Bullish on History

Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest is the county’s first such park. Four local structures span the period from Mexican rancho days to the citrus farm era. Visitors can tour the Serrano Adobe (built about 1863), the only one of the buildings that stands on its original site; El Toro Grammar School and St. George’s Episcopal Mission (from the 1890s) and the Bennett Ranch House (1908). Contemplate the experience while noshing next door at Bagels & Brew.

MORNING 1

The buildings at Heritage Hill, furnished according to the taste of the times, are virtually all that is left of old El Toro. Start at the Serrano Adobe.

Don Jose Serrano raised longhorn cattle. He also had a vineyard and a small racetrack on his 10,688-acre Rancho Canada de los Alisos. (Horses are still boarded in stables adjacent to the park.)

Dwight Whiting bought the adobe in 1884; his son, George, renovated it in the 1930s and used it as a hunting lodge until the 1950s. Note the mule deer antlers on the exterior and the longhorns over the fireplace.

The hand-carved beds from Mexico date from the next owners, the Bakers. In the bedroom are men’s spats, a wooden glove stretcher and a hair-keeper. (Women would weave the hair that came out in their brushes into hairpieces.) Outside is an oven called an horno, which looks like a clay igloo.

Dwight Whiting tried to entice more English settlers by writing a book, “Fruit Farming for Profit in California.” When they came, they worshiped at St. George’s Episcopal Mission. You can see the original baptismal font--a huge clamshell from the South Pacific, and the original reed pump organ, still in fine fettle.

There’s also a scale model of old El Toro in a side chamber and, outside, a straw dummy in the outhouse; kids squeal with delight when they open the door.

The one-room schoolhouse actually has five rooms. The older kids’ desks have holes for inkwells; younger students used slates. All students drank from a bucket of water using a communal dipper. Families converted old tobacco tins to lunch pails.

Among posted rules for teachers in 1872:

* Teachers each day will fill lamps, trim the wicks and clean chimneys.

* Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual tastes of the pupils.

The Bennett Ranch features a scooped “airplane” roof, the original gas pump, a grandmother clock and a contraption designed for poaching eggs, toasting toast and cooking sausages and bacon. There’s an old buggy in the adjacent visitors center.

Nearby is a 4-foot cross-section of a 150-year-old oak that fell on Trabuco Road in 1985.

LUNCH 2

There are country French striped awnings at Bagels & Brew, and murals showing scenes of the Cafe de Bagel, Rue de Bagel and Ave. de Latte, with faces of loyal customers peering out the windows of those buildings.

Among 27 kinds of fresh-baked bagels are lemon poppy, marble (rye and pumpernickel) and carrot spice (with pineapple, walnuts and raisins). They’re 60 to 70 cents apiece, but according to the menu, if you buy 11, you get two free. (Brew refers to coffee, not beer.)

Also on the menu are omelets, sandwiches such as turkey pesto supreme and Mexicali Philly, and surf-themed smoothies. Recent soup of the day was “Italian Wedding.”

After lunch, consider relaxing with a good book beneath the shady eucalyptus at Serrano Creek Park on Serrano Road.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

1) Heritage Hill Historical Park

25151 Serrano Road, (949) 855-2028.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Tours 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday and 2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.

2) Bagels & Brew

21771 Lake Forest Drive, No. 100, (949) 951-8985.

6 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

Parking: There is free parking in lots at each location.

Buses: OCTA bus No. 177 (Foothill Ranch-Laguna Hills) runs along Lake Forest Drive with stops at Serrano and Trabuco roads.