Our Oak Glen, CA Tradition

Our nuclear family's tradition of going apple-picking at the orchards in Oak Glen, CA began in a very poignant way.  It was my birthday in 2006, and I had just begun my bout of acrophobia (fear of flying).  The feeling of being "stuck" was making me depressed, and I expressed to Mike how nice it would be to fly home to the Midwest and see the fall foliage to which I looked forward every year.  My dear husband, for my birthday, found this beautiful little town in the mountains called Oak Glen, where the foliage turns every year into a brilliant array up the mountain side.  He took me there for my birthday to go apple picking.  Since then, we have been back every year.

The apple harvest season is quite short: September to November (with only cooking apples left to pick toward the end of the season).  We make it a point to schedule it onto our calendars as soon as summer ends!  Vera was at Oak Glen last year, but in utero.  We picked raspberries (similar season) that year because it was a little easier for me.
This was her first year seeing the beautiful place!

Here is our little adventure in pictures and captions:

We stopped at Sno-Line first.  It's actually our favorite orchard, even though you can't pick any apples (well, you can, but it's $5 per apple, I've heard, bec/ they want to protect their trees).  They are the highest orchard altitude-wise and grow 36 varietals of apples.  There is a large country store where we stop and get gifts and donuts every year.  Mike looks forward to their homemade freshly made (in front of you!) mini-donuts every year!  Here is he with this bag of goodies...looking happy, no?

 

Vera and me happy to be up at Sno-Line.  This is after we got our shop on.  Vera got a handcrafted Raggedy Ann doll similar to the one that I had as a girl (but mine wasn't handmade!).  Mama & Papa bought some fresh apple raspberry cider to share and an apple-y Xmas ornament to add to our tree.

Next stop was Riley's original Farm.  We've never come to this one before.  It has a colonial theme.  The colonial-style main house houses a restaurant on the ground floor and the Riley family above.

We had lunch in the farmhouse.  I think the restaurant was called Hawk's Publick House?  We shared a plate of fried sausage and apples in cinnamon and a Scottish pot pie, the name of which I've forgotten.  All were novel and yummy!

Vera also partook of the cultinary fare.  Here is she sitting nicely (and briefly) with us in our booth.

We was wearing a shirt that I had coincidentally bought for her for $3 at Target a few weeks ago: "Cute to the Core."

After lunch, it was time to go apple picking!  Here we are on our first hay ride!

Vera LOVED the orchard!  I didn't know how much she would care, but she seemed so incredibly overjoyed to be up there!  Every time someone picked an apple and others fell to the ground, she laughed her little head off!  It was as if she was in her natural habitat or something.  It was such a blessing to watch her enjoy herself.

We're learning the ASL sign for "apple"!

See?  Happy!

Instead of taking the hayride back, we walked through the orchard, past the pumpkin patches and through the strawberry fields (pictured) to get back to the farmhouse.

We were tired and thirsty by then, so we chilled on the terrace for a bit.  Love chilling and talking with my husband.  V often wanted in on the conversation now as well and babbles and squeeks her own little tongue.

Family photo before heading home.  Can't wait 'til next year!

And that was our fun-filled day!  It wasn't so fun-filled when we got home and realized that the new camera which had arrived while we were gone didn't work.  Mike was frustrated by that.  I tend to think mistakes happen, things break and care more about maintaining as much equilibrium as possible.  Anyway, I made the following preemptive comment: "Oh, I'll just call the company tomorrow and ask them to send a new one.  You don't have to ruin our day over it."   That was what really ticked Mike off.  You see, he's aware that he tends to get frustrated over what one might call petty matters (although, it's of course understandable that one might been frustrated by this situation).  He was already doing his best to play it cool when I accused him of trying to sabotage our day.  We drove down to have pho with his parents in relative silence, until I figured it out from what Mike was saying and quickly apologized.  Marriage lesson #10,000,001:  Focus on positive reinforcement instead of negative (especially the preemptive kind) and, for goodness sakes, think before you speak!  Mike is very good-natured, and the rest of the evening was just awesome...even when Vera, w/o her diaper on, peed into my skirt and all over the bathroom floor before getting into the bathtub :)