Memories are made out of trips to apple farms...

Growing up in a concrete jungle, I never had much access to nature and it's wonders. I loved the lights and bustle of city life and thought wide open spaces were boring places where the old lived their retirement years.

As I grew older and saw more of the world, I grew to embrace nature and learnt to appreciate its wonders.

When I was living in Boston, I took a day trip to visit an Apple farm. Visiting an apple farm was a novelty for me. I had never visited a fruit farm or seen an apple tree. All my life I had imagined apples to grow on big tall trees and apple-pickers had to climb on tall ladders to reach the fruit. Imagine my surprise when I realized that one could easily pick apples as they grew on short shrubs. I learnt about the many different varieties of apples and how to identify them by taste. It was a very enjoyable and educational visit for me.

Apple trees

Different varieties of apples

Subsequently, whenever I hosted friends and family in Boston, I made sure their itinerary included a visit to the apple farm. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time there, especially the little kids. In fact, most do not remember much of Boston's famous Faneuil Market Place or Fenway Park, but they recall biting into their very first hand-plucked apple with much excitement.

When preparing to go on vacation, most people plan their itineraries according to the guidebook's recommendations. A simple visit to an apple farm will most probably not make it to your guidebook's top ten sights, but it is precisely experiences like this that will be firmly etched into your memory making your vacation special.

Your Travel Beacon,
Cindy