Dear Julian: thank you for opening up the "Miner Diner"

I love San Diego, its where my heart is, but sometimes you just have to get away from home to realize how much you love it.  I have wanted to go visit the small town of Julian since freshman year of college.  It’s a small town.  It’s the kind of town where you don’t realize people actually live there.  You spend the day asking yourself, “Is there even a school here?” “where do they buy clothes?” and “doesn’t everyone know everything about everyone?”  I don’t understand the Gilmore Girls style of life, but I appreciate it.  I appreciate the small coffee shops and the gathering of families for “Oktoberfest,” but most of all, I appreciate this town for their apples. 

The real reason people go to Julian: Apple pie.  It was clear when we saw a line down the street for “Mom’s Pies.” The smell of cinnamon and sugar, and that secret recipe for the homemade crust keep visitors coming.  I couldn’t believe how many pies there were. Just one after the next.  It took me almost 6 hours to make one pie, they put my pie to shame, I’m okay with that though, ill let them be the experts on that one. 

Courtney and I had a great time on our day trip to Julian, until we got hungry.  Our goal of the day was simple, we wanted a good sandwich with sweet potato fries and we wanted an apple pie to take back to our roomies.  Our goal turned out to be harder than we thought.  After trinket store after trinket store, a stop at the tattoo parlor, and watching old men in lederhousens play the trumpet for "Oktoberfest," we decided it was time for that perfect sandwich.  We decided to ask a local… so clearly we found ourselves in the hardware store.   The man told us where we could find the best meat sandwich (also known as a hamburger) in the east county: Jeremy’s.  We went to Jeremy’s which turned out to be a Piano Bar type of place so we left and found ourselves at “The Miner Diner” aka the place where no one would ever want to work, except our friend Josh Martin, who had the privilege to grow up in Julian. 

After lunch we grabbed our apple pie with a cinnamon crust topping and headed home.  I couldn’t help but pick at the whole way home, despite Courtney slapping me on the hand telling me I needed to wait.

Small town of Julian: you were an interesting and strange place, but don’t be surprised if you see me again.