One Last Fling...

I start back to work on Monday so last week I said to David, "Let's just zip up to Solvang for one last fling!" He took it from there and found us a room at the Holiday Inn Express on Wednesday night, so early on Wednesday we headed out for a lovely two days. Here are the pics...

David loves going by way of Cachuma Lake, so we agreed to go up that way and home by way of the coast. The Lake was gorgeous and the water level was topped out.

Here we are, enjoying the perfect weather.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Solvang, besides the gorgeous drive and cute town, was Olsen's Bakery. I wanted to make at least one full meal out of their perfect pastries. They use all the right ingredients so they actually taste as good as they look. Too often when you get something at a bakery it's a disappointment, but not here. That meringue/whipped cream thing on the left is probably my favorite, but I always love a Danish Tea Ball, front, or that almond log thing at the back. The Queen Elizabeth Tart, right, was new, and it turned out to be way too sweet and rich. We took along hard boiled eggs and string cheese to make the meal somewhat nutritious! Yum.

We went to the outdoor theatre where they were showing Two Gentlemen From Verona. All the words were pure Shakespeare but the costumes were '40s, so it was interesting to watch. It got super cold out there, but we were ready... we'd brought coats, thermoses of hot tea and a wool blanket to cover our legs.

Yeah, we were having a good time. 

We normally always eat at the Little Mermaid, but this time we walked around a lot and saw this place over on Copenhagen Street, so we went in here for lunch. I got the open face sandwich plate, below.

Before leaving town, we had to stop once more for a scaled down treat at Olsen's... the coffee is great and we sat right by the open door. The weather was perfect... about 76 degrees with a cool breeze blowing and crystal clear blue skies with a few puffy clouds.

We also bought a kringle to bring home because we'll be having Jim here this weekend... he has to come to represent his company and he'll stay with us for a couple of nights. He has a Danish background and his grandma lived in Solvang, so their family loves these kringles.

Coming home, we headed down the 101, which I love.

Old road, new road, train track.

I love all the bougainvillea planted along the roadside, especially around Santa Barbara.

At Carpenteria we decided to pull off the road and see if there was a place we could take our chairs and get to the beach for a little while. It turned out there was a beautiful nature preserve with trails, right there by the freeway, so we parked, strapped on our chairs, and walked toward the ocean.

This is the path, looking away from the ocean. It was so pretty!

We crossed the tracks and went out to a little spot on a very high cliff, where we sat and read for about 30 minutes.

I wish a train would have come by while we were there, but it didn't. 

Strings of pelicans kept flying by, right at our eye level, and it was so interesting to see them. There was also a fishing boat out there, moving around slowly.

We were able to get a little more sun, before the summer is "over" and we have to go back inside an office. Sweet.

I really appreciate David being a "road warrior" and doing all that driving! It was a fun getaway and I feel like I've had a wonderful time off.