Picking Strawberries - Then and Now

I have been taking my wife and Kai to the pick-your-own strawberry farm in Wisconsin for about 9 or 10 years now. But the tradition had its origins long before that.

When I was 12, the same age that Kai is now, my parents took my sister and I to the very same farm in Wisconsin. Here's photo of me picking strawberries, with my dad and sister in the background.

It looks like we picked a lot of berries that day. The following photo shows me with my mom, grandmother, aunt, and sister.

The thing that strikes me the most about the above photo was that it looks like it was a very cool day based on how we were dressed. In all the times I've gone with Kai, it has almost always been scorching hot.

And today was to be no different - a 90 degree day was forecasted - so we decided to go early in the morning to beat the heat.

The berries were small but boy were they sweet! This year might be among the best in terms of the tastiness of the fruit.

A good time was had by all!

The Start of Middle School, and Strawberry Picking

Kai has been in middle school for two weeks now. Well, the summer school version of middle school anyway.

In the summer, they have light academics in the morning, followed by fun activities in the afternoon. These activities have included going to the pool twice, a cooking lesson, a visit to a video arcade, and trips to Little India, Little Village (Mexican), and today, to Little China.

So it's been fun for him. And so far he's torn up only one shirt, and has yet to say too many mean things about the staff. Considering he's had to transition to a new routine, building, staff, and mostly different students, we'll take it.

Though the bigger test will come in the fall when more demands are placed on him.

This weekend we made our annual visit to Thompson's Strawberry Farm just over the border in Wisconsin. Every year it seems harder for me and my wife as our backs ache more and more while bending over to pick the strawberries. We wonder how many more years we'll be able to do this.

But Kai seemed to enjoy it. While my wife and I went hunched over, up and down the long rows of strawberry plants, Kai mostly settled down in one spot.

This year, he actually picked some berries that didn't just go straight into his mouth and we ended up with three boxes altogether.

As long as Kai keep enjoying coming up here, we'll probably keep our tradition going.

We topped up our visit to the cheese state with another tradition -- lunch at The Brat Stop. We had brats with kraut and brown mustard, along with fried cheese curds. That tradition is a little easier on the back, and a treat for the taste buds. That may be incentive enough to come back up here next year.

Summer Weekend – Strawberry Picking and Water Fun

We went to up to Wisconsin this weekend for our annual outing to pick our own strawberries. The strawberries were the largest we’ve ever seen them. And the fields were crowded with more people than ever.

While the strawberries were large, they weren’t as sweet as ones we’ve had in the past. But Kai wasn’t complaining about that.

Though he did start to grumble about the heat. But after we had picked two boxes of berries, I think all of us were ready to go get lunch at our traditional favorite, The Brat Stop.

After we got home, my wife was ready to rest. Kai was ready to go to the beach.

So he and I went out for a couple of hours. The water was really cold, so after taking a dip up to our ankles, and splashing each other with water shooters, Kai was content to stay on shore and try to skip stones.

The next day, I took him to a birthday party at a home that had a large swimming pool. Kai had a great time swimming and playing with all the water toys, though he seemed pretty content to do his own thing and did not interact much with the other kids.

He’s a happy kid whenever there’s a swimming pool or beach so those will be our common weekend outings this summer.

Ah, if only life were one long summer weekend.

Busy Weekend

But before we get to our weekend activities, since sports championships are rare in our city, here’s a picture of Kai hoisting the Stanley Cup, at least, the one he made in summer school on Friday.

The weekend always feels busier when we have dogs to take care of. And this weekend, we had three active, noisy dogs staying with us, plus we went over to someone else’s house to take two other dogs walking. So, we had a lot of walking to do.

One particularly nice thing was that Kai did not complain about having to walk so much. In fact, he looked forward to the walks. On Sunday, when Kai was busy with a workout with his swim instructor, my wife thought about going for a walk without him. But since he had let us know how much he wanted to see Georgie and Mancha, we decided to wait for him.

I was glad we had waited as he really enjoyed the walk, and we got to see a different neighborhood than our own, one that had some interesting sights.

Aside from taking care of the dogs, we were able to make a quick trip up over the Wisconsin border on Saturday for our annual outing to pick strawberries.

Usually it is extremely hot and muggy, and while we enjoy picking one basket of berries, we endure the heat to pick another one just to make our drive feel worthwhile.

But this was an usually cool weekend, and all the rain we had had made for a bumper crop this year. And it made for pleasant conditions to pick berries.

And eat berries.

Technically, we probably are not supposed to eat the berries in the field. But I think the owners know that is part of the fun of the pick-your-own experience and account for that in their pricing.

Anyway, Kai had a nice time. I was very happy that he did not seem anxious about the impending rain, and never complained once even when it started drizzling. I don’t know why he was so calm, as usually any hint of rain brings on tons of anxiety.

The next day, we went for a family bike ride. We had not gone at all this year, so it has been a long time since Kai went riding with us. And that brought out some anxiety.

He complained through much of the first mile.

But with a steady stream of encouragement, and just feeling comfortable being back on the bicycle, he gradually got less cranky and more happy.

And by the time we were done, he was looking forward to going riding again.

And so it was a busy weekend. And a good weekend.

Our Weekend Outdoors

The beautiful weather we had this weekend was a welcome change from the storm earlier in the week. It was too nice not to get outside a lot.

On Saturday, I needed to do a lot of yard work, so my wife and Kai had an afternoon of fun in the water at a nearby public pool.

It sounded like they had a great time. As he had on our recent weekend in Ohio, Kai showed that he is very comfortable in the water, even without his swim instructor present.

But he was disappointed that I did not go with them and said that he wanted to go to the “family pool” next time, meaning that he wanted all of us to go.

So, we made plans for all of us to go again on Sunday.

But, first, a short drive over the border to Wisconsin for some pick-your-own-strawberries.

This was our fifth visit to Thompson’s Farm. I still remember our first time when Kai was three years old, he ate almost as many strawberries as my wife and I could put into our baskets. And on the car ride home, he continued to gobble up the berries we managed to collect. Since then, we decided to make it an annual tradition.

On this visit, he ate a lot fewer berries in the field. And he started to complain about his leg being itchy, probably because it had brushed up against the berry plants and weeds. Memo for next year: have him wear long pants. Or bring along some anti-itch cream.

Once he started whining, we knew our time in the field was short. My wife and I hurried to fill out our baskets while Kai shouted that he wanted to go home. Fortunately sound disperses (somewhat) when you are in a big strawberry field. We ended up with two baskets of small but very tasty berries, then went home.

I would show you pictures but in our rush we forgot to take any. Instead, here is a picture from our first visit four years ago. Looking at this photo, it reminds me that Kai did not make much eye contact back then, with either people or cameras.

After we got home, we made our way back to the pool. Kai was content and happy being back in the water. I was happy that he wanted me to come along. We all seemed to relax in the sun and water.

It was a great way to wind up the weekend. Looking forward to the next one.