Solvang

This Valentine's Day Brad and I took advantage of our "Nanny Rafa" (Roz) one last time before she gets married and moves to Florida. Just the two of us went to Solvang, CA for the weekend and stayed in our timeshare there.

The gentle rolling hills, windmills, quiet streets, horse drawn carriages, horse ranches, wineries, Danish bakeries, authentic Danish costumes worn by some shop keepers, Danish smorgaasbord restaurants, museums of racing and Solvang history, in the Danish atmosphere and architecture were waiting for us!



It was a beautiful 4 hour drive where we had great (uninterrupted) conversations and since he drove I was able to snap shots from the car. Here's one of a lake we passed, we both marveled at the water lines in the rock formations.



This place just looked so peaceful!



In Solvang we went straight to the timeshare to check in and get some advise on where to go for dinner, this quaint little cottage was accross the street and I just had to take it's picture.



How Dutch does this look! God's glory shone all around this village!



Brad snapped this shot Saturday morning while I was in the gym working out, yes, even on vaccation! I love how he captured the low morning fog, by the time I got back to the room this was gone.

We ate breakfast at this diner, The Little Mermaid Resturaunt. I had Danish Sausage and traditional rapsberry jam on an Engligh Muffin. Brad had AEBLESKIVER (Pancake balls with Powdered Sugar) but by the time I got out the camera to take a picture, his was gone! HA! HA!

Just some snapshots taken while we walked around the village:

After window shopping and checking out the town we decided to do some real sight seeing so we drove to Nojoqui Falls Park and hiked up the trail to the water fall. Upon seeing the "Falls" we decided there should've been a larger downpour since we had just missed the rainy season, but alas, the falls were slim. But there was plenty of creation to photograph, it's just too gorgeous for words, I hope I captured it's essence well enough for you.

On our way back down the trail we saw a tree that had been completely hollowed out by nature barely standing along a hillside. I climbed down to the roots and Brad and I took pictures of each other through the tree:

These two trees seemed to be dancing with one another.

This countryside is something I never expected to see in California.

Another thing I came upon as we were headed back down the path (I guess we didn't notice these things on our way up because we were just too set on seeing the waterfall) was this wishing well, then in town I noticed a store with that name so I had to snap a shot for the scrapbook!

The view at sunrise Sunday morning from our terrace was this:

I wanted to do some wine tasting while in Solvang even though neither Brad nor I really drink, we walked into this store to ask about wine tasting right in the middle of a cheese tasting... cheese... that's something we DO eat, so we tasted that instead! One word... delicious!

We had to be home Sunday night by around 5:00 PM so we had breakfast one last time and got in the car headed for home when we passed a mission. Brad is a big fan of History and wanted to stop and fill in some of his "cubby holes" with some more information so we turned around... not realizing it was open for Sunday Mass! So he read what he could on the plaques hanging around and I snapped a few photos and we were once again on our way back to Victorville.

I sipped on my coconut lime latte and soaked in this view while Brad soaked up some history.

One last stop, what's the rush? We've got 5 hours to get home and it'll only take 4. We pulled over to a lookout point over Lake Cachuma at the Bradbury Dam. More picture perfect scenery!

Brad and I recommend visiting Solvang if you are looking for a quiet, peaceful, romantic getaway with your spouse or significant other!