On the road- Oasis Camel dairy, Ramona

A camel kinda day is a good day!

Hello, my friends,

How are you doing? 

I’ve been deep-diving into a learning phase in the past few weeks, amazingly how autumn gives me a positive vibe, moved by the change of color, the weather, and grateful for everything in life. 

And what am I learning? I feel a little bit shy to speak about it out loud now. However, I also feel like sharing with you. I’m learning the “ＩChing” The Book of Change, a  branch of Chinese astrology. Stay tuned for more on the I Ching, but let me tell you in this post about a small road trip we had recently, a great destination if you are in SoCal: Oasis Camel Dairy.

Since we stay home most of the time because of lockdown, we are always looking for a day trip that can quickly change the scene without too much hustle on logistics. The destination that occurs to us always is Julian, however, we took a detour this time! 

When we looked up fun things to do nearby us, a camel farm popped up, my husband and I looked at each other with surprised faces, is this true? 

A camel farm in California? We are huge farm-loving nature-loving people, and always look out for farm activity, but we have not known the camel farm existed in California, even more, in SOCAL!

Our curiosity was intrigued immediately, and we booked the farm tour in a snap! We got so excited and said more than a hundred times, I am going to see the camels tomorrow! 

The drive to the Oasis Camel diary is easy, slightly northeast to San Diego, not much traffic, but has nice views since there are many mountain trails, wineries on the way. We felt so good to be on a road trip, just both of us enjoyed Rolling stone’s music, oh… and sweet child of mine.

Nancy was our tour guide of the day, she is also the owner of the camel dairy. You can tell if a person is passionate about their animals, and she is that welcoming and knowledgeable person who loves all the animals at the farm. 

She introduced us to the incredibly beautiful turkey, I have to confess that I was a little bit scared of turkey since I had the impression they are aggressive animals, but it was totally wrong! They are actually so friendly and beautiful creatures with their colorful feather tails showing off in the air. black and white, polka dot, gray and blue, red wattle, with their eyes had a hint of playfulness, I feel I am in a Spanish carnival of some sort, the flamingo dancer is so proud of who they are! Nancy told us they usually run the county fair with the Turkey race, yeh, another. Really? that’s so cool! Those turkeys are also a good racer! Although this year because of Covid, the shows were all canceled, I am pretty sure I would go to see them at the county fair in the next year.

There are other wonderful animals at the farm, however, I feel like if I spoke too much then it is a spoiler, so Let’s get to the main animals- Camels!

We were so excited to get so close to camels, those tall legs, cute faces with long eyelash eyes are so unique! Suddenly I feel we are in a different country in the Mediterranean! 

Nancy introduced us to all their names, habits, and stories. We got a really clear knowledge of them and we also got so lucky to see the baby camel milking the mother, but the highlight to us was Nancy had prepared the apple treat for the visitor to feed the camels! we absolutely love it! Certainly, I know now what the connection between the camels and us is- we all love apples!

After the farm tour, they have a small shop selling camel milk products, from camel milk chocolate, to lotion, and soaps. I had a good shopping haul since I really love those organic products, and they are such nice souvenirs for this visit. 

We really love our experience here, so I would like to note about this tour: 

1. you have to book the tour on their official website since Covid the small or big group size is the same, from 1-10 people, one session is 150 USD, so the larger the group is, you will pay less. However, we love that just two of us enjoyed the tour. Also, Camel ride will need extra charge.

2. Please wear no-show-toes shoes, you know, it’s a farm, it’s always sandy in nature. 

3. Download the map of the area on google maps before you go, we did encounter some unstable connections along the way while driving, although was not a big deal, since the road is very simple. But stay calm and be prepared, that’s always good!

4. Always be gentle with animals, do not scare them.

After the farm, we took the recommendation from Nancy to Ramona, which is the opposite way to Julian, she said “I like the funky!” 

Yeah, here we go!

Ramona is a famous wine country in Socal, we found it has the similarity to Julian but also the difference. Less touristy, widespread area, and a lot of antique shops.  With more than 40 wineries in the wine region, it certainly feels different than Julian’s Apple Farms. I like both for their features, but like the refresh of Ramona. 

Although during Covid, the majority of testing rooms are closed from Monday to Thursday and open on weekends or have only take reservations on weekends. We still found Pamo Valley Winery was opened on the way, we got some nice wine testing and love their sangria, really delicious.

There are several antique shops very close by, as an antique shop enthusiastic, I was so happy to find one unique mirror and a rattan basket for my photography project. Ahhhh…. the antique dentist clinic chair we saw was almost out of a movie scene! 

we were really happy with how the road trip turned out, even now while I go through the picture of the day, I can’t stop smiling! Thanks so much for Ramona, people here are so friendly and kind, and thanks so much to my husband for driving us to make this road trip happen, I am so lucky to have you! 

Oh, road trip, you had us again, and I believe we will have another road trip soon. 

Do you like road trips? What are your favorite destinations for road trip? Are you an animal lover? let me know what you think, please.

Also feel free to follow me ＠gabbie_arciniegas  & @betterthanauthentic on Instagram or sign up the newsletter of the blog! you will get notification of new post here! a lot of good stuff is coming up!

Keep well,

Gabrielle