Solvang and Santa Ynez

We left Carlsbad in the morning and headed up the coast, stopping in Santa Barbara for a short bike ride along the water and then some lunch on State Street, the bustling center of Santa Barbara's old area.  Very pretty.  We then headed to Solvang.

Solvang is a quaint little town which seems to be very authentically Danish.  Never having been to Denmark I can't say for sure but the town works hard to keep its authentic look and if there are any chain stores around, they are cleverly integrated into the ambience.  Pastry Shops were the most prevalent, but there were clock shops, cheese stores, restaurants and parks.  And there was free parking everywhere.

After a few hours in Solvang, we decided to backtrack the few miles to Santa Ynez to our AirBnB house.  This was to be our first experience with renting a room in someones house, ostensibly sharing the house with the owner.  We followed directions into a nice residential neighborhood of well groomed ranch style houses until we came to the address, which compared to the surrounding properties, looked abandoned.  (Later, the owner herself said they liked to keep their property "natural".  That was an understatement.)  We let ourselves in the house with the given code, and followed the arrows to our room.  Clean and with our own bathroom right next to the bedroom.

 Honestly though, the house looked abandoned.  We brought our bags in and decided to go into Santa Ynez for dinner.  As we were walking toward the car the owner came from the backyard.  She had been gardening and feeding the chickens and the horses.  She showed us around the yard, said we should feel free to sit anywhere out there and enjoy.  However, the backyard looked as "natural" as the front and there didn't seem to be a clean place to sit.

Santa Ynez turned out to have 2 restaurants, one which served $18 bean burritos and one which served only steak.  It did have a great library though.  Here is a pic.

It was closed though, so we couldn't enjoy the probably 10 books it was able to hold.  We found a country market, bought some take out food and found a park in Solvang to eat on picnic tables.  It was cold(!) and we didn't sit too long.

The next morning we headed back into Solvang for breakfast.  I have a nice picture of Cindy sitting in a very authentic Danish Pastry Shop having what else, an apple danish.  However, she will not permit me to publish the photo, so here is another generic picture of Solvang.