I took the kids to pick Strawberries at a farm between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.
Here they are all ready to get out into the fields. Of course the weather was a perfect sunshiny 75 degrees.
We went to Phipps Country Store and Farm. I did my research online and read fabulous reviews about spending lazy weekends on their farm. They have a small area filled with about 20 animal pens. Mostly different chickens and birds, but the kids really liked it.
The kids called this the rainbow bird. You can't see it in the picture but it really did have all the colors of the rainbow in it's feathers.
An Albino Peacock. Totally weird in person, it made us shiver!
Ginger is ready to get herself some Strawberries, I think??? We had to walk a ways out past all the berry fields to get to the strawberries.
Here are the strawberry fields. Not quite what we were hoping for.
Can you see all the beautiful strawberries growing from the plants? No??? We couldn't either, since there were barely any. The ones they had were about the size of a quarter. No wonder Ginger only wanted to fill her bucket with clumps of dirt. It was totallt cute.
Still the kids hunted and picked what they could find. I should have taken it as a clue when there were school buses of children leaving when we were pulling up.
Rose picked the most, then again 80% of hers were green.
Here is what the boys were able to find.
It was disappointing for me because I have vivid memories of picking huge, juicy strawberries with my mom off the side of a highway on the way home from some trip. And I wanted my kids to experience that.
But I was DETERMINED that the day would be fun. So I stayed upbeat and so did the kids. Maybe if I had done that the previous day we wouldn't have had such a terrible trip to the zoo!
We went and looked at some more animals. This isn't one of them, but sometimes it really takes my breath away to see how my very first baby has grown into such a handsome little man.
Nathan is so expressive, I love that about him. I love to catch his reactions on camera.
Nathan jumped when we saw this. I have to admit that is the weirdest looking sheep we have ever seen. Sheep Louis.
Rose and Ginger really loved the animals. And they both came very close to getting their fingers nibbled off by this guy too.
I wish I has taken a picture of my favorite memory from the farm. They had huge Turkeys waddling around. The instant I saw one, I though DINNER! I so very badly wanted to take that turkey and cook it! Seriously I felt like I was in a Tom and Jerry cartoon or something. I could imagine it and taste it! It was one powerful craving.
This is just a picture of a cool flower.
After we paid $28 for our 3lbs of strawberries (seriously I don't know how we picked even 3 lbs.) And that's not a typo, it really was $28 because they charge a $3 entrance fee plus $3 a lb for strawberries. Anyway, I could have complained like the 3 moms in front of me did. But I just thought of my real goal so we paid with a smile and left in search of better fields.
We drove about 20 minutes more south to Swanton Berry Farm. As we were driving in the private road to the farm we were all anxiously talking about if there would be better strawberries. And as we come up the hill we start to see neat mounds. Then as we get closer and are driving under 5 mph on their little farm road we see huge strawberries hanging off. "We totally hit the Motherload!"--qouted by Nathan
Here are the girls all set and ready to go in the wagons.
It was totally awesome that a group of 10 ladies were coming up as we were getting ready to go down to the fields and we saw their baskets full of ripe, red strawberries. They were able to point us to the best section they found.
The boys were soooooo excited! The couldn't believe all the strawberries. The would only walk 6 or 7 steps and fill a little basket full.
The girls supervised the strawberries we put in the wagon.
Ginger finally decided it was worth the effort to pick some strawberries at this place.
Ginger's idea of picking strawberries is to get low and down to the ground then use her teeth to bit off a chunk of the berry! It was so cute but I couldn't snap a picture fast enough.
She wasn't too happy when I made her stop. But she was happy when I gave her another berry to eat.
Picture of the strawberry fields. This place was huge!
Darin with his box full of berries!
Me picking berries! I am so glad we kept going. This was a fabulous day!
See I was even using good posture. Ken couldn't believe with my back problems I was going to take them to pick strawberries.
Swanton Berry Farms was awesome! Instead of having the plants down in the dirt, they had raised berms that were covered in plastic, Then the beautiful berries just draped down perfectly and didn't end up squashed in the dirt.
Here is our bounty! If we lived in CA I would be making fresh strawberry jam every summer! We picked about 25 lbs of berries!
My pretty Rose! She loved it and couldn't wait to pull her sister up the hill in the wagon.
Honestly, we didn't eat ANY strawberries while we were picking them:-) The boys were pretty concerned about the girls eating strawberries without paying for them. But the girl checking us out totally didn't care!
Heading up the Hill
Finally Rose got tired so she let me pull her and Ginger. She made it about halfway up the hill.
Us and our strawberries! We had a fabulous time!!!
This was going to be my Plan C or D or F. Thankfully we didn't need it, but next time we go to CA I need to take the kids to see a lighthouse.
We got back to the hotel just in time to do a quick clothes change and pick up Ken for Part 2 of our day! And I mean quick, I even amazed myself. In less then 10 minutes I went from a ponytail wearing farm hand to curled hair city chick!
A few nights before the kids were apalled that Ken had never ridden BART or Trolley Cars. Our little world travelers were so sad for him. Even Rose, it was soooooo cute!
So we devised a plan that after Ken was finished working for the day we would pick him up from work.
Drive to the Millbrae Station and take Daddy on Bart to San Francisco.
Then take the Cable Cars to Chinatown so we could have Chinese Food in Chinatown.
Poor Daddy is always stuck in a building while we are out playing all the time. The kids were happy to show him the ropes of traveling.
Honestly, Ken was pretty happy that we had already explored like this and he didn't have to worry (as in freeze-up and get extremely tense) about going on a big city adventure. You have to remember Ken is a country boy at heart:-)
After we got out of BART we stopped and bought Mrs. Fields cookies. Me and the kids were starving.
As we waited in line for the Cable Cars Rose and Ginger danced to the street muscians music.
Rose sat on her Daddy's lap for his very 1st ride. I think it really comforted Ken:-)
We were inside again. The boys still wanted to ride out in front.
Here is my BIG City Girl!
We made it to the Chinese Restaurant Ken's boss recommended.
Ken started this!
For all the teasing we give Nathan about being a messy eater. He was the only one of our kids that didn't spill their drink at this restaurant. Seriously, it was awful and we felt bad. But we did tip really, really well.
All we had for utensils for the 1st 2 courses was Chopsticks. Which our kids (and me too) don't know how to use.
It was an experience learning how to use them. I think if I ate every meal with chopsticks I would lose 20 lbs. in a month!
While Ken was showing Nathan, for like the 10th time, how to hold the chopsticks the waitress brought us forks. Rose grabbed one, stabbed her dumpling and shouted, "Look at me, I did it!" It was totally hilarious!!! Do you see how proud she is?
After Chinese food in Chinatown we thought why stop the fun???
So we took the Cable Cars down to Ghiradelli Square again for sundaes. This time they made us sit on the outside. Of course me and the girls had to be seated but Ken and Darin were able to hang off.
I Love These Boys!
Yummy Sundaes. We ordered 2- Cookie Bottoms, one Gold Rush (Peanut butter and hot Fudge), and one chocolate Mint Sundae.
Unfortunately the lens of our camera had a smudge on it. So this is the best picture we got of all of us.
Anyway, you know the drill with us...
We firmly believe the "Family that gets sick together, stays together!"
It was three bites then pass your Sundae to the right! It was so good!
On the way back to the Mall Ken and the boys got to hang off the side of the cable car again. It's pretty cool at night with all the lights.
She is one very tired little girl. It was an extrememly LONG day!
Nathan gave Ginger this leaf that he found. It was bigger then her face.
Waiting for BART. We caught one of the last trains out of the city.
It was a Super Fun Day!!! Too bad Ken has to work on these work trips (ironic huh:-). We always have so much more fun when he gets to go out an explore with us.
3 comments:
I was so proud of you Stephanie for taking our kids out to have so much fun picking a ton of strawberries! When you picked me up that was all they could talk about, they really, really liked it. It was also so very much fun tagging along after you guys as you showed me the ropes of how to get around in San Francisco. I was really proud of how the boys were making sure I didn't get lost as we travelled around!
So glad that you had a better day this day, than at the zoo. I have to say that it looks like you are editing Sheep Louis with the glare spot on the camera. Did Sheep Louis say a bad word? :)
Mmmm this made me miss strawberry picking in California! I'm glad you chose to have a better day!
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