Apple Hill

Jill's Journal: About an hour outside of South Lake Tahoe in the Sierra foothills is a region called Apple Hill. You won’t find it on a map, but it’s real nonetheless.

Apple Hill is a group of farms that first banded together in 1964 to promote the area and their products. It started small, but now has more than 50 local farms in the growers’ association. They’re mostly apple farms, but there’s also a healthy smattering of wineries and Christmas tree farms, and even a microbrewery. We stopped at six or seven of the farms today.

Of course there’s every sort of apple goodness available that one can imagine. Apple pie was a surprising hit with our girls, as was apple cider. An apple dumping, not so much.

We spent a disproportionate amount of time at a straw maze…the girls absolutely loved it. Several rousing games of hide-and-seek left me with the indelible memory of Rob flinging himself over a wall of straw in a Jason Bourne-like move. But apparently Bourne is no mere mortal, as Rob emerged with a number of scrapes and the girls still found him!

Apples, pumpkins, beanbag tosses, petting zoos, shopping, shopping, and more shopping. What an enjoyable way to spend an early-fall afternoon.

Victoria always takes time to smell the roses.

Apple crates: they’re bigger than you think.

For future reference for the girls - we went to: Grandpa's Cellar(17) for the pie and turnover, then to Apple Ridge Farms(20) for the hay maze and animals (and apple cider). On to the Jack Russel Farm Brewery(36) for Daddy, and Kids Inc.(5), then a quick trip to grab lunch and walk the festival in Placerville to try to find the hangtree (sadly closed). Back to Boa Vista(3) for some fruit shopping and finally High Hill Ranch(1) just to check it out (and give Daddy a flashback from the pond). A fun, full, day in Apple Hill. --R.