Cider Tasting

Brian leaves for a 9 month deployment this weekend, so I took Friday off to spend the day with him.  We decided to drive about two hours south of here to visit Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards in Marietta.  Beak and Skiff makes 1911 Cider and Spirits, and I've tried their Cider a few times since living in New York and really like it.  They also have a huge apple orchard where you can pick your own apples and a cafe/bakery and general store on their property.

Their facility was really beautiful, and we were surprised at the amount of people that were there on a Friday afternoon.

1911 produces several apple ciders, two apple wines, and vodka and gin that are distilled from apples.  Apparently distilling the vodka from apples allows it to be gluten free.  We were able to taste all of their product and they were all quite delicious!

After visitng the orchard, we headed to Syracuse to go to the mall.  Syracuse is home of Destiny USA, which is the second largest mall in the US (behind the mall of America).  They have a lot of shops and a lot of fun attractions - a go cart track, dave and busters, comedy club, and ropes course among others.

Today is Brian's 30th birthday (happy birthday sweetie!) and we celebrated a little early. Some of his favorite gifts were a nice bottle of scotch, new tumbler, and whiskey stones to keep it cold.

I'm going to miss him so much, but it was fun to spend some extra time together before he heads out!