Day trip to Placerville

No, our destination was not Placerville. We didn't even know that Placerville was a historical place. Our plan to go to Apple Hill for apple picking. I was under the impression that Apple Hill is in Sacramento. I didn’t check that in the map. Saturday morning we were in dilemma whether we would go to Apple Hill or not. Suddenly , Mr. Man decided that, we would visit Apple Hill. 

Anyway, we just got ready and went out.
However, we did a big mistake, we didn’t even realize. We found out that Apple Hill not was in Sacramento, but in Placerville, which was another 80 Mile from  Sacramento. So, we had to drive a good 150 miles from our home to reach Apple Hill. By following the map we reached an Apple orchard. We saw people were flocking around a farmers’ market. We were hungry, so we gulped down some food, and tried to find out the gate to enter the orchard. But, the gate was locked. 

Then we called the orchard office, and we got an extremely disappointing answer. We were told that, the apple picking season was already over. All the apple were already harvested. Enjoying apple picking just went out of question. I was more interested in it rather than father-son duo. 

Anyway, there was no other thing to do in Apple Hill, so, we decided to go back home.  As we entered the freeway, I noticed the exit of “Historic Placerville”. I expressed my interest to visit there. We took the exit, and reached the “Main Street”. As soon as we entered Main Street, we realized it was  and old town. We decided to parked our car at roadside. Then we started walking on the Main Street. Everywhere there was old world charm. In the middle of the main street we saw a huge bell. After coming back home, I dug a little on Internet and found out some interesting fact about the town. 

Historic Bell tower

Placerville is a California “Gold Rush” town. It is named after placer, which means a deposit of sand or gravel in the river bed or lake. During gold rush time gold was found on the nearby riverbed.  The highly publicized discovery of gold in Northern California drew thousands of fortune seekers in 1800’s. During gold rush, Placerville became an important supply center for the mining camps nearby.

Tree House store- Winter Wonderland

The town is also known as Hangtown. I had been wondering why? We were just strolling on the sidewalk, suddenly my son noticed a boat ornament hanging on a Christmas tree inside a shop. He loves boats and planes. He ardently wanted to buy that boat. I also showed interest to go inside the store. I’ve never seen such sweet and cozy Christmas shop in my life. I’ve only seen such kind of shop in sweet Christmas movies. So, I didn’t resist my son, instead of that I went inside the shop with him. We landed in a wonderland. So many cute Christmas tree ornaments just made me feel like a little girl. I literally wanted to buy many of them. But, money always takes the control. My son, who is crazy about the boats and planes had a hard time to choose , as his father asked him to choose only one ornament. After spending much time he chose a cruise ship. After buying two ornaments we came out of the shop, “Tree House”.
On opposite of the street we saw red brick building name cary’s hotel. In today’s world that was nothing but a shabby red brick building. Today we don’t even feel like staying there. However, I was curious about the building. After searching a little I found out that,when it was built in 1800s it was a luxury hotel, compare to that era. Even Mark Twain stayed there. 

Anyway, I should tell why it was known as “Hangtown” before. One of the many stories about the acquisition of the name was a robbery.  In1849 , one gambler won a lump some amount of money in a saloon. After getting out of the saloon, three men tried to rob the money. However, they were caught, and hanged after a quick trial.
I should also tell the history behind the bell tower. The town was destroyed three times by devastating fire. After that the town people decided to put a huge bell in the middle of the main street. So that, in case of fire they could ring the bell to catch attention of the fire fighters. 

He is Trevor-He can speak :)

We had no idea about the sweet little town. We didn’t even heard about it before, so, I couldn’t find out the attractions prior going there. So, we missed many of the little historical spots there. One of them was the Pony Express station This Pony Express has a fascinating history, though the service was for very short lived. Pony Express was the service of delivering mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, and they used to go through Placerville, El Dorado County.  However, within one year Pony Express was replaced by Telegraph. Now, the telegraph is replaced by Internet. :)
Anyway, that was our outing. We came back home buying three bottles of different jam from Apple Hill.