Julian, California

Saturday, we took a day trip over to Julian, California, about three hours away. If you have been to visit us (and San Diego), Julian is off of I-8 on the way to San Diego. Once you get to the top of the mountain peak in California, there's an exit for Julian, and it's another 25 mile drive up more mountains into Julian. It's a very cute, quaint town, especially known for its apple and pear orchards, but more importantly for PIE. We've never been to Julian and wanted to go before moving. It was a nice day.

We spent most of the time in the small town, eating lunch and of course, eating pie. Seriously, who wouldn't want to visit a town whose main emphasis is pie? There are pie shops all over town; the hard part is deciding which pie to try! As we walked around, we asked one of the shopkeepers about U-Pick orchards. We had read online that most, if not all, were closed for the year because of a very poor apple crop due to a late frost. The lady told us one orchard two miles out of town had U-Pick, so we went in search of it.

We found it! And, as we pulled up, Alex passed out. He was in desperate need of a nap, so I can't blame him. Alex and I stayed at the car while the rest of the crew picked apples. It was hard work munching on chocoloate covered peanuts I had just purchased while sitting with Alex. I'm bummed I didn't get to pick apples, but I'm glad the kids did. It was their first time doing so. Luke thought eating his way through the orchard was awesome.

Mountains in the background. The fall weather was much appreciated. It was 51 degrees in Julian all day with a fog cover. We were loving it!!!

Still eating apples. Apparently, Luke wanted to try all the varities in the orchard.

They thought this was hilarious.

Just outside the orchard gate...car with myself and Alex is in the background.

We came home with three pies. One was for our neighbors. They had picked up a pie for us a couple of weeks ago. We brought one home for now and one to freeze. The ladies said they kept very well frozen. We got an apple and a mountain berry apple pie.

The apple...Edward had to eat a slice just to show the readers the pie's interior.

We came home with a bag of picked apples, a bag of pears, three pies, a gallon of fresh apple cider, homemade salsa, fresh honey, and some candy treats :)

So glad we found a taste of fall near our bleak desert!!!