Nursery grape-picking trip

On Sunday, the families from Noah’s nursery class went on a day trip to go grape-picking. There were about 50 people, and we left on a bus, and drove about 2 hours out into the countryside. Kayo didn’t come because she had an appointment in the evening before we’d get back, but I took Noah and Sarah.

At the u-pick grape place, we first sat down at tables and ate grapes and peaches. They had huge plates of grapes, more than we could eat.

The whole thing was under a big canopy of grapes, so tall that the bus could park under it. Noah and Sarah are sitting on a mat on the ground.

Next, we drove a short distance to the place to actually pick the grapes. There the canopy was so low, I had to stoop go under. The kids would search for grapes they wanted to pick, move the stool (a plastic crate) underneath, and stand on it. Then they’d carefully cut the grape bunch with scissors.

Sarah needed a little help, I had to hold her up with one hand, guide the scissors with the other hand, and ask Noah to hold up the basket to catch the grapes when they fell.

After the grape-picking, we took the bus to a “barbecue” which was really just a restaurant where we could grill meat at the table. It was outside, and there was space where the kids could run around while the adults drank. Since we had a bus, no one had to drive home! After lunch, we went to onsen hot springs for a bath, and then had ice cream.

To go home, they decided to take a winding mountain road rather than the clogged expressway (awful on Sunday nights). They turned on video inside the bus, unfortunately, watching the video plus the winding roads made Sarah carsick and she threw up her ice cream all over my shirt and pants. Other kids threw up too, and they stopped the video.

Kayo didn’t come, but we brought lots of grapes home: