The Flower Fields

Several years ago, when we first moved to Pasadena, I gave Eric a book on weekend getaways from LA. We love taking little trips together, and we had the exact same book for Northern California. The funny thing is that right after I gave it to him…I sort of stole it and read the whole thing myself! There were so many places I wanted to see with Eric (and I’m happy to say that we’ve put a good dent in the list!), but the Flower Fields stood out to me. Millions of ranunculus every spring, right on the coast? Sign me up! We planned our trip to Carlsbad a few months ago, right when I was starting to feel good enough to consider venturing further than the couch a possibility. I booked our B&B for the height of flower season.

It’s hard to do justice to the initial sight: stripe after stripe after stripe of gorgeous color. With a few cheerful rows of “confetti” thrown in for good measure.

It’s a major attraction in the area, and it was definitely crowded, but the further we went from the entrance, the more peace and quiet there was. We were snapping pictures like crazy. I love this picture of Eric so much. Doesn’t he have a beautiful smile?

While we were there, they were harvesting flowers. One set of employees cuts the flowers and puts them into plastic bouquet sleeves. The second set comes along behind them and collects the bouquets.

Trucks wait nearby with buckets of water for the bouquets.

Even though we were there after noon, the sun was still bright enough that it was hard to see through my camera’s viewfinder. I think most of my pictures are at least a little blown out, but you can still see the glory of these unusual flowers.

The species that they grow here is called Giant Tecolote. Tecolote means owl in Spanish, and I wonder if it’s a reference to these tightly packed petals, just like an owl’s feathers.

So beautiful. I had the hardest time choosing my favorite color. Eric liked the deep wine-colored ones best, but my favorite color was whichever color I happened to be standing in front of at the moment.

Right out past those trees, there’s the ocean.

One of my favorite things was finding one lone color in the field of another.

I couldn’t get enough of these multi-colored rows.

A nice Greek couple took our picture. It’s so funny to look at this picture now because I am already so much bigger than I was then! But my maternity jeans are still hilariously too big for me. Ah well, I am sure I will grow into them sometime.

After exploring the fields, we went to the orchid greenhouse. Every flower was so unique. And every one made me want to whip out my paints and brush!

This is the sweet pea maze. It smelled so good!

And a cute grasshopper.

Funnily enough, there was an outlet mall right next to the flower fields, so Eric took me there to try to find some maternity shorts. Best husband ever. No shorts were found, but we did get a smoothie and a milkshake. Once again, best husband ever! Milkshakes and outlet malls aside, we had such a beautiful time at the Flower Fields. I was so grateful that I felt good enough to tromp up and down the hill and pretty much cover the whole expanse of the place. It make me think so much of the tulip fields in Holland, and of my dad, who loves them. I would love to take him here someday!