We went to Oak Glen today to pick apples with some friends. I hadn't been there since Frances was about 3 years old! I learned that there are two parts to Riley's Farms: there is a "colonial" part, with beautiful white-washed buildings, a restaurant, nice bathrooms, a small pond, and demonstrations of archery and tomahawk-throwing. Then, you can take a free "hayride" to the other part (that I was more familiar with), which has a blacksmith, an outdoor barbecue restaurant, portable toilets, a petting corral, cider press, and the "you-pick" orchards and fields.
It has been insanely hot and humid this week, but this morning started out cloudy. When we arrived at Riley's farms, the sun came out. Oh well. The kids started exploring, and found a little pond with a dock. This fascinated all five of the "big kids" (two 9-year-olds, a 6-year-old, and two 3-year-olds) for quite a while. Karley wanted to know if there were alligators in the pond, Clayton wanted to catch fish, Frances and Colby thought that the dock and bridges were cool, and Abigail wanted to poke a stick into the water. After a while, they moved on to explore other parts of the property, and had a great time just running and playing in shady groves of trees. Abigail got to see a cow up close, and was fascinated! Finally, we parents called them back so we could take the hayride up to the orchards.
That was the hottest part of the day, and the area with the orchards, berry vines, pumpkin vines and cornfields was HOT. We had to walk quite a way to reach the orchards, but no one whined or asked to be carried. We found trees with all kinds of apples - fuji, red delicious, winesap, etc. - and I had the girls pick the smallest apples, because you can fit more into your $7 bag that way! There were also pear trees, but we didn't buy a bag for those. While we were wandering in the orchards, we noticed gray clouds rolling in, and heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder. Everyone was excited at the prospect of some rain! The sky looked really cool as we made our way back to the main part of the farm. It had cooled off considerably, so we all enjoyed the walk much more than on the way in to the orchards, despite the fact that we were now carrying bags of fruit!
As the first drops fell, we realized that we had not visited the petting corral yet. The three older kids had run off to where samples of fruit were available, and because it was late in the day and a storm was coming, the woman at the booth gave our kids all kinds of fruit as samples: watermelon, pears, a variety of apples. The little girls were excited about petting the goats and sheep, so I took them into the corral. Clayton joined us for a few minutes, until the raindrops got bigger and it was time to take the hayride back to the lower parking lot. On the way home, it poured rain, to the point that local streets in Yucaipa were flooded up over the curbs! Very exciting here in southern California. We stopped in Redlands to have dinner together, and came home (and the girls ate a second dinner). Fun day!
