Velkommen til Solvang!

Monday, 15 October.  We took Sunday off and just relaxed after the five-hour drive south on 101 from Morgan Hill.  We did manage to get in a driving tour of the base and ended up way out on the west side of the base at one of the four beaches VAFB has to offer, Wall Beach.  Turned out to be a fairly deserted beach, and we took advantage and did some beach walking/beach-combing.  We hope to spend most of one full day later this week at the beach, again, just relaxing. Okay, maybe some surf wading and looking for shells.  But that’s it!

Today, Monday, we opted to head over Solvang and do some sightseeing at this picturesque little town with a Danish theme.  If you’ve never been to Solvang, make it a sure stop if ever in this part of CA.  Solvang (Danish for “sunny field”) is a beautiful little town nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley of CA.  Founded in 1911 by a small group of Danish teachers, Solvang today is home to many fine restaurants and dozens of lovely quaint little shops to explore.  There are Danish festivals, quiet tree-lined streets, horse drawn wagons, a Hans Christian Andersen Park, windmills, and oodles of Danish pastry and hand-made chocolate shops.  Anyone out there with a keen interest in Solvang, the link to the Elverhoj Museum provides a lot of the town's early history.

The drive into the Santa Ynez valley and surrounding hills took a little over 30 minutes and we passed field after field of what looked like sugar beets along the Santa Ynex River.  As we got closer to Solvang, vineyards suddenly became more frequent, and while we didn’t go in for any wine tasting today, we just might try another short journey up to Solvang – and to Los Olivos, just a few miles further north – and sample some of the wines in this part of CA.  We found a nice place for lunch, right on the main thoroughfare, the Solvang Brewing Company.  

Lynette opted for a sampler plate of sausages and a glass of CA Riesling, while I had their fish-and-chips, washed down with a pint of their Windmill Wheat Ale, a Belgian style beer accented with orange peels and other spices. Ice cold, it was particularly refreshing on this warm day.  After lunch we walked around Solvang’s quaint streets, strolling in one shop, then another, and another, and so on.  We ended our afternoon in this really cool town by purchasing a selection of fine chocolates and a couple Danish pastries for our breakfast tomorrow morning.