Birthmas in Julian 2017: It's a Festivus for the Rest of Us!

A few months ago, while we were tasting our way down the La Palma Beer Trail with Dad and Risa, we all started discussing what we planned to do for Christmas.  None of us had solid plans yet, and the idea of heading to New Orleans for a low-calorie holiday (ha!) was floated around; while this didn't come to fruition (too expensive), a few months later, Dad and Risa came up with another great idea.  Instead of NOLA, the four of us could head to Julian, a small town northeast of San Diego, located in the mountains near the junction of the Los Coyotes Reservation (been there, done that!), Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, and Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  He and Risa had visited Julian before, and they loved its small-town feel coupled with fun cafes, friendly locals, and proximity to hiking and other outdoor pursuits (I feel like I'm writing a brochure here).

Dad found a cute little cottage on VRBO.com, booked it, and the plan was made to head down on my birthday, the 23rd.  We'd stay for three nights, heading back home on the 26th; with the driving time being only around 2 hours or so each way, we could take our time exploring the areas in between as well.  We made a meal plan (the cottage had a full kitchen, and we planned to take advantage of it), did our shopping, and all got ready to head down south for holiday fun.

On the 23rd, we woke up earlier than anticipated, so our plan of grabbing some wraps at Starbucks for breakfast on the way to Dad and Risa's house could be greatly improved; instead, we had time for a full breakfast at the Blackbird, one of our favorite local spots in our area.

My Mexiterranean wrap with fruit.

Noms!

While I ordered our food,

Chris walked across the street

to Steelhead Coffee,

which has great beverages

(actually, the Blackbird makes great chai as well).

The Blackbird is a family spot,

so while seeing this table's mismatched chairs

wasn't surprising,

the origin of this one in particular somewhat was.

After filling up on delicious food, it was time to hop in the truck and head to Orange to meet the rest of our traveling companions.  As is our standard habit, we'd been checking the traffic, and this morning, it was glorious:

Look at all the green!

Holy crap!

Upon arriving at Dad and Risa's house, we were greeted exuberantly by their dogs Griffin and Lily, who are pretty darn cute.  You can't tell so from the picture below, as all of the excitement in the house had them permanently in motion:

Just a couple of blurs.

Here's a better shot of them from Risa's Facebook page:

Click on this to make it bigger and

check out Lily's cute little underbite.

So freaking adorable.

She's the happiest dog - smiling all the time.

Anywhoo, we then commenced the challenging task of packing four people, along with all of the things we might need for four days, including some food and Christmas presents, into a Nissan Rogue.  Overall, we did well - no one had to sit on top of anything, and I think everyone driving the car could (mostly) see out of the back windows.

Although it's not the most direct route, on the way down to Julian, we planned to go through Alpine, mainly to visit the Alpine Beer Company and eat lunch in their accompanying pub.  Given that we left right after 9am, we'd be to their location just a bit before they opened.  What were we to do?  Fear not, intrepid blog readers, we found a way to amuse ourselves on the northern side of San Diego:

North County San Diego has become quite the brewing mecca of late, and after perusing Yelp reviews and opening hours, we found ourselves at North Park Beer Company, enjoying some pints in the space they share with the aptly named Mastiff Kitchen/Sausage Company.  While we didn't find any mastiffs on the premises (sad, that), we thoroughly enjoyed our brews (and Risa her fancy-a$$ mimosa) and an order of their Pig Fries 2.0:

Delicious!  We each had a few bites.

I just saw on their website that Mastiff Kitchen's

(technically, the Mastiff Sausage Company's)

motto is "Manliness Refined."

Anyone who ever met our mastiff can

enjoy a chuckle at that.

After picking up a to-go bottle and a cool sticker, it was back into the car and on to Alpine!  Although we ended up at the tap room first, instead of the pub (after thinking back about it, I'm pretty sure the pub used to be in or near the tap room, because the place we ended up was way fancier than it used to be...), we quickly found the right spot and proceeded to enjoy our food and drinks for lunch.

Salut!

After lunch, it was back into the Rogue once again, with our next stop being our cottage in Julian.  As I mentioned before, Dad and Risa had previously been to Julian, but their lodging was different last time, so we all saw the cottage for the first time together.  A bit of history - Julian really popped onto the map in the late 1800s when gold was found in a nearby creek.  It boomed as a gold rush town, and when that fad eventually faded away, it rebranded itself as a town focused on apples - growing them, picking them, and making tons of cider and pies (in a town of three streets, there's something like 15 cafes, bakeries, and pie shops - no joke).  There are a few smaller motels in town, but mainly, the accommodations are B&Bs and tons of VRBO's.  The one we chose was like many in the area, in that it was originally built by the mining company for workers, but since has been reworked to be an absolutely darling place to spend a few days.

Our home for the next few days!

As you can see, it was fully dolled up for Christmas for our stay; apparently, it had been on the Julian Tour of Homes for the holidays, and the owners chose to left the decorations up for us, which we appreciated.

Although we'd brought some essentials with us (things we weren't sure they'd have in Julian - the smoked turkey, chai mix, white miso, etc), we planned to buy most of our sundries in town, or as it turned out, in the next town over, which actually had a market of sorts.  Once we unpacked at the cottage, it was time to shop!

Chris outside the market with

the most precious of cargo.

After shopping, it was back to the cottage to chill out for a bit; we made good use of the outdoor firepit, enjoying some hot cocoa and relaxing before it was time to head back into town for dinner.  As a note, when I say "head into town," I actually mean "walk down the hill from the cottage to the next street over, which is Julian's main drag."  It's not a big place.

Pretty much all of Julian,

right here in one shot.

Waiting to head to dinner

As we walked to dinner at the Julian Grille, we passed through downtown, including under this sign, which I had to grab a shot of:

The pies stop for no man.

As a side note, when we arrived in town,

we saw a MASSIVE line (like, hundreds of people long)

in front of the take-out pie window at the Cafe.

People are not kidding about their pies, yo.

Dinner at the Grille was good - it's in a cute little house, and it was warm and cozy in our corner of the room.  While our food wasn't spectacular, it all hit the spot, and we wandered back to the cottage full and happy, another successful Festivus in the books!

On the next blog, LLAMAS!

Later!

Amy