For years, Labor Day weekend meant a trip to Oregon for us.

It was something we did every year when the kids were younger, but once they got into high school, football and marching band took over our fall weekends. There just wasn’t a way to make the trip anymore.

This year we decided it was time to bring the tradition back.

I was really hoping the kids would come with us, but Jaelee had just started a new job and Jayse already had plans with his girlfriend to celebrate their one-year anniversary. So this time it was just Greg and me.

The weather forecast wasn’t looking particularly promising. In years past, Labor Day in Oregon had been beautiful, and we were hoping to spend some time paddleboarding. But with the forecast we decided not to even bring the paddleboards.

We left early Wednesday morning and drove straight to Bend. We stopped there for lunch at Anthony’s, thinking we’d just split a meal and keep moving.

We ordered the lunch special with trout and vegetables. Usually a meal like that is plenty for both of us, but when it came out we realized the portions were…well, tiny.

And it was $32.

Thankfully, I had added a cup of clam chowder because otherwise I would have gotten about one bite of trout and one bite of vegetables. 😂

It was delicious. Just definitely not $32-worth of food for two people.

We filled up the car with gas and continued on. That was our only real stop for the entire drive. We had brought plenty of snacks and drinks with us, so there wasn’t much reason to stop again.

When we finally arrived, Greg had barely unloaded the car before he decided he was going to go across the street and pick apples.

Of course he did.

He climbed up into the apple trees with the apple picker and started working his way around the tree. Whenever the picker was full, he’d lower it down to me. I’d empty the apples into a bucket and send the picker back up to him.

Back and forth.

We eventually filled a bucket with apples and decided that was enough for one day.

We were so happy we had made it back to Oregon for Labor Day.