Apple Picking in Oak Glen

Sara, one of the international grad students we'd taken San Diego was going home to Italy this week, so we went out for dinner with her and some others on Tuesday. We tried to go to a new Mexican restaurant, but they closed at 5pm! So instead, we went to Pepito's which we had gone to for our 6 month anniversary last year. Since then, they've added a vegetarian menu which is nice, so we all had good choices and sangria. 

Also this week, we bought some cat treats and have been going to make friends with the cat outside. He was much more fond of the treats than the ham.

On Friday, we tried another event from the meet-up app with a different group, but didn't have as much fun at this one. It was dueling pianos, and we'd been to a similar event at a different bar and really enjoyed it, but this one wasn't great and only played a handful of songs that were written after 1990. It also wasn't great for meeting people as we were sat at tables and couldn't hear each other very well. We left early, but will try again with that group another week with another event. 

On Saturday morning, we were up early to go to my work. Our Valle Vista Library which had been closed for a year for renovations after a car crashed though the wall, was having its grand opening! I was there to take pictures and post on social media, and I also got to meet some more people from other branches which was nice. They had the county district supervisor there for a speech, and then inside there was lots of crafts, a 3D printer showing off, virtual reality gaming (which Mitchell had fun on) and later there was going to be a story time. 

We only stayed an hour, and then it was on to our next stop. We drove up to Oak Glen, a town which has lots and lots of apple farms! We stopped at the biggest one first, Los Rios Ranchos. It was very busy and hard to park with lots of people walking about.

Our first stop was some apple pie and ice-cream! It was good, but not as good as the pie we had in Julian last year. 

We then went for a walk through the neighbouring park, which had some little trails and a butterfly garden. They even had a small pond with watering cans so you could water the thirsty plants along the way. 

Not too far into this park, they had a u-pick orchard where we could pick our own apples. The variety they had ready that day was their double delicious and we picked just a few. 

A little further on, they had a conifer section with tall trees all around and lovely dappled sunlight compared to the hot orchard. We were about halfway through when we saw a blanket to one side of the trail with candles, roses petals, hearts and "will you marry me" in big letters. Someone was about to get engaged! It was very cute, and everywhere we looked there were more people poking out from behind the trees with cameras ready. We were going to continue walking, but we heard whispers of "they're here!" so we only went a little bit down the trail and chose a spot to watch. We couldn't hear anything, but we saw the man go down on one knee and the woman start to cry and say yes! All very sweet.

We carried on walking and did a short trail through some deciduous trees. This was very nice, and we decided we'll come back when it's a bit cooler and do the whole loop with a picnic one day. At the end of the short loop there was a big pond with a very creaky bridge on one side. As soon as we stepped on it, it made the loudest noise and started to sway very slightly. But it seemed sturdy enough despite the noise and we went the whole way across. 

An education station cabin next to the pond

After that, we made our way back to the main farm. They had a petting zoo, which you had to pay to get into so we didn't go, pony rides and carriage rides. We got to see the horses, but didn't take any rides. 

We did see a dog with a floral bonnet on though

After that, we got in the car and drove down the road to another farm. This one was a lot smaller, but were known for their apple cider doughnuts. We looked in the shop, which had lots of types of apple butter, apple balsamic vinegar, and other artisan apple goods, and then queued for the doughnuts. Being the first Saturday in October it was very busy and the line was very long, but it moved quickly and we were able to get the doughnuts. They were indeed very good, cooked fresh as we watched, and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. 

Market shop

Doughnut factory

I had hoped we'd be in time to catch the last of the raspberry harvest and pick some of them too, but they got the last batch earlier that week. The leaves were still there though, and the patch is right underneath the mountain, which is perhaps why this farm was called Snow-Line Orchard. 

We sat on a bench in the sun for a little bit to eat our doughnuts and listened to an old bearded man play country songs on the guitar. 

That was our last stop, and after eating we drove back down the mountain to home.

On Sunday I had a lazy day, but Mitchell went to go and audition for an improv group. He took a break from it (and driving the long distance) for a while, but it was time to return. It took most of the afternoon, but he got a spot! Rehearsals will start soon, and shows some time after that. 

That's it from us this week.

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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