Vista ranch

My parents owned this 10 acre ranch near Bonsall, CA (near Vista, which is near San Diego) for 10 years while I was growing up as a kid and teenager.  We never had horses on it.  They never bought me a horse.  It was an investment property for them, but, as I said, they did keep it for 10 years.  It was often our weekend getaway.  As a child, I used to wander all over the ranch and then later, after they sold it and kept the 2nd mortgage on it, I rode the horses of the folks who lived there.  I have many, many fond memories of this ranch and whenever we are near San Diego, I drive by it.  Yesterday the sky was gorgeous...lots of clouds and some blue sky.  Isn't it beautiful now?  It was pretty run down when my parents bought it and I remember my dad filling up his trailer with all kinds of trash and going to the dump MANY, MANY times.  The barn had an old tack room and I would go in there and just inhale all the delicious smells!  The barn smelled like hay, too.  I actually stopped there a couple of years ago, introduced myself, and the current owner took me on a tour.  WOW!  They have really updated it.  I'm glad to see the metal roof still there.  My dad put that on the barn because the old wooden roof had too many holes in it and was falling down.  I remember him having a rope around his middle as he sat on the top, pounding in those aluminum sheets.  Yes, there were rattlesnakes all around.  I never ran into one, but Dad would go out, find them, and shoot them (those were the days....so please don't criticize...I didn't kill them)...He didn't want me to run into any of them and I never did, although while riding the family's horses later, I did hear one buzzing near the road a couple of times.  Good thing my horse didn't spook!

The Vista ranch in autumn

Hubby and I drove down to San Juan Capistrano for the night and, of course, I had to drive by the old Vista ranch.  It's a 10 acre ranch located actually near Bonsall, CA.  It's now updated and used as a horse riding and equestrian center (as you can tell from the photos).  Whenever we drive to San Diego, we ALWAYS drive by it and take photos.  My parents owned this ranch for 10 years, while I was a kid and teenager.  We never had horses there.  They never bought me a horse and I didn't rescue my first horse until I was 54 years young!   :-)  The sky was GORGEOUS yesterday, so I took several photos.