With thoughts of Apple Festival in my head and beautiful, colorful, surroundings the 2 hour drive was sweet.  Once we reached Ellijay, the Apple Festival was very easy to find with Apple Festival parking signs all around. There were hundreds of people headed to the festival so parking was not so easy to come by. We ended up parking at the local high school and I talked my husband Nitsuj into riding the free transportation aka School Bus down to the festival. The bus was packed with families so looking forward to what was ahead for the day.

I had visions of Apple Orchards with bushels of apples all around, and live music playing with bluegrass bands.  Well, not so much. They charged a $5 fee to enter. Not bothered by that but more by the fact that it wasn’t all that. There was not an apple tree in site, and the apples were bagged with no taste testing. Sure they had many different types of apples represented by many of the local Georgia Orchards but samples would have been nice so that I may have the opportunity to branch out and try different varieties.

There was little in the form of adult entertainment but the local pre-teen dance troupe were having a super time on the small stage and the many proud parents cheered on! They had giant inflatables for the kids. I saw pony rides and all I could think about were the poor ponies spending their entire afternoon, chained and walking in circles with small screaming children on their backs. They had a camel , two camels, both set up for children to ride and again, I just wanted to set them free! I did not take any photos of them. It felt wrong to me.

The festival did have lots of craft booths and if you are the country crafting type it would be heaven for you! I on the other hand am not into country kitchen and after awhile you find most of the booths sell the same thing. I do appreciate all the effort the vendors put into their craft. The pottery and jewelry were beautiful.

The deer hunting community had a lot of support there. I offered to buy Nitsuj a shirt but he was not having it.

A vendor sold homemade rootbeer in these pretty bottles. It was too sweet for me.

The Georgia Apple Festival  was really not what I had envisioned but we did have many a good laugh and the best part was

spending the time alone together, walking , holding hands in the cool crisp air, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Georgia Mountains.

The fried apple pies were simply awesome! It is one of those events where you can say you went and experienced it.

See all those people standing in line at the bottom and middle of the photo?

They are waiting for the School Bus to take them back to their cars.

We walked back.

Look at these beautiful colors! How could we not smile and feel blessed?

It’s all good.

~Donna