greggoconnell.com blog

The first time I went to Julian, CA was back in May 2006. I had my shitty old 1998 Civic and it was rough getting up the mountains and hills that lead up to Julian. Julian if you don't know is popular for apples and anything to do with apples. It's a fantastic drive because almost all the driving done in San Diego is highway driving. The drive up to Julian brings you through little blue collar towns, woody areas and mountains.

Before we got to Julian we stopped at Dudley's Bakery which is famous for bread. We got in there and there was a bus full of senior citizens and fat folks. It smelled like moth balls, strong undesirable perfume & yeast. Emily bought two loafs of bread and some crispy cinnamon thing.

We continued on up the mountain to Julian and once we got there I bought some sunscreen. It was 100 degrees and sunny. Last time I was at Julian it was probably 70 degrees. If the sun is out then I burn like an Irish guy in Africa. I bought some spf 45 for $7.50. Is that expensive? I never buy sunblock.

Julian is tiny so it doesn't take long to venture through it. It's really one street (Main St.) that has all the interesting touristy stuff. We went to lunch at Julian Cafe & Bakery. I got a grilled cheese and fries. My grilled cheese brought me back to my days of going out to eat at Friendly's back in New England. Em got a tuna melt & side salad and the tuna totally smelled like a skunk that was roadkill. I saw a sign that said this place had won best tasting pie in 2006 from the SD Tribune. We ordered a piece of apple crumb pie for dessert. Well it's NOT the best pie in San Diego County. I've tasted a lot of pie so I know! The pie is summed up as doughy with a lot of cinnamon and brown sugar.

We headed over to Mom's Pies to pick up a peach pie. Our last stop was our favorite pie place of all Julian Pie Company. Here we picked up an Apple Peach Pie, 12 memories (cinnamon-sugar cookie pie crust things) & a little bottle of fresh Julian apple cider.

If you go to Julian you're going to want to eat a lot of pie. The people watching isn't that interesting. It's mostly baby boomers & bikers. Both of which don't interest me. I like young healthy skin and bad you attitudes.

Photos of the Ride Up

Gregg