Mother’s Day Trip to the Flower Fields and Fun Summer Reads

In this post…my recap of a long-awaited trip to the Flower Fields and summer reads to add to your list.

Hello and thanks for stopping by! So much prettiness is happening in this post! Today I’m starting off sharing a little about my fun Mother’s Day visit to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, a new-to-me special spot here in North County San Diego. If you’ve never heard of it, allow me to give you the briefest history in 4 sentences…The Flower Fields were started early settler Luther Gage in the 1920’s near Oceanside. He brought ranunculus seeds to the area and later introduced the art of cultivating them to his neighbor and fellow farmer Frank Frazee in 1933. Frank’s son Edwin is credited with developing the farm as it is today on the site of a former poinsettia farm owned by the Paul Ecke. Together the two men created the legacy that is the Flower Fields.

At the height of blooming season, the fields produce a staggering 80 million flowers. Our visit coincided with the end of the season so there were far fewer flowers. I bought our tickets back in March and had to plan around when we would all be in town. If we go again next year I will plan on visiting earlier in the season.

What I didn’t know before visiting was that there is a lot to do and see (and eat) in addition to the ranunculus fields. There are several gardens, a sweet pea maze (we got lost and didn’t make it to the exit), several stages for live performances, greenhouses displaying poinsettias and orchids, food booths, pick-your-own-blueberries, plus my favorite activity, don’t judge – a wagon ride. The wagon ride was extra but totally worth it. We toured the perimeter of the (50 acre!) property and made a stop at the sunflower fields which were also stunning. And full of bees. If you’re allergic you might want to skip this stop. Overall a really fun afternoon, made more special by time spent with my daughter and her friends.

Fun Summer Reads

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Now that I’m retired from teaching I am looking forward to having more time to read for pleasure. In the summer I tend to gravitate toward fun fictional novels more because they’re easy to read while traveling or hanging out by the beach or pool. I have been working my way through a list of fun novels recently and I thought I would share. My first recommendation for anyone who likes psychological suspense novels is The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden. I love a good twist at the end of a book. And if you like that one, it has a sequel – The Housemaid’s Secret. I just found out that a third installment of the series will be available June 11th called The Housemaid is Watching. I pre-ordered it on Amazon. (I love pre-ordering books from Amazon because when they show up on my doorstep it’s like a nice surprise because I usually forgot that I ordered them.;-)

I also love novels by Colleen Hoover. She has written 26 books in the last 11 years! I have read five of them so far: Verity, It Ends With Us, It Starts With Us, Losing Hope and November 9. I usually treat myself to one of her novels when I’m at the airport buying my bottled water and snacks for the plane. I’m looking forward to starting Layla next.

I also just received my copy of Gillian McAllister’s latest novel Just Another Missing Person. She also wrote Wrong Place, Wrong Time which I loved. She’s written 8 books to date and I’m looking forward to reading more of them.

Well that’s all for this post. I’m looking forward to sharing more about our recent trip to Europe soon. If you missed my last post Cruising the Adriatic Sea – Spectacular Sights in Greece you can find it here. Hope you have a restful and fun Memorial Day Weekend!