hilly trails. It was a lot of fun and the course was beautiful with the leaves covering the ground (which made running somewhat treacherous). I headed down with Mike and Chris. Mike placed 2nd overall, Chris placed 2nd in his age group (9th overall) and I placed 4th overall. MDRA is becoming quite the force! For his efforts, Mike won free meat. Who could ask for more than that? I ran the half in 1:23:40ish, about 1.5 minutes behind the winner. It's weird running a race almost completely by yourself. But this is the kind of race where I enjoy doing that, where the terrain changes and it's scenic.

The photo below shows Mike and Chris at the start of the race, which is at a little church with a spooky cemetery. (Misty Mike earns his name).


Later Saturday I raked some leaves. OK, a lot of leaves. 12 bags! I like raking, but I HATE bagging. Especially by yourself. I need to get a big vacuum cleaner or something.


Then on Sunday, after a nice run with the guys through Lebanon Hills in Eagan, I went for a nice hike with some friends at Hyland Hills. As often as I've run, biked and skied there, I had never just hiked! We walked all around looking at the prairies and the leaves. My friends had never been there before so it was neat to see the look on their faces when they saw this hidden jewel of a park for the first time!


I love fall...I miss fall...

Apple Season is in full swing!

Ah, fall is here again! And with it, comes apples. Lots and lots of apples! I've blogged about my love of apples and fall in general previously, but it bears repeating. Fall rocks. Crisp days, and Honeycrisp apples. The photo below says it all. I bought 1/2 peck of Honeycrisp and 1/2 peck of Macoun apples at an orchard yesterday, a couple Firesides at the Midtown Global Market today, and was treated to a bag of Regents in my CSA (farmshare). Good thing I like apples, because I've got some work to do to polish those off!

An interesting thing I just learned, the Honeycrisp is a cross between a Honeygold (which I knew) and a Macoun (which I didn't know)! I had never even heard of a Macoun until yesterday. Turns out I owe a lot to that Macoun apple. And as far as I can tell, 3 of the 4 apple varieties I bought were all developed here at the U of M! Can't get much more local than that!


The other thing you can tell from this photo is that I own too many knives. All the better for cutting up apples for some delicious apple crisp!

Stop reading this and GET OUTSIDE!!

You may have noticed my blogging has been a little weak lately. It's not that I don't have anything fun to blog about, in fact I have a couple hundred photos sitting 0n my camera at this moment from the past few weeks. It's just that it's the best time of year, FALL! Yesterday I was all of a sudden overwhelmed with how amazing it is outside and how lucky I am to be able to enjoy autumn. Here's a list of all the things I love about the fall that come to mind right now:

• Honeycrisp apples. Best apples on earth, and you can only get them right now.
• Any other Minnesota apple (fireside, haralson...) See above
• Cool, crisp weather
• Frost on the grass in the mornings, warm afternoons
• Cloudless days
• Red sumac
• Yellow sugar maple leaves
• Running in state/local parks. Lake Elmo Park, Hyland Hills are AMAZING RIGHT NOW! Leave the computer and go to one of those parks at this moment! I've spent the past two days at those parks.
• The Mississippi River Gorge. Walk/run/bike the river roads. Stand on a bridge and look up and down the gorge. Go down to Pike Island. I start to forget I'm in a city. The yellows are just phenomenal right now, especially on the river road by St. Thomas.
• Harvest moon. Bright nights. Low humidity means you can see the finer details of the moon. Stare at it. For a while. The moon is waning right now, so enjoy it tonight!
  
• The promise of winter, the memories of summer.
• Halloween and Thanksgiving, 2 holidays that are all about food and fun!

So get outside! There's no rain and virtually no clouds forecast all week. Take a half-day from work, or a whole day, go enjoy the last bits of fall. Then let me know where your favorite spots are!

And in other news, congrats to Ed on a great Marine Corps Marathon today! I'll be in DC in a few days. I wish I had time for a Shenandoah trip. This would be the PERFECT weekend to go...