Headline: Crappy Day at the Apple Orchard Leaves Blogger in a Bad Mood

So I have a lot of things I want to blog about, but not a lot of time. Today you will get a rant on our trip to the local apple orchard. If you are not local and if you're not a parent, you probably won't be interested in today's blog! I am one week from deadline on my freelance project and am looking forward to having more free time in my days.

So AJ has been begging to go see "the kitties." She knows the cats at the orchard will let kids pick them up, hold them and cuddle them. This is very different from our own two cats at home who are frankly terrified of AJ, based on her history of screaming at them, chasing them, pulling their tales and more. I don't blame them. Our poor girl cat only comes out when AJ is asleep!

Anyway, we went to the orchard just to see the kitties. We also made arrangments to meet friends at the orchard's cafe for lunch. But when we got there, we found a hired DJ with a stereo system blasting the worst country music I've ever heard. This of course scared the kitties, and even though we bought treats for a quarter, they wouldn't come out from under the barn. I have never been to the orchard on a weekend and it's so different: ridiculous fees for all kinds of activities - mining for gold, blow-up slides, pony rides (which I am in general opposed to anyway). Because there's all the paid stuff, the staff didn't even bother to clean the mud and water off the "free" activities like the dirty old playhouses and the two toddler swings. We went to check the cafe and there was a 15 minute wait just to place an order. The crowds were annoying and the music was so loud I couldn't hear the people I was talking to on the phone. We went to Panera for lunch instead.

The commercialism of the whole thing really bothered me. I am already annoyed with the orchard's high prices for apples, cider and pumpkins, but this extra pandering for money just took it to a new level. There is such a huge difference between this dumpy orchard trying to make a buck and the pumpkin farm out in the country where the little old couple sells pumpkins for their grandkids' college funds. I guess it comes down to dumpy and commercial v. organic and real. I understand agribusinesses need to turn a profit, but this is excessive.

I am never going back there on a weekend. I will go back on weekdays only because my daughter loves those cats. I just felt so bad that all my little girl wants to do is hold kittens and I couldn't make it happen because of that damn country music. We could hang out at the shelter, but it's not kitten season. We have imaginary dogs living at our house....hmmm, maybe it's time to add imaginary kittens?