Oh how I do love the town of Julian, it is not only a trip back in time, but after moving from the NE to the SW, I would miss the four seasons. Anytime I wanted to see the colored leaves falling or snow falling, they were less than an hour away. If you’re looking for a peaceful way to spend a cool day, take the drive up to Julian. Located just one hour East of San Diego, in the Cuyamaca mountains. Julian is a well kept gold rush era mining town, where it’s beginnings date back to 1870. You can visit the mines, where the gold was found, or shops set up in historic buildings, some dating back to 1870. Bakeries galore, featuring Julian’s famous homemade apple pies that fill the air with their aroma. Others boast their BBQ skills and an original drug store complete with a soda fountain. Hiking trails, biking, old B&B’s, wineries, wolves to great restaurants and diners. They do have the four season’s, so check out temps before you go, even though it is only one hour from San Diego!
Kathleen M.
Place rating: 5 San Jose, CA
I’ve been paralyzed to write the big 1−0−0−0 review. I never cared before what I’d review for the other big numbers ending in zero, but this one seemed to matter. There were two other contenders for my 1000th review: Sky High Sports(in Santa Clara) and My Anus(in the back of my ass) Thankfully, the husband suggested I review my stuffed elephant Julian tonight. When I said, «I can’t do that!» He said, «Why don’t you review the town of Julian instead?» And this is how I came to write a sentimental review about Julian(with pictures!) instead of a review of My Anus. See, my elephant Julian is named after the gold rush town in the mountains because that’s where I bought him — at The Warm Hearth on Main Street. He was also smuggled into Taiwan during a visit several months ago, but I digress.(We were elephant smugglers!) Growing up, it was our family tradition to visit Julian every year on the day after Thanksgiving. That was back in the mid-80s before the tourists took over. We’d drive up there with The Chucks(my dad’s friends are strangely enough all named Chuck), buy our Christmas apple cider in Wynola, go to the Town Hall craft fair, eat dinner at the Pine Hills Lodge, and if we were lucky enough — there’d be snow. We have to drive farther in the Bay Area to get to snow than we did when I was growing up in San Diego. In fact, the proximity to snow was good enough that as a kid I actually did a few science fair projects about acid snow(also, acid rain and acid dew — I would have probably done acid hail or acid steam if those were options). I had to test all the San Diego County lakes so we drove around the back country a lot and got to know Julian pretty well. Several years ago when fires raged throughout San Diego County, Julian was in danger. I remember the San Diego Union-Tribune headline, «The Battle for Julian,» which was chilling to me. I read everything about Julian with bated breath from my home in the Bay Area, worried I’d lose a place that was so important to my childhood. Thankfully, the fire bypassed Julian but we did see snow on burnt ground near Lake Cuyamaca two months later and it was eerie how black and white it was outside in the middle of the day. Now that the husband comes with me to San Diego for Christmas(that’s the best thing about marrying a Jew — divvying up the holidays), we go up to Julian every year on the day after Christmas. He now loves all my Julian rituals as much as I do — maybe more! We always have to walk down the rickety steps to visit the Candy Mine in the back of Miner’s Diner. We have to get Georgia Peach chicken at the Julian Grille. And high on the itinerary for the next visit is getting Julian the elephant a brother or sister at The Warm Hearth the next time we visit.
