Solvang

Monday we visited Solvang, CA.  It's a Danish tourist town.  The drive there was so cold and foggy.  Seriously, we could only see about 12 feet in front of the car on this steep narrow mountain pass.  Then we turned a corner and it was sunny and clear.  Of course we had to stop and take a picture...

We stopped at a beautiful lavender farm.

There were bees everywhere.  But we walked through the field (very carefully) anyway!

The lavender farm also had a Statue of Liberty lawn ornament.

We stopped at a mini-horse ranch.

 Why, yes.  Those are mini-horses in the background.

 Okay, so it's hard to tell, but the horses really were tiny.

I don't know why many of them are lying down on their side.  Is that normal? I thought horses hardly ever did that.

We also stopped at a playground.  Ya know.  Because we are kids.

 I took this one while I was swinging.  I'm a champion like that.  Really, though, how cool is that Viking ship?!

I really liked this clock tower.

It was strange to still see palm trees, because we were in the mountains and it so didn't feel like Southern California.

Finally we hit Solvang!

We took a trolley ride through town.

The town had three big windmills.

We ate some good aebleskiver.  They tasted like pancakes with jam.

There were fake storks on many buildings for good luck (not for babies).

I look just like the mermaid.  Except I'm not made of metal.

We visited the Hans Christian Anderson museum.

 

 Old books look soooo cool.

I wonder how many little people you could fit in this shoe at one time...

We heard there was a ship in the nave of a church in Solvang.  T and I thought it would be a huge ship and maybe the pulpit would be in it or something equally awesome.  We were slightly disappointed when this is all it was.

This house had it's own windmill.  It made me laugh.

We took a little hike (seriously 10 minutes - we saw people with strollers do it).  This was the sign in front of the trail.  Notice that "mountain lions seem to be especially drawn" to children.  HaHa.

We spent a bit of time in Santa Barbara, too.  We visited this tiny beach:

That had this warning sign:

So we went down the steps.  There's only 150, not 1,000.  We went at high tide because that's when it fit in our schedule.  Here's what we saw at the bottom of the steps:

Why, yes - the ocean is literally at the very bottom of the steps. 

Next time we will go during low tide and actually see the beach part.  It's supposed to be beautiful and secluded.

So we visited the wharf and were freaked out by the fact that the Santa Barbara beach runs almost exactly east / west instead of north / south.  T was so freaked out he couldn't even open his eyes.

And they lived happily ever after.  Because how can you not live happily ever after when there is an option for pirate cruises? The end.