Places and Travel: USA
Showing posts with label Places and Travel: USA. Show all posts

Picking Apples and Pears in Julian


As a San Diego resident, what do you do when apple-picking season comes around and you want that quintessential fall experience? Well, you head to Julian, of course! Although apple-picking season in San Diego County, even in the mountains, does not mean cooler autumn temperatures, it is still loads of fun for the family. 

For the second year in a row (click here for photos from last year), we headed to Apple Starr Orchard during Labor Day weekend. It's the only certified organic orchard out there, and it's worth the extra cash for that bag of delicious organic goodies. After an hour of picking fruit in the sweltering heat of late summer, followed by a picnic lunch, we headed to Julian Pie Co. for pie and ice cream -- a special treat for all that hard work!







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San Diego Hidden Treasure: Queen Califia's Magic Circle Sculpture Garden

(Please note: All photos are copyright and courtesy of Julie Rings Photography)

The city of Escondido, located within San Diego County, is home to an unusual, yet stunning collection of sculptures created by artist Niki de Saint Phalle. The sculptures are centered around a mythical warrior queen, also known as Calafia. The garden has recently undergone renovations, but there is still more work to be done, so opening times are limited. Visit the second Saturday of each month from 10 am to 2 pm or click here for information about a large-group visit by reservation only.

Getting there: The garden is located inside Kit Carson Park. When you enter at the corner of Bear Valley Parkway and Mary Lane, follow signs toward the Arboretum and park in the Arboretum lot. 




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Tent Camping in Lake Tahoe... Again!

Our new car parked at our campsite... looks like a Subaru ad, huh? Bear box on the right.
You may remember that last year we took Hunter on his first camping trip (and my first trip ever) to Lake Tahoe. I mentioned that it would be lovely to make it a yearly family tradition to camp there every July. Well, we went back this summer! We were there in early July, and it was such a fun vacation. This time around Hunter was really into the whole experience. He loved the dirt, the trees, the sand, the rocks, the water, the ducks and geese, and even sleeping in the tent! Last year, at 7 months old, he didn't do a whole lot. Mostly nurse, eat watermelon, and get carried around in the baby carrier. But this year he made friends with other children at the campground and explored his surroundings and just generally enjoyed being in his favorite place: outdoors! What a difference a year makes. As an added bonus, he was so occupied playing at our campsite that I actually got to read an entire issue of Vogue. Wahoo!!

Although we stayed at the same campground as last year, we switched up our itinerary a bit. In addition to a couple of beach days, we went into "town" (South Lake Tahoe) a lot to wander in the shops, have lunch, eat locally made ice cream by the lake, and take the gondola up to Heavenly. 







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The New Central Library, San Diego







I could spend hours in a library. You? Find a quiet corner and browse magazines. See what's new. Flip through picture books in the children's section. I like bookstores, too, and owning books. But libraries are great because you can borrow books for free! And they smell like old books. But this new library that opened up about a month ago in downtown San Diego is super! I could spend all day there. They have a small art gallery and sculpture garden. The lobby is just breathtaking. Several artists contributed works to the library, including Roy McMakin who took found furniture from driving around San Diego and painted them blue, and the pieces are just so fun that I kind of want blue furniture in my living room! Are the main libraries this cool where you live?

P.S. If you have never been to San Diego, and the awesome weather and beaches are not enough to lure you here, maybe this library will change your mind. It's an awesome place for both locals and tourists alike.

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Tent Camping in South Lake Tahoe


For years, I'd heard, "It's so beautiful there. You've got to see it." And we kept saying, someday, someday. Well, someday finally came, and Lake Tahoe definitely lived up to its reputation. 

Tent camping was a wonderful way to see this wilderness by the lake. It was everything you'd imagine: waking up to blue jays chirping, sipping tea in the cool of the morning surrounded by pine trees, being disconnected from the world with no mobile phone reception, and discussing what relaxing thing we'd do with our day. 

Despite hand-washing cloth diapers (just for overnights -- we used these 'sposies during the day), cooking on a camp stove with ingredients that required no refrigeration (other campers cooked by the fire, but for us that would have been too much of a production with the baby, and many brought coolers, but we didn't want to deal with getting ice every day), and you know, sleeping on the ground in a tent with a teething baby, our five days at D.L. Bliss State Park truly felt like a vacation. We enjoyed beach days, a hike, lots of lounging, and even a day trip to Isaiah's hometown.

Perhaps we will make this trip a yearly tradition. Something that Hunter can look forward to every summer. Until next time, Lake Tahoe. Keep Tahoe Blue!


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Museum Time: The Getty Villa

Inner Peristyle
Hunter went on his first trip to a museum! He found the architecture fascinating, not the doric columns of the outer peristyle, but the modern family restroom where he spent a good deal of time nursing ;)

Anyway, I love the Getty museums. Last year when Isaiah's mom came to town we visited the Getty Center, so for her visit this year we made our way up to the villa. I could go back time and time again, and I honestly should because I haven't seen all there is to see!

After having spent lots of oil money on fabulous works of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art, Mr. Getty decided to build a museum to house his collection. And not just any museum, a villa! In fact, the villa is loosely modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, located just outside of Herculaneum (did you remember that we went here on our tour of Italy?), which was buried during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Many of the wall paintings and other details reflect the styles found throughout the excavation sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

This was our second visit to the villa, though I never got around to posting about our first visit. If you like free tours like we do, you may find yourself spending most of your time touring the grounds (an attraction all on their own) and participating in the art docent talks, which leaves little time for wandering through the galleries admiring Mr. Getty's amazing antiquities collection. This visit was very much like our first because we brought some first-time visitors with us, so once again we planned our visit around the tours.

If you plan to make a visit, I highly recommend arriving when the museum opens at 10 am so you can participate in both the Architecture Tour and Garden Tour (40 minutes each, but some of the information on these tours overlap, so if you can't squeeze in both, at least take one of these tours) as well as the Spotlight Talk (an art historian gives a 30-minute talk on one piece in the collection, always a treat because they tend to be very passionate about the piece) and the Collection Highlights Tour. Treat yourself to lunch in the cafe, which has a great menu, and if there's time left, go back and check out all the ancient art and artifacts!

The Basilica

The Triclinium (Dining Room)

The Outer Peristyle

The Herb Garden

The Daddy and The Baby
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Babymoon: Palm Springs, CA

Our Suite at the Riviera
I adore the idea of a babymoon. A last little getaway just the two of us before we become just the three of us is super special to me, especially since we never had a honeymoon, though we refer to our time in Switzerland as our extended honeymoon, so not a honeymoon in the traditional sense, but pretty awesome nonetheless. 

Anyway, we wanted to go some place warm. Well, just stay in San Diego, you say, except we wanted some place really warm, and a couple hours away from us lies a huge desert. Part of the desert that is inhabited by humans is called the Coachella Valley (yes, like the music festival). Within the Valley are communities and towns called Palm Desert, La Quinta, and so on. My aunt clued us into a deal on Travelzoo for $99/night at a resort in Palm Springs that can run around $250/night, so being a couple on a budget, we were sold.

Upon check-in at the Riviera, I quickly went into panic mode when the agent could not find our reservation. Cue the tears. "We are on our.. [sob, sob] babymoon and we drove [sniffle] all the way from San Diego." Well, an amazing miracle woman behind the counter told us she'd make it all right and upgraded our standard King room to a 1.5 bath SUITE! Cheers to pregnancy tears for hooking us up!


Our weekend was filled with yummy organic dining (Palm Greens Cafe -- we ate there for breakfast and dinner and highly recommend), downtown Palm Springs wandering, lounging and dining by the pool, and a rotating aerial tram that took us 8500 feet above sea level to Mount Jacinto State Park.


Though this is not the end of our travel days, it is the end of a chapter of the story of Amanda and Isaiah. Goodbye to the days of last minute travel plans to nearby destinations, hello camping with baby! We are thrilled to start this next chapter of our lives!
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The Getty Center Los Angeles

A late spring day in Los Angeles? Nope. New Year's Eve Day, actually. You've gotta love So Cal winter weather, huh? 

Isaiah's mom was out here from Idaho after Christmas last year and we decided to take a day trip to The Getty Center Los Angeles. It was a first-time visit for all of us and definitely worth the long queues in traffic. 

Wandering about the museum grounds and a tour of the architecture are enough to fill an afternoon. As for the art? Too many galleries missed means we'll have to make another trip in the future. I also highly recommend the Getty Villa, which we visited last October. Photos from that trip to come...


Museum Tram

Entrance to the Center

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Support California's State Parks: Limekiln State Park, Big Sur

Our precious state parks and campgrounds might be in danger. Budget cuts combined with low visitor turnout are forcing parks like Limekiln State Park off Highway 1 along the Big Sur coastline to close early for the summer. We were lucky enough to be able to visit for our wedding anniversary back in March, but sadly, the park will close indefinitely on July 1, 2012. The campsites will be available for walk-up visitors until then, so allow me to entice you...

The park is quite small with a little over thirty campsites to choose from. It's all very tucked away along Limekiln Creek with eleven ocean-view spots to set up camp. We chose spot #1, and sitting at our picnic table perched above the private beach below, we hardly noticed the handful of campers at the sites below us. The only draw back to our secluded location? The short hike down to the toilets and hot (pay) showers (worth every quarter -- by the way, bring quarters). 

Campsite #1
 

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Big Sur, California: Jade Cove

After a morning spent hiking the trails at our campsite, Isaiah and I explore the area around Jade Cove, so called for its supposed nuggets of jade sprinkled about the shoreline. A trail that leads to the edge of the nearby cliffs winds us through poppies and other vegetation, with an occasional visit from a Monarch butterfly or two. It's the off-season (our preferred time of travel), so we're alone on the trail. It feels like ours. All ours.

We make our way down to the cove and I watch Isaiah dig around for the green pearls. He could stay here all day, and I could watch him all day as I sun myself on a rock, like the elephant seals that occupy these parts. Our stay here is short, but it's the mini-vacation we've both needed.

Stay tuned for more about our campsite! And excuse the photos... the lens on Isaiah's phone was smudged so there's an undesired cloudy effect.


Searching for jade...

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