For only three days, we definitely had an adventure! We started off South, and ended up inland a bit at Julian — an old, gold-mining town famous for their apples and apple pies. I went to Julian years ago with my family, and was glad to be back with my little family. We stayed at the Orchard Inn and had our own little cottage. Scout loved the pond with catfish in it, but his favorite feature was the apple tree that was just outside our room. He would pick the apples, hold them like they were beautiful treasures and eat them. He loved them, and as soon as he was done, he would say “more” about a hundred times until we went and picked another apple.
We woke up the next morning and walked the streets of Julian. After that, we got in our car and drove down a secluded street to see what it had to offer. At the end of the road was a “U-Pick” apple orchard. They also had pears and a whole grape vineyard we also got some samplings of. The orchard was massive — probably close to 2,000 trees with 7 different varieties. We walked up and down the rows and had the best time picking the perfect apples to fill our bag. Scout in the meantime was holding his little treasures and eating them whether they were off the ground, had fallen in the dirt, or perfectly shined by his dad.
After picking apples, we headed down the highway to see what else our adventure had to offer. After farm stand stops, animal farm stops, etc….we stumbled across a church bazaar in a tiny town called Descancso - population about 200?! The whole town turned up to the party. They had a deep pit BBQ going alongside the live auction, craft stands and kid’s game booths. Scout and Micah were pros at the fishing booth. We got snow cones and nachos, enjoyed the country band and were cracking up at the poor guy who was trying to raise money during the live auction with not a whole lot of takers. He even asked if Scout was bidding when Scout put his hands on his head.
We then drove on and happened upon a Mexican rodeo. We passed it by because we were looking for a spot to camp, and it was going to be dark soon. After a couple of tries, we got a great camping spot at Lake Dixon. It was totally secluded, and overlooked the lake. All was great until Micah pulled out our miniscule tent that would have been tight for just the two of us. Scout and I had pretty good sleeps, but poor Micah said he didn’t sleep a wink.
The next morning, we didn’t want our adventure to end, so we went to Megan’s house and kidnapped Trey for breakfast. Micah ran in with sweatshirt over his head, and when Trey came out, I was driving the car with a bag over my head. He said Scout gave us away. We asked him if he was scared, and he said, “I knew it was someone in the family, and that it was a joke…so no I wasn’t scared.” Brave little boy!
We ended our adventure with a couple of hours at the Wild Animal Park. We were all pretty exhausted, and Scout hadn’t had a nap in a couple of days….so it was time to head home. We had a blast, and are looking forward to our next “choose your own adventure” vacation. Even Micah who is a big time planner, and pre planner and pack three days early type of guy liked the idea of the unknown. We packed in a split second (Scout and my stuff was literally in a trash bag), we had no plans or expectations, we drove wherever we wanted, and the unknown turned out to be great! I can’t wait to do it again, and possibly cross the California border this time around.
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