Tangerine picking.

This weekend we were very lucky bc Ryan was supposed to have his first sea dive for his scuba class. But it got canceled. Well, first his car broke down... This doesn't sound very lucky does it? But actually it was really lucky bc I wanted to take the kids to pick tangerines (& Ryan said he'd rather buy me a bag of tangerines) but admittedly, I was a little intimidated to drive about an hour away, just me & the kids. After I gave Ryan's car a jump & his dive was actually canceled due to sea conditions, I decided since we'd rescued him from the sea wall, Ryan had to do what we wanted to do that day! And we wanted to drive an hour away to pick tangerines!

Ryan took a little nap on the way, since he'd gotten up about 6am & we found an orchard pretty easily. Actually we went to the same orchard my two other friends had gone to which, at that point was bc it was the first sign we saw that clearly said: Come little children & pick our happy tangerines. It probably didn't really say that, but I could totally see that being written on a shirt here.

The people were super friendly (as they are here) & they gave us a bag & charged us our admission, about $5. There was an older man who did a sort of pantomime to Oliver, indicating he could pick & then eat the tangerines while in the orchard. He took great delight in miming this to Oliver, who kind of looked at me, like, what the...? I tried to humor both of them, explaining w great enthusiasm that Oliver could eat them right off the tree! As if this was a special honor just for him. They indicated the direction we should go, which was sort of up & up a hill. If I could read Japanese, I'd bet this would say, Keep walking up the steep stairs & please don't fall. Also watch for falling tangerines.
The kids make their way up the steep hill.Remembering the time Oliver & I picked 10 lbs of apples at an orchard in Spokane, I told the kids they could literally only pick about 6 tangerines each. This was bc I knew there was no way we'd eat a ton of tangerines. I think I am the only one who has actually eaten any since we bought them! Mimi doesn't quite realize I need to peel it bf she can eat it. Happy little pickers.The orchard smelled awesome & it was really neat to see all the little trees on the hill covered w tangerines. Oliver commented that it was 'totally worth it'. I'm assuming he meant the 20 minutes we spent picking compared to the hour drive & the number of times we threatened to turn around & go home if they didn't stop fighting in the car. I didn't really want to leave but there wasn't much else to do. We were all a little sticky from peeling & eating, my wipes were down in the car & the longer we stayed the heavier the bag was getting!

When we were done they weighed our little bounty & I was quite pleased we had stayed within my planned 2 kilos. It cost us again, about $5.