OLD TOWN TEMECULA

After our great meal at The Lazy Dog yesterday, we drove to Old Town Temecula. There are old shops, buildings and lots of history here.

One of the stops we made was at this great store called Serendipity. With a name like that, it has to be good. Right?

Well it was. Not only did they have lots of old antiques but it had lots of other things too.

My favorite part was the gardening area. They had so many cute things there. Like this great potting table. I love how they used an old window as the back.

I also loved how they turned this outdoor bistro chair into a planter. Very cute.

They had several plants and flowers potted in old clay pots. Loved the weathered look.

This bee hive was my favorite piece I saw all day. Wouldn't it be perfect for a Bee themed tablescape!

When I saw it was $100 I said forget it. To much for my blood. But I do love it.

There are many old historic buildings still standing today. Though they are now used for different things.

Like this old Bank building. It was a Bank built in 1914. It still has the old hitching posts and granite curbing.

In 1943 the bank closed and the building has been used for other things since. It is now a Mexican Restaurant.

The old vault is still there though.

This building was built in the 1890's and was the first Mercantile store. It now is the Community Theater.

You will find shop after shop and almost every other one is an Antique store. I could have spent all day here.

However, my sister, Patty, isn't a lover of antiques so I didn't make her go in them with me. I figured I could go back on my own some day.

Built in 1917, St. Catherine's of Alexandria's Catholic Church, was the first church building in Temecula.

You can even get married here today.

Sadly, it was locked when we were there. I really wanted to see inside. I love little old churches.



This is the Rock Monument. This marks the area that became known as the Southern Emigrant Trail. It became a road widen by the passage of wagons belonging to the Mormon Battlalion, a group enlisted by the government to fight in the Mexican/American war.

This road led gold seekers and eager homesteaders on their way through the valley.

As you can see Joseph Smith was one of those people. I'm not Mormon but I believe he is an important person in the Mormon church. One of the founders, I think.

I love going to old towns and seeing all the old historic buildings. I walk along the streets and wonder what it was like all those years ago.

Do you like to go to old historic towns too?

EAST MEETS WEST

One of my favorite blogs I have been reading belongs to Pat at http://millefiorifavoriti.blogspot.com/ Pat lives in New York and writes about her great life there. Every time I read her blog I dream about going back to New York and one day getting to meet her in person.

Then I got an email from her saying she was going to be coming out here to CA with her husband. She was only going to be 2 hours away from me down in San Diego.

I was so excited! To top off the excitement she told me about another wonderful blogger Cori, from http://gingerbreadcrumbsandcompany.blogspot.com/ who happens to live very close to me, was going to be meeting up with us too. Cori used to live in San Diego and was going to be our tour guide!

Our first stop was to Old Town. The picture above is of Cori on the left and Pat on the right. It was pretty funny because none of us wanted our pictures taken. So when we did give in we would try to hide behind something.

Old Town was very pretty. There were several stores and places to eat.

Everything was so pretty and brightly colored. I felt almost like we were in Mexico.

The pottery was so cheerful and bright.

There was one wall that had so many pretty crosses hanging on it.

I would love to be able to set a table with these colors!

Even the halls in the court yard were festive with the paper cut outs hanging.

One shop had all these beautiful hanging hand made eggs. The man was even making one while we were there.

This is where we ate. This picture was taken when we first got there and it was not even open yet. The resturant is called Casa Del Rey. The Mexican food was great.

This water fountain is just outside the resturant.

We also got to go to Point Loma Light House. It was the first real light house I've ever seen.

At first I was taken back. It wasn't anything like I thought it was going to look like. But the more time we spent there the more I fell in love with it.

We even got to go inside and see how the light house keeper lived back in the late 1800's. It was very small but cozy.

We all agreed we wanted to stay up there as the views were beautiful, the cool breeze felt wonderful and the house was so sweet.

We were not able to go up to the tower though. It was closed off. This light house no longer is in use.

We also stopped at a small town called Heritage Park. The houses there were so pretty. Though most, if not all are now businesses. There is a B&B there.

Cori had been married here and got to stay in the B&B. Lucky girl!

This house was turned into a gift shop but it was closed. There was even a chain blocking the stairs off but I made Cori and Pat take the chain down and go up there anyway. The stairs were decorated so cute for fall I didn't want to miss out on their photo there.

There is even a little stone rabbit. We all took a picture of the stone rabbit in memory of the blog Stone Rabbit. My close up didn't come out so this photo will have to do.

This darling little tea house was there also. While we had already had lunch we still had to go check it out. They had a little gift shop so we browsed around.


No one was having tea there. I don't know why as it is so cute. Plus it was only $20. I would love to go back someday and actually eat there. Cori!! Did you hear that? Want to go with me?

I loved how they did this display. I've never seen anything like that before. Such a great idea.

Our last stop was to The Hotel Del Coronado. This was another first for me.

The lobby is all in dark woods. It's so rich looking.

The chandelier is huge and so beautiful. This photo doesn't do it justice at all.

We walked around in the shops.

They had such great things. Not your normal hotel gift shop.

But, I did not look at the prices because I'm sure the cost was way up there.

We did not buy anything here. Well, we did get a drink and we sat outside. The weather was great there. The view was lovely and the company could not have been better.

Sadly our time was up and we had to get Pat back to the hotel she was staying at so she could meet up with her husband for dinner.

We did take the longer path back to the car just to stretch the last few minutes out.

I had a blast. I got to meet two great women that I hope will remain life long friends.

Cori and I have said we were going to get together and I hope we really do.

I'm planning a trip to New York and I hope Pat will be willing to meet up and show me around, at least for a little while.

If you get a chance to meet either of these gals I hope you jump at the chance because you won't be sorry.

Hugs,
Joanne