Julian is a small town known for it's apple pie. We had many people telling us that eating Julian's apple pies is a must, so we took an afternoon and drove to Julian, about 42 miles from our RV park.The town was hustling with tourists and applie pie lovers. We bought 2 pies, one apple pie and one pecan. We shared both pies with our friends, Doug and Rita Fick. They were the best pies we've ever had.
Julian is a quaint little town as you can see.
It's at an elevation of about 4300 feet. The locals said they had about 8 inches of snow on the day that we had about 2 (see the story about Snow in Southern California). Signs on the road up to Julian warned of icy conditions and using chains when driving on the hilly curvy roads.Pictured is the main street in town with a horse and carriage. There's not much more to the town than the main street.
California is known for it's many delicious wines. There are many wineries here. We went to one of them - the Shadow Mountain Winery. It is located about 11 miles from where we are staying, near Temecula.
We were greeted by Pam, (pictured below) the owner of this Mom and Pop winery.
Since it is February, this is the dormant season for the vineyards. As you can see, there are no grapes on the vines. Pam explained the wine making process to us.
After the grapes are picked they are crushed.
The seeds and the skin are extracted. The juice is placed into the vats (shown) for fermentation. After that the juice is placed in barrels for aging. Actually, there's alot more to it than that, but this is the short version.We were able to taste various wines.
Since this was a small operation, we were given personal attention on our tour.
Joni's grandparents were born in Italy and when they came to America, Joni's grandpa built a wine celler in their basement in Flushing, NY. Since Joni was small at the time, she wasn't real interested in the process, but going through the winery brought back memories of her Grandpa . She remembers that he had 2 or 3 wine barrels and the basement always smelled like wine.
