2 New Yorkers get a Fall re-education (Apple Hill Adventure part 1)

There is no a doubt that when “winter” arrives in Sacramento I will be thrilled that I decided to move here from upstate New York.  Fall on the other hand is a whole other ball game and something I have been worried about since early summer.  How could it ever compare to the incredible experience of living in the Adirondacks and Berkshires this time of year.  Did they even know about cider donuts here?  What about pumpkin lattes?!  These are the thoughts that put me into a panic, and if you have lived in some of those leaf peeping Meccas, you would understand. 

September brought days in the hundreds fueling my fears and adding to my doubts, the leaves were neon green showing no thoughts of desertion.  October brought some potential but still very little compared to what I was waiting for.  As October faded into November I started noticing something strange; it seems the trees do not all change at once here, instead, like proper Californians, they take their time languidly varying hues hitting every color stop along the way, often taking turns with their neighbor trees. 

Now we are barreling towards Thanksgiving and I can happily say that Fall is all the way here and looking the way that it should (in my mind anyway) though with much more comfortable temperatures than what I have been accustomed to in New York.  This past week we decided to fully embrace fall by going on an Apple adventure to Apple Hill in Camino, CA.  We caught Apple Hill at the end of the season and in the middle of the week, so it was not overly crowded and we got to really take our time chatting with the different purveyors.  We also tried Cider donuts at each place that had them, and gave them stars (as only snooty know-it-all New Yorkers could) from 1-4 depending on proper sugar covering and flavoring, temperature, cake crumble, and proper frying. 

After spending the day happily tasting different wines, apples, donuts and so many more treats, seeing all the different sights and being “leaf peepers” we headed home with an oh-so-worth-it sugar bellyache and concrete evidence that Fall does happen here.  Driving back to Sacramento we were greeted by the kind of sunset that you always seem to get on vacation, the kind that engulfs you with its beauty and it never seems to end as it changes over and over morphing from one color extreme to another.  Yeah, we made a good move.

So Sacramento does have Fall, though it may not be the same overwhelming experience of New York, it is a Fall that is very California and one that I am going to enjoy getting to know.  It also seems that northern California does know how to properly celebrate fall, cider donuts and all, and we New Yorkers can get over ourselves and embrace our new home.