Sunday, September 17, 2006

The Road to Apple Hill

Saturday morning started out as a trip south that went "south" by doing a 180 and heading north. The plans to drive to Merced turned into an escape to one of my favorite places, Placerville.
















The trip starts out through farmland and moves into rolling hills and rangeland.




















And passes through the picturesque towns of Ione and Plymounth.




















Two hours later we ended up in Diamond Springs with our longtime friends, Barb and Jeff (no pictures - sob - what was I thinking?) Every year we make the annual trek to the hills above Placerville to enjoy Apple Days, the region's Fall hommage to all things autumn and apples.





















Don finds a friend at Denver Dan's Apple Barn and Alpaca Farm.



















Grandpa's Cellar is a great favorite and we visit year after year. This is where I found a cute little recipe book for Lee-Ann, my chocolate swap partner. I just had to throw in that little tease, Lee-Ann.

We have known Barb and Jeff since the summer of 81. At that time we had one child and they had two. We ended up with two and they rounded their family out to four not to mention they now have three grandchildren. We have seen it all together - births through deaths. I consider them my bookend friends with the cycle of life shared completely by our two families.

We never have a chance to see each other without small children around and it is a wonder that we were able to spontaneously get together for this day of fun, just the four of us. As a memory, it's right up there with going to Disneyland and our group was made up of adults. Mind you, I love kids, but there is something very very special about these adults only memories. It's just us, talk of the past and dreams of our future. What is our big dream now? Well, Barb and Jeff went on a cruise this past January and we discussed it at length and the absolute necessity of OUR taking a cruise too. Since we have a wedding to celebrate in summer 2007, we are in the early planning phase of a cruise to Mexico in summer 2008.

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