Chino's

No trip to visit my brother is complete without a visit to Chino's--open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 4:03. (That's not a typo, and the Chino's folks don't strike me as people who have a fanciful streak….) !The Chino family began growing vegetables on a large farm near Rancho Santa Fe in the '50's, and not much has changed since they opened a vegetable stand next to their fields, where they grow everything from artichokes to zucchini. Meg and I went this morning, and got fillet beans just a little larger in diameter than a power cord, and a whole lot more versatile. We also got corn, Armenian cucumbers, and heirloom tomatoes, The people behind the counter were eating huge slices of rainbow melon, and the juice was dripping off their elbows--what better advertisement for us to buy one of those for dessert?

We met OilMan and Rick for lunch at Stone Brewery in Escondido, which has a large dining room with an open view into the brewery, and a huge patio where we sat under an umbrella, and had panzanella salad, arugula and grilled peach salad with Burrata, homemade pretzels and…beer--Arrogant Bastard for OilMan, and Russian River IPA for Meg. The large koi pond with a waterfall running over large, er, stones, and the giant timber bamboo and other tropical trees kept the patio comfortable, despite the blistering temperatures.

A swim in the pool looks very tempting, except for the fact that I forgot my bathing suit…maybe a nap instead.