Beautiful Redlands California was founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1888. Redlands is a quintessential “big town” with a “small town” feel. For much of its history Redlands was the “Washington Navel Orange Growing Capital of the World” with the citrus industry as the main focus of its economy.

Historic and Beautiful Redlands California

Traveling Locavores and California Locavores
From left: Frank, Steve, Me and Gail

Our main focus in Redlands had nothing whatsoever to do with oranges. I have family closely. My gorgeous cousin Gail and her handsome husband Frank live in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains. And because we have lived so far apart for so many years, we hardly ever get to see each other. So we immediately made plans to meet for brunch at a place downtown that had outdoor seating. Bricks and Birch became “our place”. We sat for hours chatting away. It is hard to make up for lost time, but we sure did our best to catch up.

The “sunset” spot, just off a bridge in a dry river bed.

I loved the beautiful stones and pebbles in the dry river bed.

The sun is going…

Going…

Gone!

Gail and Frank have a favorite spot for taking stunningly gorgeous sunset photos. We were lucky to have time to meet them there and get some awesome shots ourselves. Beside having a wonderful sunset view the area is beautiful in itself. It was so nice to be able to share the sunset with family.

It’s funny but being with Gail in California reminded me that when Steve and I were talking about moving somewhere warm, I suggested California. Gail had not moved out there yet. So when Steve said that earthquakes out there scared him, I just let it go. We ended up in South Florida. And that was wonderful for 38 years. After being in California I’m really wishing we had moved here.

I think that wherever you live there are weather related crises to deal with. We had frequent hurricane threats in South Florida. Several of them were VERY scary. But there are hurricanes, floods, tornados, droughts and wildfires all over the country. Global warming effects the extremes we seem to be experiencing lately. And several states can boast fault lines, So the threat of earthquakes continues to loom. Not sure how to decide where to live, if you could live anywhere you choose. For these Traveling Locavores the deciding factor would be family. If we ever stop traveling we would live near our son and his beautiful wife.

Our luscious Mushroom, Garlic and Brie Pizza at Bricks and Birch

But for now, we are thrilled that we can visit family all over the country. Plus we get to enjoy local attractions and cuisines of each state. The wood fired artisan pizzas and scones at Bricks and Birch are AMAZING!!! During our 9 days in Redlands, we met my cousins there twice and picked up pizza and scones once. Gail had told me how they specialize in brick oven, wood fired pizza, gourmet baked pastries, Stumptown Coffee and fresh salads. Bricks and Birch started in their backyard and their menu today can be traced back to over thirty years of creating the perfect dough and sauce recipes spanning from Maine, to Hawaii, to California. The owners spent countless nights in front of the pizza oven, making wild experiments. But they have never lost the urge to share their fun and unique creations with you.

It’s that secret ingredient, LOVE, that chef’s add to their best creations. And those creations were so delicious that we kept coming back for more. And then we craved their pizza and scones (the best I’ve ever tasted) when we could no longer get them because we had moved on. We have had a few meals like that in our travels. But Bricks and Birch is now really high on our list of place to return to when ever we are in beautiful Redlands California

Good Life is my cousin Mitch’s home and charter boat.

Another cool thing about being in Redlands was that it was only about an hour away from another cousin of mine. My cousin Mitch lives on his fabulous charter boat in Marina del Rey. Mitch is just a little older than our son and Gail’s older sister Diane’s son. Needless to say the boys are good friends. Since we lived 3,000 miles apart, it has been many years since we had been able to have a visit with Mitch.

It was so wonderful to visit and see the gorgeous Marina del Rey. It was chilly, windy and quite foggy, which unfortunately cut our harbor cruise short. But what we saw was serene. Of course, no sooner did we get back in the boat slip when the sun came out! It was fine. We spent the time catching up on Mitch’s thriving boat charter business. And he even gave us jars of his homemade Apple Butter as we left his boat Good Life. Great name for a beautiful boat!