Days Out

Violet and I had a day out on Thursday, heading up to Leona Valley to pick cherries. Last summer, we enjoyed several adventures out of SClarita, and we want to continue the tradition this year. 

We went to an orchard we'd never been to; it was a great experience. 

Very yummy!

We also went to a little art gallery in the tiny town of Leona Valley.

On Friday, we went to a college in Van Nuys where Cora and Melanie are planning to take an acting class with a favorite teacher of Melanie's. Cora drove, getting some good experience on the freeways. 

After speaking to people in the admissions office, we went to a Japanese BBQ restaurant for lunch with Melanie.

On Friday night, I went to an old movie theater in Fillmore to watch an old movie - a classic film noir called Double Indemnity. I went with Colleen and Rigo. It was a great film, in a cool setting; I'm guessing this theatre showed the movie when it was new in 1944.

(Stace played soccer.)

Also this week, Violet has been having creative fun with henna. And on Monday, she got together with her friend Sofia at the boba place, and then they came here and made cookies. Their friend Lea was overseas visiting family.

Cherry Picking!

Over the weekend, Stace, Violet and I drove up to Leona Valley to a u-pick cherry orchard. There are several to choose from, but we went to Windy Ridge Cherries, where years ago I'd interviewed the owners for a story on cherry season for the AV Press.

The trees were covered in ripe fruit!

Violet picked the Rainiers, while I focused on the deep red Bings. Stace and I appreciated her choosing to leave the house and have an outing with us, one that involved a 40-minute drive.

Stace liked checking out the old farming equipment.

A nice summer afternoon... with delicious fruit.
 

Cherry Picking

It's cherry season! And it's been a few years since we last visited Leona Valley to pick our own, and I had to get these couch potatoes out of the house!

So off we went Monday, our first official full day of summer vacation (though it's felt like summer break since mid-March).

The trees were full of bright red cherries!

Should she share her tree? Hmmmmm...

It was a fun midday thing to do, and the girls enjoyed it.

Cherry Picking

While listening to the farm talk at Underwood last week, I remembered cherry picking in Leona Valley, and specifically how I hadn't taken the girls in several years.

I researched online to see if any of the handful of family orchards up there were open, and found that two would be open on Friday. It was a free Friday after school, and Christina was also available to come along, so we made plans.















The first orchard we visited was just perfect!

There were loads of sweet, juicy, ripe cherries everywhere we looked. It was a challenge to not fill the buckets - at $5 a pound, two full buckets would have been a pretty penny.

But they were so delicious!

All these photos are from the first orchard - the second place wasn't really remarkable, and the cherries weren't nearly as sweet.
But it did have some children's play equipment, and all told, it was a fun activity for an afternoon out with friends.