On Friday, we spent a long, active, delightful morning among pumpkins and haystacks, goats and peacocks. We started in the petting zoo, explored a wooden mini-train (or at least our toddler did), got lost in a maize maze, waved to scarecrows from a tractor-led hay ride, and strutted our stuff at a bouncy house...before the littlest of us collapsed into heavy snores immediately after being buckled into the car seat homeward.
Underwood Family Farm is a must for all families within driving distance of Moorpark (the farm also has another location in Somis). But even if you're an adult-only crew, you should visit the Harvest Festival -- it's really a lot of fun.
A wonderfully autumnal event to experience, the Harvest Festival is on throughout Halloween weekend. If you don't mind crowds and want to take advantage of the most attractions and offerings, then go on a Saturday or Sunday. But if you want a tamer environment and prefer to pay a little less ($3 admission per person on a weekday as opposed to the $10 you pay on a weekend), I suggest going on a weekday. On weekdays during the fest, not all of the booths, games, etc., are open, and only one food vendor is set up, but there was plenty to keep us occupied for a few hours.
Note, that, aside from the admission fee, money is also charged for attraction tickets. We spent around $15 for enough tickets to get us through our stay (e.g., the hay ride, bouncy castle and petting zoo were among our stops that cost us tickets).
You don't need a festival to visit this farm. Any other time, you can still visit the animal center, which boasts not just the petting zoo but also pony rides and a whole gaggle of different animals, from a miniature donkey to Clydesdales. You can also pick your own produce -- strawberries or tomatoes or whatever's in season.
Tip: Pack a lunch and BYO snacks. I'm not sure what food vendors are available for the weekend, but we wished that we had brought sandwiches instead of relying on the one food vendor. As for snacks, the selection seemed limited to nuts, berries and frozen fruit bars.
Also, don't forget your hat and sunscreen. There's not a lot of shade, and it can get hot in these parts.
Regretfully, I have no photos for this post. Camera mishap. Oh well, we'll just have to get over to Underwood again soon....
There's all kinds of cool history to relay about the famous Olvera Street (a.k.a. El Pueblo Historic Monument), but I'm going to talk about shopping. This past summer, I bought a number of great, inexpensive items in the shops and stalls of the marketplace here for my recent, loosely Latin-themed wedding:
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