The land of fruit and nuts

Last week dh and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. For this momentous occasion, we decided to abandon the kids (thanks Dan and Kori) and take a drive to the gorgeous Santa Ynez Valley, just north of Santa Barbara, CA. We had a wonderful time exploring the tiny towns of Buellton, Solvang, and Los Olivos, and especially enjoyed the gorgeous fields, vinyards, and orchards between the town centers.

A young olive grove near Old Mission Santa Ines.

The town of Solvang is a Danish immigrant town turned tourist attraction. Along with windmills, half timber buildings, and a healthy obsession with Hans Christian Anderson, the town boasts what most Americans think of when we hear the word Danish, which would be, well, Danishes. Several bakeries got our money in those two days, the traditional ball-like aebleskivers being a favorite, eaten for breakfast with a side of Danish sausage.

Some of my favorite experiences of the trip weren't the shops or even the sausages. The hand-painted signs on the side of the roads between towns stating simply "Walnuts" or "Apples" held as much interest for us as the Little Mermaid sculpture or even the gushing Nojoqui Falls.

At our first local produce stop we were lucky to meet Mr. Dittmar of Dittmar's Apples. Even though the apple season was on its very last weeks, he still had a truckload full of Granny Smiths, the latest in the season of his 10 apple varieties. I did not know I had never tasted a real Granny Smith until Mr. Dittmar sliced one open for me. Tree-ripened and quite sweet, this Granny Smith was nothing like the shiny, bright green, hard, perfectly round Grannys found in stores. He did have several bags of 1st quality apples, but dh and I dug into the orchard-run bin, bringing home about 10 pounds for $4. My favorites are the apples with slight blemishes (but not cuts or bruises) on the skin, or those too small or too large (and there were some big ones!) to qualify for supermarket conformity. I guess they have character. Mr. Dittmar was nice enough to chat with us about his orchard. His trees cover just 2 acres next to his home which he bought in 1970 and his son now helps him with the work because it is all done by hand. He is proud of his sustainable and organic farming methods. In case a customer comes while Mr. Dittmar is not at the little stand, there is a can marked "Honor System" on the table.

Just down the road from the apples, we were intrigued by the walnut sign. Again we were treated to a chat with the owner, but I am sorry I didn't get his name. He showed us the huge walnut trees surrounding his winter-dormant berry bushes. Many of the trees he planted himself and he was happy to explain the harvesting process to us. Dh was intrigued by the antique hulling machine in the yard, and I admired the homemade jellies and jams made by the walnut-man's wife. She had a purple best-in-show ribbon from a county fair displayed next to her jars. As with the Granny Smith apples, these walnuts were not like the ones you buy at the store. As we cracked open our free samples and chatted, I noticed they were different, sweeter somehow or fresher? How do you describe the taste of a nut? Happily carrying our brown paper bag of several pounds of walnuts to the car, I felt like I knew the neighbors already. I announced to my dh that we were moving. He laughed.

Apple Crisp

5-6 cups sliced, peeled apples

1 cup regular rolled oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
6 TB butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Spread apples in a 9x13 pan. In a bowl, mix all other ingredients until topping looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over apples. Bake at 375F for 30 to 35 minutes.

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday at Sustainable Eats.

The big D

Finally. We took our kids to Disneyland. After living in LA for nearly 5 years, we finally took the plunge and paid our mouse tax. But thanks to my talented bro Dan and my lovely sil Kori, that tax was quite bearable. The weather was perfect, the lines were short, the kids were happy and I even steeled myself to ride all the "Mountain" rides. Here's the part I am still baffled about. If not for the courtesy of my Disney-employed brother, our fun day at the amusement park would have cost us $240 more than what we spent for that one day's entertainment. I'm not against entertainment by any means, but within my own reasonable cost parameters, i.e. cheap. A friend of ours recently boasted that he switched satellite TV carriers and was now saving $50 a month. That's great, right? Now he only pays $150 a month to watch TV. Really? Really? What is the value of entertainment for you? How do you decide what is a reasonable cost for fun?

What I did on my summer vacation Part 8

Part 8: Make new friends and keep the old

I love that so many of my friends have kids who are the same ages as my kids. Instant playmates! During our vacation we were able to meet with several friends I have made throughout many years. Some of these wonderful women I hadn't seen in 15 years and it was such fun to see them again. With my old friends and my kids' new friends we toured BYU; the Bean Museum, the MOA including an incredible Walter Wick exhibit, Earth Science Museum, bowling and of course the Creamery on Ninth. We enjoyed the amazing gardens at Thanksgiving Point, had sleepovers, got wet and had a lot of silly fun. I can't believe I didn't take any pics of my freshman roomate Villi and her kids, or my friend Lisa and our kids painting rocks.

"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends." -Richard Bach

What I did on my summer vacation Part 7

Part 7: See a temple The newly finished Oquirrh Mountain temple was having its open house, where the general public is invited to tour the temple. There are about 130 temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the world right now, with about 20 more in the planning or building stage. Because of the blessings available in the temple, individuals can continue their family relationships after death. To find out more about why my church builds temples and what they are for, click here and here.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 6

Part 6: Vegas, baby

Las Vegas to us means time with the cousins and trying not to melt. It also coincided with the opening of Harry Potter 6, the first HP movie my kids have been old enough to watch in the theater. This was probably the most exciting thing Matthew had ever done in his life. Its all he could talk about for weeks ahead of time ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is opening on July 16," he'd tell anyone and everyone.) And afterwards, ("Why was the Weasley's house in a field and why did it get blown up? That's not in the book.") Its hard to tell, but the kids have the obligatory lightning shaped scar drawn on their foreheads.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 5

Part 5: Hied to Kolob

The northwest part of Zion National Park has a separate and less traveled entrance. Called Kolob Canyons, it has gorgeous views and the second-largest freestanding arch I believe, though it is at the end of a longer hike than we were prepared for. Two things that are essential for hiking with children: they must have comfortable shoes and their own water. I highly recommend these. It cut the whining and complaining by nearly 75% I'd say.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 4

Part 4: Lived on the farm

I love that my kids have the chance to live on Grandma and Grandpa's "farm" because they have to do chores! Collecting eggs, exercising the goats, cleaning stalls, raking leaves, picking apricots, riding bikes to the post office to get the mail, its all good. Of course there was plenty of time for climbing trees, making twig fairy houses, roasting marshmallows in the fire pit, stargazing, water fights, catching grasshoppers, even lighting fireworks in the street. My kids had their first experience with sparklers, much to the surprise of my sister. These things just aren't allowed in suburban CA.

Another fun thing mom and I did this year was canning and drying fruit. Apricots and cherries were in season, and almost every night we'd be found in the kitchen making a batch of jam or starting a batch of fruit leather in the dehydrator. Nothing in the world tastes better.

What I did on my summer vacation Part 2

Part 2: The county fair. My poor kids. Most moms would just buy their kids tickets to ride on the rides. Not me. I heard the fair was giving away 3 free ride tickets to each kid who turned in 3 book reports. So my kids earned their tickets! The first ride was the Zipper, which their friends had been raving about all week. It was a hit, though ds was a little short and kept getting tossed around the basket so much the ride director made him get off. Then came the Gravitron (no photo). There are good and bad sides to attending the fair on a slow day. Good: no standing in line to get on rides. Bad: the bored, toothless, questionably educated ride operator may let the ride run extra long because there are only four kids on it and none standing in line. Bad again: small children are not astronauts in training. Good again: the ride operater has to hose off his own ride. One last bad: the poor kids will remain green so long that all they want to do is lie on the grass moaning. Eventually they gave away their final hard-earned tickets to some other children, along with a stern warning about the Gravitron.

Best things about the County Fair:

1. Dragon's Blood snow cones

2. Candied Almonds

3. Corn Dogs

4. Kettle Corn

5. Funnel Cakes

6. NOT riding the Gravitron

What I did on my summer vacation Part 1

I have made it a yearly tradition to take the kids on a month-ish long vacation during the summer. Dh joins us when he can. Mostly we visit Utah, where I grew up. Over the next few days I'll share some great photos of things we did this summer.

Part one: Ride horses. I grew up with horses and my parents still have some. This was a great trail ride with me, my mom and my dd, three horse crazy girls. These are the mountains to the southeast of my hometown. Our mounts for the day were Zoe, Pie and Candy.

Then my mom and I got this crazy idea that since the kids were riding nearly every day and doing so well, we could enter them in the youth horseshow at the county fair. We excitedly turned in our registration money, found some great deals on Western clothes at DI, and started practicing. We practiced showmanship at halter, horsemanship and barrels. We didn't have any poles, but we set bottles out on the ground and had the kids run through them until they memorized the pattern. Matthew and I competed in the leadline class, where he rode and I led the horse, so I had to find some Western clothes too. Thank you again to Grandpa Clyde who brought my hat and belt to me from CA on his way back home.

This is the pole bending event. I was too busy alternating between yelling and holding my breath to take more pics. In fact, I don't have any other pics of the kids in any other events. Where is my personal photographer when I need him? It was a strange feeling to see my kids competing in the same places and with some of the same group of people that I did when I was a kid. It was a ton of fun, and I finally experienced the horse show from the mom's point of view instead of the competitor's. I appreciate all my mom did for me for all those horse shows I went to as a kid. In fact, she's still the one who got up early to feed the horse, bathe him, make sure he had good shoes, make sure the tack was in order, the trailer packed, etc. Thanks, mom, you're the best!

Registration fees: $24

Pink cowboy hat with silver sequins for dd: $3 at DI

Western shirt for ds: $3 at DI

Hamburger and soda from the snack stand: $5

Falling asleep in the truck with your trophy: priceless.

Good things come from blog stalking.

A friend of mine told me about the blog of a friend of hers. I checked it out. I am completely impressed. I am now a stalker. Don't worry, Grandma Ann, I am harmless. Your interests remind me very much of my own departed Grandma Betty. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, here you go:

Abalone Cove.

Thanks to Grandma Ann's recent posts about tidepooling, with extremely helpful links to maps, tide tables and even scientific identifications, my family was finally able to see some really good stuff in the ocean. I apologize to all my family members who we've dragged to the lame rocky beach that had only tiny anemones and too much stinky seaweed. Now we know a better place to go. Please come back and visit us again.

Although the tide was not as low as in Grandma Ann's latest trip, and we didn't see quite so many cool creatures, we still had an amazing time. Except for dd, who insisted that "This is the worst day of my whole life! All I can see are anemones and sea stars and crabs!" Poor child. She eventually got over it and found some exciting rocks.

The more adventurous members of my family enjoyed the anemones, sea stars and crabs thank you very much.

A Purple Sea Urchin flanked by Green Anemones.Striped Shore Crab Several Ochre Sea StarsPacific Gooseneck Barnacles (the white ones) and California Mussels (the dark ones)A Hermit Crab in the shell of a Black Turban Snail.An Anemone that looks like it is eating part of a Rock LobsterAnd finally, some new plants for my checklist:

Castor Bean

Tree Tobacco

Lemonade Berry (thanks Grandma Ann!)Thank you, Grandma Ann at Sitting Knitting for all your valuable information. I look forward to copying you again soon.

I just can't get over this.

Friend: "So what did you do for fun this weekend?" Me: "Oh, not much, just went for a ride on an elephant." Can you believe it?!! Thanks so much to my awesome bro and sil (Dan and Kori) who invited us on a spur-of-the-moment excursion to the Santa Ana Zoo. I had no idea that the otherwise dinky zoo had real live elephant rides until we got there. My jaw about hit the dirt when I realized how exciting this was. If you ever get the chance to ride an elephant, I highly recommend it. We are still grinning from the experience.

Starting my bucket list

Top five places in the world I'd like to visit sometime in my life: 1. The Netherlands 2. Scotland 3. Switzerland 4. the Galapagos Islands 5. Japan or maybe Italy. Its my list, I can have 6 if I want to. Top five places in the USA I'd like to visit sometime in my life: 1. Alaska 2. Montana 3. Forks, Washington 4. Mount Rushmore 5. Channel Islands -I am determined to cross this one off within the next 12 months. 6. Okay, thought of another one for domestic travel too. White Sands, NM. Tell me about your travel dreams.