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On Sunday, Apryl and I checked out the Bucktown Apple Pie Contest, which was held at the Holstein Park field house. The park is directly across from our apartment, so it wasn’t a very long trek. Below is the a photo of the park with the field house in the background:

Once we walked into the field house, the offical apple MC was announcing that tasting was now open to the public so we should all buy our tickets and make our way into the Pie Room.

Here is the low down on tickets: 5 bucks gets you 6 tickets for which it takes 2 tickets for a piece of pie. Ice cream and drinks were 1 ticket a piece. We purchased 12 tickets worth and made our way into that Pie Room.

I couldn’t resist taking the photo below as we made our way through the line:

Okay, so the photo below is the infamous Pie Room. A series of tables were set up to form a large square in the middle of the room. Inside the square were festival volunteers serving up slices from the many pies in competition. Each pie was marked with the creator’s name as well as a possible title for the pie (didn’t notice any funny, creative names). Also, if the pie was a finalist or a semi-finalist it was noted by the pie. Of course, everyone went for these pies first!

Apryl had the incredible insight that if we both shared each of our slices that we would be able to test twice as much pie than if we were left to our own. Okay, it’s obvious now! But hey, she’s smarter than me. So we put down one ticket for ice cream and proceed to give up the rest for pies (leaving one ticket for a drink).

I was surprised to learn how different each apple pie tasted from one another. Really, it’s apple pie! How much variation could there be? Apparently, a lot.

We both took turns picking out slices to taste test. Above is a candid photo of Apryl as she was moving around the tables in search of the perfect pie.

And below is the various stages of Apryl’s testing:

The last pie was up to me. Which one would I pick? Unfortunetly, none of the pies were addressed with the moniker Grandma to make my choice easier. And by this time, the pies were getting rather picked over. I decided that I would choose a flaky one baked by a guy. I figured I would give my own sex a chance. Why do I listen to myself sometimes? It was very bad but luckily Apryl had left a few bites from the previous pie so that we could get the taste out of our mouths.

After returning to the main stage, there was a bluegrass band called Tanglewood performing. The fiddle player was Asian which makes for the first time I’ve ever seen an Asian sing a bluegrass tune.

We left before the final judging was over but we figured that the winner wouldn’t really mean anything to us other than we would be able to clap for them. Still, it was a nice afternoon spent in our park with our neighbors even though we didn’t make any new friends. Oh well, maybe at the next pie contest.