I went into this with my mind made up that $20 wouldn’t do.
Nor $27.89, because, you know, I had that left over $7.89 from my little Palm Springs getaway, and I always add the previous trip’s leftovers to the next trip. Even though I’ve spent less than $20 a trip several times before and managed to have a good time, after my Palm Springs debacle I couldn’t shake the thought that my super-limited budget caused me to miss out on the better time awaiting me had I had more cash.
I was having some serious FOMO.
So when I decided to go to Carlsbad, I said fuck this $20 budget, I’m going to do what I want…(clears throat) within reason of course, because even my carefreeness still has to be confined to a budget.
What’s funny, Carlsbad wasn’t even on my radar for my next GOTH entry. I had something totally different in mind, and to be honest, I don’t even know when I was going to get around to it. But I follow The Flower Fields on Instagram, and have been wanting to go there ever since I discovered its existence five or six years ago. Every year since then, I keep saying I’m going to go, but I never get around to it. It’s only open like six weeks out of the year, making it even harder to fit it in. I was gearing myself up to go last year, but then of course, the pandemic hit and they didn’t open. So this year when I started seeing their Instagram posts, I decided this was definitely going to be my year to visit. I did not want to wait for a-whole-nother year to come back around.
Immediately, I went into planning mode. First, I pulled up their website to check ticket prices. When I saw they were $20, I was like whoa! Twenty dollars to simply look at some flowers in a field, maybe take a picture or two? I don’t care how pretty your flowers are, for what you get, that just didn’t seem worth it to me. But, before I totally wrote it off, I carried on with my research.
Of course I searched The Flower Fields hashtag on Instagram, but more importantly, I needed moving images. I had to see some YouTube video. Just as I suspected, the YouTube videos confirmed that there really wasn’t much to do there other than walk around, take pictures and look at flowers. After that, much to my dismay, I decided not to go to The Flower Fields.
It was a hard decision to come to, because I had been feening for a visit for like six years now. However, more important to me than fulfilling my desire to visit, was to spend my money on places that I believe I would truly enjoy, and my research showed me that there was nothing about The Flower Fields that would be so enjoyable that I’d be willing to part with my $20 to experience it. As a result, I ended up ditching that plan.
That was some time in March. Then right before Mother’s Day – The Flower Fields’ usual last day of operation – one of their Instagram posts showed up during my scroll announcing that they were extending operations by a week. What’s more, the tickets were half off, so instead of $20 they were now $10.
Even though, after doing my research, I already determined that this wasn’t something I wanted to spend my money on, I was lured in by the discount. But the thing is, it wasn’t even just the discount that got me. It was the idea that I could be missing out on something that for the past six years I’d been pining for, yet managed to elude again and again. Now they were extending the season by a week, and the tickets were half off. What’s more, I just so happened to be wasting my life away on Instagram at the right time to see it. This could only mean one thing—it was meant to be!
Never mind the fact that my YouTube research results determined that I would not be impressed, I purchased a ticket for Saturday, May 15, 2021 anyway, totaling to $11.34 after the service fee. I chose to go on the weekend in spite of anticipating crowds which I try to avoid, because I saw somewhere that that’s the only time they had blueberry picking which I really wanted to do. Normally, you could do the blueberry picking without purchasing a ticket for The Flower Fields during the regular season.
In the days leading up to my trip, I really psyched myself up. I even prayed that the experience would exceed my expectations. Now that’s a dangerous prayer, because every time I’ve had high expectations they have never been exceeded, and rarely if ever even met. Whenever I have high expectations, whatever I end up with always falls short of what I imagined. The only time my expectations have been exceeded is when I have low expectations, and even those are sometimes right on the mark – but high expectations? Never…. At least not that I can remember. So right there, I was setting myself up for a let-down.
But set myself up I did, because, it just feels good to imagine good things. It just feels good to imagine fun, and excitement, or just a pleasant enjoyable experience. Plus, I have this habit of always believing again – after disappointment, after rejection, after sadness, after whatever may deter me, or persuade me to do otherwise, eventually, and that eventually can take months, even years, I always end up believing again.
I’m not sure what I thought I was going to encounter when I got to The Flower Fields, I just knew that I hoped I would enjoy it.
The night before my trip, I stayed up pretty late. I’m talking four in the morning late. What can I say? If Darius Lovehall is the blues in your left thigh trying to become the funk in your right, I’m a night owl trying to become an early bird, is that allll riiight? Needless to say, my inability to go to bed early presented a problem for my plan to get up early. Per my YouTube research, the place becomes infested, I mean, inundated with kids around 11am. Just the thought of being surrounded by O-P-P—you know, other people’s progeny—was motivation enough for me to want to get there by 9:30am. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the kids, but um…yeah, I wanted to get there early.
Long story a little less long, I got up late, after hitting my alarm several times, and set out for Carlsbad slightly drowsy. On the freeway I ran into one of the things that I most abhor – Saturday traffic. That’s definitely a sign that we’re opening back up, because it was just in January that I drove all the way to San Diego proper, on a Tuesday, with no traffic to boot. Now here I was driving to Carlsbad in May and there were a few times when the freeway became a parking lot…on a Saturday.
Finally, I got there around 10:30am, and found parking pretty quickly. The lot was packed, but thankfully somebody just so happened to be coming out. The workers there were very friendly and cheery. They greeted me at several different checkpoints as I approached. The older gentlemen who scanned my ticket gave me the full low-down. I wasn’t sure if I should look at the flowers first, or go pick blueberries. He was like, “the flowers you see in front of you are all that’s left, you should go pick blueberries. It’s a long walk and the cart right over there can take you.” Really nice guy.
He wasn’t lyin’ either. I was always aware, before I even bought my ticket, that the flowers weren’t going to be as plentiful as, say, mid-April, but I wasn’t expecting more than half the fields to be dead. As a worker drove me to the blueberry picking area, narrating the whole way as if I were on a Universal Studios tram ride, I looked out over fields that looked like rows of hay. Them flowers were gone, ya’ll.
While I can’t say picking blueberries exceeded my expectations, it was quite the enjoyable activity. First you purchase your one-pint cartons for $5 each and then you go picking. Before I even got there I decided I was going to buy two pints. You can say that I’m a fan of blueberries, and it’s not even that I think they taste that great. The ones I get in the store are usually sour, but they’re good for you, loaded with antioxidants (or so I heard), so I like them. Also, years ago, my uncle took me cherry picking, and those cherries where the best cherries I’ve ever tasted – better than what you get in the stores. So I was also hoping that when it comes to taste, I would have a similar experience as I did with the cherries, and that these blueberries would have some sort of unforeseen – or should I say unfor-tasted—amazing flavor.
I was also excited to see exactly how blueberries grow. Like do they grow on trees, bushes? Turns out, it’s a bit of both. Actually, it depends on the variety. They had four varieties there.
And I don’t know, but there was something about walking through the rows, seeing those blueberries in their different states of maturity – some still green, others the color of red grapes, still others deep blue like a midnight sky, ready to be picked – made me feel a sense of calm and serenity, and I enjoyed it very much.
The only thing left to do now was taste them. I actually wasn’t going to try them until I got home, but when I saw other people eating and picking, and talkin’ ‘bout they taste like grapes, I thought let me go ahead and pop one in my mouth.
Um, they tasted just like the ones in the store. Actually, I’ve had better ones in the store. Regardless, I enjoyed the blueberry picking and would love to do it again.
After picking blueberries, I got a cart-ride back over to the remaining rows of flowers to take pics. As we drove over, I couldn’t help but think I just paid $21.34 for those blueberries. I say that because there really wasn’t much to do there, nay, anything to do there except take pictures. During the regular season they have a tractor ride which wasn’t operational during the extended week that I visited. There’s also a sweet pea maze which I would have done, had I not forgotten about it. So I took a few pictures in the fields which only had ranunculi, and then a few more around the entry and exit where they had a variety of flowers.
And then, I left.
It was time to embark upon the second part of my trip—the food.
To Be Continued…
Oh but first, I really need to find another way to say enjoyable. Oh, and pics to come. (updated 5/23/2021) Now I have pics, so let me leave you with one more…
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