This summer Jim and I were bored so we decided it was time to take a little drive out to Julian in San Diego County. Julian is known for it's apples, and apple growers. In fact October and November are perfect times to take a drive out there to pick some. Well, we went in the heart of the summer and there where no apples to be found, duh, but I had heard it was a cool old town. And man oh man was it hot there!
On the way we stopped in old town Ramona which has a lot of great antique shops that we went thru.
And as we got closer to Julian these great little side of the road places started to crop up. My favorite was this antique store above. And right next to it was this charming cottage mosaic art studio below. I could only look in the window though because she was closed.
Then finally after a two and a half hour drive we arrived at our destination, downtown Julian. I have to be honest, it was a pretty big disappointment. I had always heard it was an artist's community, but there were no galleries in sight. It was mostly little store fronts with very commercial apple related merchandise, as well as apple related restaurants We did get a good piece of apple pie though before we left. Would I recommend this long drive from Orange or L.A. county? Only if you want to see the most gorgeous hill country and well kept farms and ranches. For me, with the price of gas today, it was kind of a bust.
So as far as I'm concerned, Julian gets a big thumbs down.
I'm with you. For all the time it takes to get there, you could drive to other much more interesting places -- like Santa Barbara, perhaps. Last time I went to Julian, I also wondered why I bothered to take the extra time to detour through Julian.
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