how bout them apples?

Its apple time in Julian, Ca!  Growing up in nearby Ramona, we typically avoided Julian during the fall months as hoards of tourists hit the mountain roads to pay to pick apples and eat pie.  Don't get me wrong- its great!  You get a respite from our So Cal-lack of seasons and might catch a few glimpses of changing leaves and feel the crisp fall air (not this week- its been over 100F!!) and tourists support a super cute gold-mining town and lots of mom 'n pop shops.  But Julian is basically one street long, with a two- lane curvey road and I just typically can do without the crowds.

But I ended up in Julian during Apple Days this year... and I really didn't even mean to do it!  We took a friend visiting from Romania up the mountain during the week (highly suggested if you can take off work) for a little 'step back in time.'  She loved seeing the old buildings and eating delicious apple pie and cinnamon ice cream (yum!).  But us Ramona kids had a few tricks up our sleeves- namely, knowing the location of wild apple trees that don't have an admittance fee to pick from!

I just realized these two paragraphs are basically a preamble for me to feel ok about posting these photos... maybe I should just post the photos and let you live your lives without my ramblings.  Too late I suppose... maybe next time you'll get a bunch of photos without any of this nonsense...

A lovely apple just waiting to be picked!

One of those (free) wild apple trees... we lightened its load a bit.

Anyone know what this is?  It grew on a bush near the wild apple tree... it was much taller than a person and generally huge... and had these pretty little berries on it.  (don't worry, despite my lack of girl-scouting experience, I know enough NOT to eat unknown berries...)

All washed up and ready to be eaten...

And nestled in my favorite bowl that my mom has.  You'll recognize it in my Tomato Tales... if you've wasted 3 minutes and 30 seconds of your life with that craziness...

And one pear tree... a lone pear tree... all alone... surrounded by apple trees... weatherbeaten bark and rock-hard pears on this lone pear tree... perhaps someone should write a poem or song about it.  I'm kind of afraid to try to eat one of these pears but I do like this photo.

Anywhooo... go to Julian if you like apples.... and crowds... and try the cinnamon ice cream.  Yum.

-CtF