Site Seeing
March 17th, 2007
What a fun afternoon we had! Curt and I decided to visit Rancho Los Alamitos. It’s only 10 minutes from our house and Curt had never been there before and I hadn’t been since high school. What amazing history is there! We got to tour the ranch house that was partially built in approximately 1800. We had a fantastic docent and there were only 4 of us on the tour. That is unheard of at any attraction in Southern California. We did see two other small tours going on while we were there. I’ve never seen so few people at a historical site. It was the perfect warm weather to walk through the old gardens and tour the house and barns. There were chickens and HUGE horses and other animals – being a city girl I love getting to see these animals close up like that!
On our way we stopped at our favorite little sandwich place and picked up lunch to eat outdoors there under a Brazillian Pepper tree. I love picnics…even if it’s just a quick sandwich
We learned some wonderful little tidbits of California history, for example how palm trees ended up here in our desert climate. Right around 1920 the Mayors of all the cities up and down the coast decided they needed to change the “Wild West” image of Southern California and came up with the idea of bringing in Date Palms from (I think it was) the Bahamas (or somewhere like that) to transform the area into a “tropical paradise”. I’ve always known the palms weren’t native, but never knew where they came from or why.
The front yard of the house has 2 of the hugest trees I’ve ever seen they are Moreton Fig Trees – I’m standing in front of one for scale. If you live in SoCal and appreciate history I would encourage to take an afternoon to visit Rancho Los Alamitos. It’s free and no reservation is required. The tour might be a bit boring for kids – take them when they are having a special event like California Ranch Day June 10th – but we found the whole experience fascinating!
I’m having touble getting the hyperlink to work so here’s the website if you’d like to check it out:
https://www.rancholosalamitos.com/
March 17th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Wonderful! It looks like the weather was great for you as well. I am glad you had such a nice time.
March 17th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Jami! That sounds like a wonderful day to me! I love history stuff like that! Love those trees…dont know if it is the same kind or not but Kaitlyn loved playing in one at one of the Garden’s in Hawaii (the huge one that is not the palm ; ). It was open at the bottom so you could actually go thru it!
March 17th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Wow, what a cool day you had, Jami!
March 19th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Looks like a fun place to go! I’ll have to add that to my list of things to do before we leave SoCal! *sad face*
March 19th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I love that tree! It’s so unique….so different than the normal kinds. 🙂