Fall Foliage

        Brown County is always a local tourist attraction, but this time of year, everyone seems to flock there to see the beautiful colors of fall foliage!  Matt and I are among the many who visit the area this time of year.  We made our annual day trip over the weekend.  Here’s a tip, if you’re trying to beat the crowds……get there early.  We didn’t hit any traffic on the way down, but we arrived by 10:00 a.m.  We left around 2:00, and passed what seemed to be endless traffic trying to get into the park around that time. 

            Typically peak season for the leaves is the second or third week of October.  I find it helpful that the park updates its “leafcam” daily this time of year to help visitors get an idea of what the foliage is looking like.  Although we saw a lot of color on Saturday, there was still a good amount of green.  The reason why we didn’t wait until the third weekend of gthe month though, is because we were due for some fall rain and winds this week.  Combine that with this past summer's drought, and I was afraid that many of the leaves would fall early this year, whether they reached peak color or not. 

            We debated going down to see the leaves at all this year, because we were both really tired on Saturday.  Tempted by a day in bed, we managed to wake up and do something profitable with our day, and I’m really glad we did.  We enjoyed driving through the park and walking a few of the smaller hikes.  Our picnic lunch was tasty, even though everything in the basket was store-bought.  I told Matt that I think it’s the first time that I didn’t make everything myself, but as I was grocery shopping at 9:00 the night before, store-bought, ready-to-eat food seemed much easier this year.  Bottom line is that we had a great day enjoying one another’s company while taking in God’s beauty all around us.  Usually we visit the shops while we are down there, but we skipped the shops this year.  A late afternoon nap sounded far better to me than shopping.  Overall, it was good time, although we did leave a few things at home like the battery to our camera, our picnic blanket and a bottle opener for our sparkling cider.  Our phone fixed the camera issue.  The downside is that natural light wasn’t on our side as it looked like it was about to rain the entire day.  Picnic tables are throughout the entire park, so the blanket issue was solved.  However, a blanket is helpful if you want to eat near a great view, seeing as how the tables by the views get taken by other visitors first.  And the bottle opener….well, I couldn’t really fix that one.  Thankfully, I had a bottle of tea in the car that quenched our thirst during lunch.  In spite of all of that, one my favorite things to do is to spend time with my hubby by getting out the house and having quality time together.  I’d say we accomplished what we set out to do with our time on Saturday:)