Bravo Farms

On our journey up California Highway 99 we decided to make a few tourist stops… I’ve traveled this road countless times in my life, never stopping to really explore what this old highway has to offer. This time, with the family in tow, we decided to make a few stops.

One being Bravo Farms in Traver, which is just outside Visalia, California.

This place, in the reviews, didn’t fare so well, but we figured we would stop anyway, since they boasted cheese, a place to fill up the car, an eclectic load of stuff to look at and, well, cheese! lol

Our first stop inside was some ice cream. It was SO delicious! I got cookies and cream and we set out to take a look around!

Like I said, the inside is VERY eclectic. I loved it though. There is a restaurant on site, so everything as you’re walking around smells so good! Although it could also be that giant roasting spit in the photo on the right (dead center). They had some large hunk of animal just getting charred and beautiful as we meandered around.

This little area is their courtyard that’s off the back of the property. The whole thing kind of surrounds this yard of stuff. There’s an endless amount of vintage collections to peek at, old signs and memorabilia abound. To the right, that gingerbread looking thing is billed as a “7 story tree house” but, it’s not, um, actually seven whole stories. There’s seven levels alright… the seven levels of HELL. Observe from the outside, but be wary if you choose to enter. It’s rickety and narrow (I’ve got a big booty, so there’s that. Word up.) and rather terrifying. My son loved it and ventured through with his dad, I, unfortunately, got stuck and complained until I wedged myself out that door. Fun times.

They had this nifty little shooting range with “Not-Tomater” (not his actual name) kickin’ it there in the corner. I wanted to get closer and check it out, but my son was having no part of that bopping, talking, squeaking truck.

There’s quite the petting zoo that we didn’t visit, while we were there, but on the inside portion there’s a chicken coop with some friendly little foul in it.

Around the back, on the highway side, there’s a staircase up to the upper level which has a mini-golf putting green.

The upper deck of the place takes you around to the tree house. You can get in through this little door as well as the front entrance. Yes, there’s graffiti everywhere.

 

 

 

 

The view from the second level of the tree house, graffiti everywhere, again.

 

Aside from that, I could have lived in this place.

 

I’m not sure if it’s ever really crowded there, but it was nice to have the place to ourselves to wander around freely.

 

Upstairs, this is one of the holes for the putting green (that I’m not sure was in service, we didn’t try.) But I thought all the Coke memorabilia was really cool and I was beyond tempted to pop that “The Devil made me do it.” sign off the wall… I was surprised how unsupervised some of these amazing trinkets are left!

After all that exploring, I was in search of… Cheese. California, farm fresh, whole milk, cheese.

Can’t get much fresher than this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took two kinds of cheese for the road. The Garlic Jack and the Chipotle White Cheddar. I stopped and got three more for the ride home and ended up making some incredible dishes with what I had left!

 

As we made our way through the gift shop with our cheese, we spent forever looking at the seemingly endless array of stuff they had for sale!

 

I was so close to buying this little wine stopper, but I never have a need to stop the wine, so I passed.

However, it explains my life to a T.

 

 

 

I’ve got jams and preserves a plenty. I’ve got jelly’s and marmalades galore…

Whole, freakin’ honey comb for sale. I can’t knock the country life. I could settle in juuuuust fine… And this homemade pasta on the right has got me more than inspired to put my pasta maker to use this winter!!

 

All in all, yes, it may be a tourist trap, but it’s a must see if you’re traveling up or down the 99 in central California.

Enjoy!

A&W… The Restaurant!

So, we’ve all had A&W root beer, but when was the last time you ATE A&W food? (From one that’s NOT attached to a KFC, Mama June.)

A while? Never?

Well, for me and my fam, it’s been, never.

We made the trip all the way up the 99 freeway so we might as well stop at one of the original locations in Modesto, CA, that’s been open for almost 100 years! Or so says this You Tube Video of two vintage-ish commercials for this particular joint, back in the 80’s. Here is also this particular locations Facebook Page.

The place looks dated, that’s a given and also the point. It’s obviously old. But, something about the creepy nostalgic feel, I just dug. A&W is arguably the nations first successful fast food joint, opening in 1923 and still operating today. I’ll bet with half the bullshit McDonalds has in their food with 80x the flavor, but, I’m just sayin’.

This is the view of the outside eating area, like I said, it’s old. But wait till you get some grub…

What I wouldn’t have given to shoot a little mini with that car!

The food was awesome. I mean, it’s fast food, so don’t expect something you know you’re not going to get, but I’m a little bit of an onion ring aficionado and I thought they were great. The burger, I didn’t touch, because, well, strange meat and all, but the curds were all mine. They were delish, of course.

Little known fact, is that A&W is the origination of the frozen mug. Little known bartender knowledge to drop on ya.

Until next time!

Monsoon Season Is Here…

One of the many reasons I love living here, is the monsoons.

The lightening, thunder, rain, wind, all of it. I love all of it.

I took some video during the storm last night, which was insane, and got some cool stills from it!

Enjoy!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Birthday Party

My son turned four recently and we don’t like to do the conventional pizza place and spend a ton on games, that are most of the time broken.

We’re blessed to have this gorgeous pool, so we use it.

He asked for a Ninja Turtles birthday, and I couldn’t say no. So I did my best to make it fun for both the adults and the kids, on a really, really tight budget, since everything is going towards the wedding right now.

I didn’t get to take very many photos just because I was busy playing hostess, but I did snap some vital shots. What I DID leave out, is the pizza toss game. It looked really cool and I’m SO sad we didn’t snap a photo of it. Basically, we got a few pizza boxes, varied them in distance and open-ness, assigned them points, covered three Frisbees in a pizza photo and whoever could score the most points with their three tosses, got a super cool Ninja Turtle ribbon! The kids loved it.

The invitation I made myself on Picasa with the help of Pixlr.com. I used graphics I found online and downloaded the fonts. I printed them at Office Max. Easy peasy.

I know it’s hard to see, but the backdrop of the cabana is one of those “scene setters” that you can buy for theme parties. The sun was setting behind it as I was trying to get pictures and it just didn’t show up that well. It looked MUCH cooler in person. Plus, the pillars on the right and left that aren’t pictured have the rest of the pieces to the “setting” on them.

All the themed decorations I bought at Party City, they were really cheap, then again, we only had around 10 kids that came.

Like I said, we did this party on a budget!

I’m not too proud of the napkin display, it kept getting pulled apart by my curious 4 year old, rightfully, as it was his party, but it didn’t stand a chance. It’s just streamer and googly eyes, on a big coffee can, obviously.  

The cup dispensers on the right are small coffee cans, with green streamer and this other, special Ninja Turtle streamer that was too short to actually decorate anything with, so it was used for scrap.

The cupcakes are homemade as is the icing. They’re “toxic” cupcakes, silly for kids, but actually toxic for adults, especially women, because that butter cream frosting is addictive.

Like, I’m the Heisenberg of icing.

The left photo is just a little snap to show you how the background looked without the Arizona desert setting sun blazing on it. Hence the disarray. (My plates aren’t straight and there’s trash. For me, the parties over once people touch my stuff, man.)

Jokes. I’m totally kidding, lol.

We got pizza as the main food for the event, also as a party favor. Come, eat pizza, take a whole one home for later. It was a really delicious local place too Oliveos Pizza. We’re not “hot and ready” kinda folks, we appreciate PIZZA.

The “Happy Birthday” sign is also, part of that scene setter from Party City. It had SO many pieces and was only $6!! How cute is that tablecloth, btw?

This was an idea, straight from the pages of Pinterest. Oreo cookies as sewer lids. Everybody thought it was adorable, Oreos actually stood up to the heat, too, so, there’s that.

The little red baskets behind it, with the wax paper were for popcorn. I didn’t snap that, but whenever we have kids over at the pool, I make use of my giant corn popper. It air pops the corn so you can add fatty goodness or leave it plain and corn kernels are SO cheap. Get some kitschy little PopCorn containers and you’re set.

These were cool, with a dry sponge… Great picture taking skills, I really CAPTURE the moment… lol

Don’t worry, we got water and it was a huge hit. Even with the adults! I always throw some kind of temporary tattoo out at the parties and everybody loves it equally.

These super exclusive, way cool ninja masks are just shirts from Goodwill. Washed, first, of course, then expertly cut into masks fit for hero’s in their half-shells!

The adults really loved this one as much as the kids, I think I was the only one without a mask on at one point!

 

I hope this sparks some ideas of how to throw a great party for just a little cash, it can be done!