One of the highlights of my fall is the weekend of Ciderfest.

Driving for hours on “highways” with fewer and fewer cars, we make the final fifteen minute stretch entirely on dirt roads. In the pitch black darkness that you can only find deep in the country, we make our way slowly, careful to not drive off the already nearly non-existent road.

The next morning greets us with millions of almost unbelievable iconic fall sights like this perfect red leaf.

I began at 4 p.m. with up to four people drawing this intricate ancient art on my hands, arms, and feet. While I sat, other female members of my husband’s family arrived, getting a flowery henna design on their hands that is strangely called an arabic style, even though it looks rather like the flowers on a Hawaiian shirt. The men arrived, eating, feeding their henna-covered wives, waiting for the singing and dancing to begin. Finally, after four hours of sitting (relatively) still, I was finished.

Only to have it all wiped away by the sand.

As if the flying fish aren’t enough, they stock the most breath-taking bouquet–brilliantly colored, well-balanced, diverse, well-shaped–for just $3 or $5. If you’ve got your eye on something large enough to be a church arrangement for Easter mass, it’s probably $8.

If I lived in Seattle, I would buy one every week.