American Gam

“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen

Today we drove a half hour north to Carlsbad to see their famous Flower Fields. Located between the azure Pacific Ocean on the west and crowded Legoland to the east, this massive flower garden has become quite the tourist trap. They have a grand entrance, a large parking lot, and continuously running wagons pulled by tractors that will drive you around the perimeter of the fields all for the not-so-nominal fee of twenty-seven dollars. If you really love flowers and tip-toeing through the tulips then I suppose this would be a pleasant place to frolic in the April sun. The flowers there are mostly ranunculus, which are basically in the “buttercup” family and this is the largest ranunculus flower field in the world. 🌺

We had been here years before, knew the neighborhood, and just wanted to take a few pictures so…

If you want to save a few bucks you can just drive around the backside, find the perimeter road called Armada Drive that runs behind the gardens and take all the photos you want…at least for now. They’ve recently planted rows of eucalyptus trees around the gardens that will eventually block the view and force more people to pay the cost of admission. C’est la vie! 🌸

After a joyful half hour of taking photos at the flower farm we headed another half hour inland toward Escondido to visit the Bates Nut Farm. 🥜

We had also been there years ago and so incorporated it into today’s scenic farm drive. We arrived to find that they were setting up for a big dog show happening there this weekend. There were trailers scattered about with dozens of handsome dogs and owners lovingly grooming them. 🐕

We parked and visited with the farm’s animals in their petting zoo. Here you can get a handful of corn, for a quarter, to feed the dozens of different animals.🪿

Then we headed inside the store. As you can see by the pictures they have a whole lot of everything! Barrels of salt water taffy, display cases full of homemade chocolate, slabs of sweet homemade fudge, aisles of assorted nuts, walls of signs, cards, toys, trinkets, and many other assorted gifts. Treva bought a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels and I bought a bag of roasted cashews. 🥜

It was an enjoyable drive up the coast, over the rugged countryside, and through the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way home. 🍟

I hope you have “sunshine, freedom, and a little flower” in your life.

The gam continues…