apple hill.

i was able to visit apple hill today with erin and her friend joey.
it took about three hours to get there... we went on 80 through auburn instead of taking 50 through carson & tahoe. i much prefer the 50 route. as soon as we were off 80 onto the ca-49, i was reminded why. not only is it much more scenic on the 50, but i hate the twists and turns of ca-49. erin and i were feeling pretty car sick, so we were super happy when we were finally getting close.
our first stop was one of my personal favorite places at apple hill...
we got some lunch here, and i picked out two pies to bring home. my dad loves the sour cream apple pie, so i had to get one of those. i also picked a blackberry apple one. they are in the freezer waiting for the opportune moment for consumption. :]

our next stop is right next to bodhaine...
erin and i like the apple selection they have inside that big barn, so we each put together a small bag of apples to bring home. i decided to try one tonight, and let's just say i couldn't finish one bite. haha. i really had no idea what i was picking, so i didn't expect to love every single one. now i know to avoid the extremely dark red ones in the future. :]
we also attempted to get pumpkins here, but they were pretty much all rotten. so joey resorted to having a little fun with the wagon instead.

erin really wanted to stop at denver dan's to get a sprial cut apple.
by the time i thought to take a photo, the apple had been half way consumed. but you get the idea.
during one of our family trips when i was a little one, we brought home one of those spiral machines. i can remember using it with my sister quite often. my parents still have it too. :]
now that i think of it... that might be a fun gift for my sister. maybe i'll have to look into purchasing one.

once we had acquired my pies and erin's spiral cut apple, the only things left on the list were finding erin three perfect pumpkins and getting some cider for joey to try since he had apparently never had apple cider? i still can't believe that.
we noticed that rainbow orchards had cider, so we decided to stop there next. i failed to get a photo of their sign or building, which is kind of sad because it had a cute mural on it.
we definitely found a lot of fun pumpkins and various kinds of squash, but erin passed on the pumpkins because the price seemed a bit high. i couldn't pass up this cute squash that i'm holding in the photo. it was only eighty-five cents. :]
we all got some cider too, but i haven't tried mine yet.
there was a fun looking miniature craft fair going on in the field behind the main building, but our time was running out so we didn't explore it.

our final stop of the trip was at a pumpkin patch for erin's pumpkins. i remembered to get a photo of the sign as we were leaving. :]
they had a good selection with two different patches to choose from. erin had a hard time narrowing her options to just three perfect pumpkins. i briefly contemplated getting some pumpkins too, but decided to be content with my one little squash.
on our way down to the lower patch, joey pulled erin and i in the wagon. it was a fun little adventure. sadly i didn't get a good photo with the two of us, but i like this one of erin.
once we got down to the lower patch, we looked over to the side, and i got instant chills from this sight...
the photo really doesn't do it justice, but i'm telling you... these houses were beyond creepy. i have no idea what they are or why they are there, but something didn't feel right when we looked over and saw them. all three of us were just totally creeped out. the funny part is that there was a perfectly normal looking log cabin up near the upper patch that had been decorated with spider webs, huge spiders, etc. to look like it was haunted. i was trying to figure out why they wasted their time when they have these creepy houses available just a short walk away. seriously, those things have got to be haunted. i'm literally creeped out again just from thinking about those houses right now.

so that was our little day trip adventure to apple hill. i hadn't been since the last time that erin and i went a couple years ago, so i'm glad that i had the opportunity this weekend to make it happen. the fall colors were just perfect. i kept seeing the most beautiful red, yellow, and orange trees while we were driving, but i wasn't able to get great photos. photos never seem to do that kind of beauty justice anyway.

oh. one more funny thing... last time erin and i went to apple hill, we both made the impulse decision to get our faces painted at one of the orchards. immediately upon seeing the results, we regretted wasting our money. i mean. it was pretty bad. and sad really. but we noticed that there were face painters at every single orchard we stopped at today. apparently they get some repeat business somehow, although some of the places were offering it for free.

no. erin and i didn't make that mistake again. older and wiser.

oh. and you probably aren't shocked that we took the 50 route home. :]

i'm off to bed. i hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend!