the big apple

A few weeks ago, as summer was drawing to a close, we took a little family road trip. My dad's parents live in Ottawa, and we wanted to take the girls for a visit and introduce little Lady A to her great-grandparents. Its about a four or five hour trip, but with little ones along for the ride, we knew there would be an inevitable stop or two. And no trip along the 401 Eastbound route would be complete without a stop at one of Ontario's finest, um, lovliest, no, most intriguing, ok, tastiest stops: The Big Apple.

Whenever we go to this place, literally a giant apple structure that you can peek inside, accompanied by a wonderful bakery with everything apple or fruity that you could want, and a rather lame petting zoo, I'm instantly taken back to a road trip I made many years ago when my cousins were visiting from Victoria, BC. Though a family of four kids, just the twin boys, 4 months my junior, came back from Ottawa with my parents and I for a visit, traveling in my dad's old black Eagle Vision (shiny and new at the time).

At the tender age of fifteen-ish, my darling cousins decided to make my ride less than cozy by throwing themselves as hard as they could in the direction of every turn. Car turns left, boys throw their entire body weight across the back of the car to the left. Car turns right...well, you get the picture. Did I mention that I was in between them though? That's right...a cousin sandwich with every turn of the 5 hour drive. Delightful.

It was one of those moments that made me thankful I only had ONE brother, but enjoyed the time with my two cousins anyway; more so once we were out of the car. My break from the squishing game came when we all stopped at The Big Apple and my cousins and I happily explored the attraction. So now every time I travel east, I think of that fateful journey with my darling cousins when the giant fruit becomes visible along the horizon of the 401.

So, back to this past summer and Lady M's first experience with the landmark in question. While the "petting zoo" (outfitted with two whole llamas who didn't look up from their hay lunch) left a little something to be desired, Lady M happily devoured her apple crumble and momentarily delighted in her foray inside the apple, until she said "Daddy, can we go now?"!

But, the visit must have made a small impression on her two-year-old self, because when I picked her up from her first day back to preschool her teacher said "Did you guys take a trip to New York this summer?" Confused, I said "no...", and of course she told me: "Madelyn has been telling us all about her trip to the Big Apple!"

So, I guess she enjoyed it! She should just be thankful that nobody was squishing her in the backseat for the rest of the journey to Ottawa and back.