Today is a day to celebrate mothers! Many of us celebrate the special day from a distance, but our appreciation and love for our mom is not diminished. My mom inspired and continues to encourage my travels around the world. I am thankful for her support and understanding of my need to travel. She too had once enjoyed meeting new people, seeing new places and discovering unknowns. I know it is not easy for my mom to travel now, yet it provides me one more reason to write this blog when I do travel. So Mom, I love you, thank you for everything, and Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you enjoy the photographs of the flowers I saw at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California in this post.

Despite the gray day, the colorful flowers and many fields of flowers were on display for us all to enjoy. There is quite a bit of history about this place along with so many varieties of poinsettias, but what I found most interesting is that they plant ranunculus seeds. The light-weighted seeds take 4 – 5 weeks to germinate and 6 months to blossom!

There are many, many fields of flowers here. One was in the shape of the American flag planted with petunias. It reminded me of my Vestal, NYS Student Council members who planted hundreds of petunias as an American flag in the front of the junior high school for Flag Day. Overall, a fun learning project for the students. I had a real appreciation for the field/American flag made here at the Flower Field, 100 times larger than the student project!

May people visiting the fields kept physically distanced or otherwise wore a mask. There were other activities to do besides walking the field: tractor ride of the fields, pea maze, video programs, and I picked blueberries. The good-sized and sweet berries were enjoyed in my cold cereal the upcoming mornings!

Later in the day I arrived at the KOA I was to tent at the next nights. I have a three-season tent and backpacker gear for lighting, cooking, and sleeping. I found it fascinating to watch people lay down carpets in front of their campers, string lights around trees and any other post available, plug in electric griddles and instant pots or cook on the barbecue grill, and use air compressors to blow up double sized mattresses for their sleeping in their tent. Many RV’s had a booming sound system and/or a television which by nightfall were on in most places. People brought camp chairs, screens to show movies on, and coolers large enough to hold plenty of beer. In some ways it seemed like numerous parties were happening. 

Everyone I met was interesting. Everyone has a story. With my tent the only thing on my site and an occasional use of my backpacker stove, I was most often defined as a minimalist. People were fascinated to know how I survive and how I even got a bicycle into my car! Always fun conversations!

Flowers from today:

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Thanks again Mom! Love you!