Sometimes it seems in the quest for family fun and adventure, we often overlook that which is in our own neck of the woods or perhaps a hour’s drive beyond.
For years, no decades…nearly three decades…we have driven by this place without so much even slowing down. Back when we lived in the Bay Area and Bill’s mom lived in Clovis, we were just THRILLED to get past the two lane highway torture that was 152 East winding past Gilroy to the Pacheco Pass. Why stop now that we finally were on a wider, four-lane highway. We’ll stop in Los Baños we would rationalize…because we ALWAYS stopped in Los Baños.
Then our Zoë looked west-ward for further education and adventure and we found ourselves driving past Casa de Fruta quite a bit. It wasn’t until this weekend when we arranged a time and place to pick up Daniel after his weekend of fun with his big sister in Monterey that we realized that this place was truly the halfway point between us all.
Why not stop there and meet, we wondered?
Why not?
And so we all did.
Yes, we stayed a bit. We ate some delicious, reasonably-priced food at the Casa de Restaurant. We shopped a bit at the Casa de Gift Shop, the Casa de Sweets, the Casa de Wine and the Casa de Fruit Stand. Bill and Daniel rode the Casa de Choo-Choo touring the entire “Casa de” property.
No really. It is known as the Casa de Choo-Choo.
Pretty much everything is known as Casa de-whatever. Well, except the bathrooms…and the peacocks who wander freely about the property and the parking lot.
You can almost hear “Freakin’ tourists!” in their squawks as we continued to explore.
There was much to do, to taste and to explore here.
We’ll be back sometime soon, I imagine.
After all, we have a great excuse to drive out this way.
Don’t we, Zoë?
This is the Disneyland of rest stops. It’s truly an “only in California” kind of place that we are really lucky to have nearby. Thanks for the reminder, Laura!
This is the Disneyland of rest stops. It’s truly an “only in California” kind of place that we are really lucky to have nearby. Thanks for the reminder, Laura!
My son always loves Casa de Choo Choo, which is kind of funny because it’s basically a train tour of old farm equipment. We always stop at Casa de Fruita to buy fresh fruit and spicy nuts to eat in the car on the way to Santa Cruz. It’s a family tradition.
I’ve always loved stopping at Casa de Fruta. We recently took a quick trip to the coast, and stopped with the kids. They asked to go back the ENTIRE time we were at the beach they had begged to visit all summer!
Will definitely be making more visits in the future, though Daddy wasn’t too impressed