Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Sorry, we're closed and we have no more apples!

Yesterday my buddy Wayne told me he was headed out to Oak Glen Orchards for some apples and asked me if I wanted to come along. I wasn't all that into apples but a ride out in the "country" sounded like a good idea and a lot of fun.
Then I realized where Oak Glen was! Yucaipa?!!! Well, ok so long as he was driving, I thought I might be abe to take a bunch of pictures. Surprisingly enough, it was a nice drive. Traffic was going the other way. Wayne then started telling these apple trivia. The plan was to (1) buy some "special" apples (apparently, one of the orchards in Oak Glen has a rare or unique variety of apples that was mentioned on an episode of the Huell Howser show "California Gold."), (2) buy some apple cider and (3) eat.
We were looking for an orchard called Wood Acres. We found the place right away, as there were signs all over the place. As we got to their driveway, we saw this...
Oak Glen Orchards (1)
Closed?!!! Of all the days of the week to be closed they chose Tuesdays!
Well, Wayne decided he wasn't going to let this spoil the trip. So, we decided that we were getting hungry and came up on an orchard that was more touristy (it had a few gift shops, leather shops and a restaurant) in fact, there were 2 tour buses parked right in front.
Oak Glen Orchards (2)
As we got to the restaurant people coming from the restaurant informed us that the place was only open to the tour buses. Apparently, the tour company reserved the whole place! What the!!!
By this time, Wayne was getting ready to give up. We stopped at another orchard to get his cider.
Oak Glen Orchards (3)
They had one of those booths with all their different variety of apples in tourist-cute bags, nicely displayed in a country sort of way.
Oak Glen Orchards (4)
Wayne went up and being a little fed up asked them for some cider. Now, I was not within earshot nor did I have the right angle to see Wayne's face, because the lady in the booth started by saying "we don't have cider here..." about right there I think Wayne's blood pressure almost shot up to make blood spurt out of his eyes! Fortunately, she continued to say, "the ciders are over at the main building over there."
Oak Glen Orchards (7)
So, Wayne at least got his cider, though he mentioned they cost about $45 for a couple of gallons. I had fun. It was a nice drive. Here are a few more pictures from the trip...
Oak Glen Orchards (6)
Oak Glen Orchards (5)
When is strawberry season? heh heh heh...

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