How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Peach and Blueberry Muffins

Back in February when we were visiting Horsewhisperer and her family, Thatboy pointed out that the Horsewhisperers had just moved and we were visiting them, but we still hadn't visited one of his besties, Grateful, who had moved to Washington several years ago.   

Which is a fair complaint, but it's much easier for me, the trip planner, to plan trips to my friends than his.  So I told him if he got some dates from his buddy, I would be happy to plan it.

Which is how we ended up flying to Portland in August.   We flew into Portland because Grateful lives equidistant from Portland and Seattle, and Thatboy's other bestie, Magski, just moved to Portland.

So when we arrived, we made a quick trip to check out her new digs.  Plus our kids hadn't seen each other in a couple of months, so they were super excited for the reunion.

After our visit we hit the road for a bit of a car trip.  The drive was beautiful and I got a kick out of pointing out landmarks from The Oregon Trail.

"Look guys!  It's the Dalles!  That's where you have to decide whether to ford the river or pay the toll!"

We also found the weirdest rest stop, with cows!  And baby cows!

And then, we were in Washington!

Grateful's son isn't as familiar with our boys as Magski's kids are (mostly because I haven't been good about planning trips) but it took no time at all before they were thick as thieves.

This wasn't our first time in Washington, but we never cease to appreciate the beauty it holds.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was going fruit picking.  

There were a bunch of fun things for the kids to do too.  All the boys were very impressed with the tire swings. 

And my kids loved the little train tour around the farm.

What was neat about the experience was the variety. Here in San Diego, there aren't many places you can pick multiple fruits and each fruit has its season.  Grateful took us to a place where we could pick berries, stonefruit, apples - it was amazing.

Our original plan was to do some peach picking.  I love fresh peaches, and my childhood summers in South Carolina and Georgia have filled me with the feeling that it's not really summer without them.  But I've never picked them before!

We couldn't, however, leave without getting some bona fide Washington apples.  And we decided that, given the later apple season in San Diego, that this trip would be our apple picking for the year.

I snuck home some of those apples and peaches.  We snacked on them on the road trip to the airport, and on the plane, and still had a couple of doughnut peaches left over when we got back.  Which I thought would be perfect for muffins.  Throw in a couple of blueberries and it was like extending our trip for a couple more days!

Peach and Blueberry Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 peaches, chopped

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and line a muffin tin with silicone liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
2. In a separate bowl whisk the sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, and almond extract in a bowl.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined.
4. Stir in the peaches and blueberries.  Divide among the muffin cups.
5. Sprinkle the almonds on top and beak for 20 minutes.  Let the muffins cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a rack to cool.