Sunday Escape

Last Sunday, hubby and I packed a picnic lunch and headed out for a Sunday Escape.  We drove up to Oak Glen.  It's a beautiful area nestled in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.  The weather was wonderful, the skies were brilliant blue and the trees were popping with color.  Finding fall color in Southern California can take some effort.  When we find it, it's an extra special treat. I was soaking it up as much as I possible could.  So gorgeous!

Oak Glen is famous for it's apple farms.  We stopped at two that day.  One was Snow-Line.  The little store that sells apples, cider, fresh made donuts and other fun stuff had a line coming out the door.  But, we were perfectly content just sitting under the beautiful trees.  It felt so peaceful up there.  Ahhhhh!

We brought Salsa with us and she seemed to be soaking up every precious moment of the day too...and every smell.  Notice the little sticks and dirt on her nose and tongue.  Such a cutie!  She managed to stay awake the entire day.  She only laid down in the back of the car for a few minutes on the way home but quickly popped back up to keep taking in the views through the windows.

Another apple farm we stopped at was Los Rios Ranch.  I've been going there since I was a kid!  I love that place.  It has wide open spaces, a cider mill with a big window to watch them pressing cider, an area to press your own cider, a great little store, and something we never realized they had until Sunday...hiking trails.  We had to check those out...

There were a lot of people there that day but it was beautiful.  I was lucky to get this shot with no one in it.  We'd like to go back on a weekday when it's not quite so crowded and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

We saw some fuzzy seeds...

There was a little pond with a floating dock.  Pretty.

Oak leaves...my favorite...floating on the water.

There's a type of tree that grows teenie, tiny pine cones but it doesn't have pine needles...it has leaves! I wish I knew what it was called.  It grows where it snows and in the more deserty area like where I live.  There was one of these trees along a trail that was the biggest one I've ever seen.  It must have been pretty old because it was huge!  Check out the big clumps of baby pine cones...

Here's what they look like when they're all grown up.  So cute!

What a wonderful day we had!  It was so relaxing and I found myself letting out big breaths of stress the whole day.  I think it was just what I needed!  

We came home with three, big, one gallon jugs of fresh squeezed cider.  One for my dad for his birthday, one for us to drink, and one to make hard cider.  It's fermenting now!  Can't wait!  Yum!

I had a few more pictures I wanted to share, including some of a huge, wonderful, old chestnut tree.  However, Blogger keeps posting them sideways for some reason.  Hmmm?!  I guess I'll try to post those pics another day when Blogger is more cooperative.