THE PAST WAS JUST MOMENTS AWAY...

Every year, my two sisters, Trinity and I, take a drive up to Oak Glen. It's a darling little town with shops and restaurants. Apple orchards are the big draw there. You can go and pick your own apples, have apple pie, make cider and eat caramel apples.

It's always a fun trip.

But, this year, we took a different way into town. By doing so we came across a whole new area we didn't even know was there.

It is called Riley's Farm. This is so fun. It's like taking a step back in time. Sort of a mini Williamsburg in VA.

Riley's farm is set up sort of like a Colonial town. All the workers are dressed up in costumes. There are several workshops you can join in to learn what life was back in 18th Century.

Their gift shop is set up like a little store would have been set up. They only sold toys, hats, books and things that would have been able to be purchased in that time.

Lot's of schools go here on field trips. Here they can learn first hand their history lesson. Much better then reading about it or even watching a film.

The children are shown and taught about the toys from that era. Here you see the children playing with a hoop and a stick.

It was fun to see how these children of today, that have every kind of a toy available to them, getting so much enjoyment out of such a simple toy.

There was a blacksmith showing them how pans, plates, horseshoes and such were made by hand.

Then we noticed this larger white building and decided to go check it out.

As we got closer we noticed it was a resturant. Since it was lunch time and we were all hungry we thought it would be fun to eat here.

Here is one of the workers in costume just walking the streets of the town as they would have been in every day life.

We took a peek at the menu before we all agreed there were several items that looked interesting to us.

You can click on the photo to enlarge and see the menu better.

Inside there was fire going. Nice and cozy since it was a bit chilly out. There are no lights in here. Only candle light. After all they didn't have lights back then.

They even had a wall where the guns were hung.

This was our waitress. She was nice enough to allow me to take her photo.

I ordered a pot pie. Mine was a veggie pot pie but you could get a chicken or beef one if you were a meat eater.

All dishes came with sliced tomatoes and a piece of melted cheese. Turns out that was often done in the 18th century.

Both of my sisters ordered the open face Roast Beef. There was a slice of homemade bread, mashed potatoes and the roast beef was on top. Of course yummy brown gravy was poured over the top.

This was a common hearty meal often eaten in the Colonial times.

But kids can still order a meal common from today. Grilled cheese and chips was Trinity's pick. She also got a dish of fresh fruit but I forgot to put it back on the plate for the photo.

The drinks were served in pewter mugs. Boy do they keep your drinks cold.

Patty and Trinity ordered a mug of hot chocolate. It was by far the best hot chocolate any of us had taste before. Those were served in clay mugs.

Now of course, we were still in Oak Glen. Oak Glen is known for the apples. So for dessert there was apple pie, caramel apples, apple dumplings and french apple pie.

Sadly we were all to full to order dessert but everything looked great.

We then went to another area to pick apples and raspberries. After we paid we found out both the seasons were over so we got a refund.

We all agreed, next year we will go earlier so we can do some picking.

We then left Riley's Farm and went to the part of town we normally do. Where we shopped and walked around for awhile before going home.

We all agreed that Riley's farm was the best part of the day and were happy to discover it.

We can't wait to go back.