Santa Ynez Valley

Jill's Journal: We spent a truly wonderful week exploring the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley and yet, for all the traipsing around we did, I feel like I got a paltry amount of photos. And the ones I did get didn’t really showcase the loveliness of this place. So, in these days of the web, I spent a few minutes scouring cyberspace and found a few images which captured this area far better than I did.

Lake Cachuma.

The quaint western town of Santa Ynez, the valley’s namesake.

Tiny and charming Ballard.

Los Olivos.

Buellton.

Solvang…

…and another of Solvang, really the signature town of this area.

We also would have loved to try the Danish treat of "aebleskivers" at an authentic Danish bakery. They’re supposed to be light and airy pancake-like balls dusted with powdered sugar and topped with raspberry jam. Apparently people proclaim them a little bit of heaven, but after checking at three different bakeries, we learned it’s common for them to be cooked in peanut oil (something about peanut oil cooking hotter and quicker). Keeping our peanut allergy girl safe immediately trumps any anticipated culinary experience in our book. But if you go, be sure to try them (and please let us know how they are!).

Solvang and More

Jill's Journal: Between 1850 and the early 1900s, about one out of every 10 Danes left Denmark and emigrated elsewhere. Many of them ended up in the Midwestern United States. One group of Danes left the Midwest after some time and ventured even further west to California. In 1911 they began a Danish village on 9,000 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley. The unbelievably beautiful weather must have been a “velkommen” respite from what they were accustomed to in Scandinavia and then in the Midwest.

The new settlement was named “Solvang,” which means “sunny field” in Danish.

Today, just 101 years later, Solvang has been named one of the nation’s top five US destinations with “international flair.” There’s just over 5,000 residents who call “Little Denmark” home, but the amount of visitors swells the ranks daily. Many of the buildings represent traditional Danish architecture and the amount of Danish bakeries, smorgasbords, restaurants, merchants, and stores is dizzying. There’s so much to love about this adorable little town, which is best seen on foot. And while so many confirmed tourist spots quickly lose their charm, this one sweeps visitors up in the fun and never gets old.

The girls are in front of the exact replica of Denmark’s famous Little Mermaid statue, which is of course based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. I later showed the girls a picture of me in front of the original Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen from 20 years ago (20!). They were not impressed. There’s nothing like kids to keep one humble and remind one that the past doesn’t matter as much as the present.

We visited the historic Bethania Lutheran Church, the first building in Solvang to depart from typical California architecture and be built in traditional Danish style. Inside, a small ship hangs from the ceiling, paying tribute to Denmark’s seafaring history.

Even the local park/playground is whimsical (and a favorite of the girls).

In neighboring Los Olivos, Denmark seems a world away. Here the architecture is all American and very rustic. This little shop, Global Gardens, is renowned for its olive oil.

Wine tastings are big business in this area, but the girls are way too young for this area’s famed crop. However, they did get to experience their very first tasting…of olive oils and balsamic vinegars! I think they felt very grown-up and very much enjoyed the whole experience. We tasted 15 or so different oils and vinegars, complete with dipping bread. It’s amazing how much the flavor varies from one to the next.

The 2004 Academy Award-winning movie “Sideways” was filmed almost entirely on location in Buellton and Solvang (and the surrounding wine country). This hotel served as “The Windmill” where several pivotal hotel scenes were filmed. It’s really the Days Inn in Buellton.

The restaurants and wineries in the film all go by their real names (and the ostrich farm we visited a few days ago is even mentioned when Thomas Haden Church gets caught with his pants down and runs from Solvang to Buellton naked). We stopped in to try the wine at Kalyra, where Sandra Oh acted as a wine pourer.

I don’t recall this being shown in “Sideways,” but it’s a wonderful tribute to our country’s flag on the main street, Avenue of the Flags, in Buellton. Five or six statues of people are pledging their allegiance.

Between Solvang and Buellton is this gate at the entrance to Monty Roberts’ Flag Is Up Farms. Roberts is world-famous as the “horse whisperer.” As is common with so many of the wonderful farms around here, he welcomes visitors to the farm. The girls and I spotted the man himself in an office as we walked by a window.

Roberts’ most famous horse is probably Shy Boy, a wild mustang who chose life with Monty over returning to his herd.

Here’s a random barn at Flag Is Up, complete with horses waiting patiently. Next door is River Edge Farm, which my Thoroughbred friends would recognize as Marty Wygod’s place. It’s lovely and would fit into Kentucky very nicely.

Of course, where there aren’t horses in this area, there can be found grapevines. The weather is warm during the day and cool at night, ideal for developing the perfect grapes for wine. It’s picturesque, isn’t it?

Sometimes you're the pigeon...

Sometimes, you're the statue.
Today, I got to be both.

Over the last couple of days we ran into a couple of small issues, which likely could have been major issues for some - but we're on the road full-time, so we have to see it as ‘every issue presents opportunity’, and so we keep try to keep everything in perspective...

First - the van sprang a leak in a tire a couple of days ago. I figured it was the trip through the Carizzo Plain because the roads to the fault were so rough, but it turned out to be a screw in the tire. Thankfully we have an air-pump, eventually found a shop, and were on our way in a very short amount of time – without needing a new tire. I was the statue for a good couple of days, but I pigeoned up. 

Second - when we left Templeton, I ran into a problem with the truck. We went down to gas up and the truck wouldn't take fuel. Sure, I could get a gallon in the tank, but then I had to wait 10 minutes before I could get another gallon in. (BTW – If you hadn’t noticed, here, I'm all Statue…in the place where tourists think its cute to feed pigeons...) Putting a half-a-tank of fuel in the truck coming out of Atascadero took an hour. I ate lunch at the fuel hose. I had no idea why; no concept of the problem. After a long wait, and a lot of work, I put in as much fuel as we'd need to the next destination, and hoped that the problem would be fixed when we arrived by the jostling and movement of driving, and prayed I’d use the words ‘Vapor Lock’, which I used to deal with in the Mercedes - a temporary condition that just takes time. (Statue.)

When we got into Buellton it didn’t get better. The truck took 1.145 gallons before spitting fuel back onto the concrete. So, I thought logically. It had to be a blockage, had to be something I could fix. I went to the parts store and asked for a shop. I spent an hour at the shop while they regaled me with tales, told me that I’d likely have to drop the tank because “clearly the kids put a ball into the filler cap.” I KNOW that wasn’t the case. Anyway, they told me to pull the hoses and see where the blockage was. OK, I know the kids weren’t to blame, but it has to be something, right? So, tools in-hand, truck up-in-the-air, gloves-on, I pulled the entire assembly from filler cap to tank. No obstruction. No kids playing ‘fillup daddy’s truck’, just like I knew. I stuck tubes into the tank – no obstruction. Oh well. I prepared to stay an extra week here, and to send the truck into the shop to drop the tank and find the internal problem. (Statue.)

So I put it all back together, smelling like brake cleaner and diesel and looking like I rolled around in oil, head-to-toe. I took it over to the pump to make certain how much fuel I could put in so that I could tell Rich (the shop owner), and BOOM – I’ve never been soooo happy to see a $99 fuel charge. I went back to see Rich to thank him for making me take it apart. We proceeded to swap horror stories for the next half-hour. Apparently his shop is THE place in town for gearheads to talk about what they know. Wow, it is amazing what happens to trucks.

We’ll see if this problem ever arises again. Rich and I couldn’t figure it out, and I’ve chocked it up to killing the ‘vapor lock’ because by removing everything that’s the only thing that makes logical sense. The fact probably is that the high-flow hose in Atascadero was too high-flow for the truck’s setup. We won’t be doing that again.

At the end of the day – I felt pretty pigeon. I hate being the statue.

Giant Birds and Tiny Horses

Jill's Journal: Many of the farms in the Santa Ynez Valley welcome visitors and tourists, which is simply bliss for our farm-loving, animal-loving little girls. And while they certainly enjoyed feeding the ostriches and emus at Ostrich Land, Erika, Madelyn, and Victoria went absolutely gaga over the miniature horses at Quicksilver Ranch.

First, the ostriches -- these big birds are not the friendly type and are extremely aggressive eaters, so it actually takes a lot of courage for little kids to offer food to them (and hold the bowl still while the birds attack it). Ostrich Land itself doesn’t hold much charm, but the girls actually remembered quite a bit from the wonderful and informative ostrich breeding farm tour we took last year in Tehachapi. They could identify which birds were female vs. male and remembered quite a few of the unusual facts and breeding information we learned there. Maybe things do sink in!

As fun as it is to feed an ostrich, it doesn’t seem to compare to the wonder these little girls have around miniature horses. Quicksilver Ranch is a breeding farm with a staggering 65 head of minis. I can’t imagine a cuter thing to breed and raise. These little guys and gals are off-the-charts adorable and even the stalls, fencing, and feeders at Quicksilver are mini-sized. A very kind lady at the farm answered several questions for us. Madelyn was especially enamored with “Macho Man,” pint-sized even by mini standards, and Erika fell for a blue-eyed paint. Naturally, they wished with all their hearts to take their picks home. But Victoria? When asked which one she would have liked to take home, she sighed and with a sly grin said, “All of them.”

California’s “Kentucky of the West”

Jill's Journal: We’ve been in the Santa Ynez Valley – which includes the neighboring small towns of Buellton, Solvang, Los Olivos, Ballard, and Santa Ynez itself, all around 15 miles inland and just above Santa Barbara – since Sunday and it took us less than 30 seconds to fall in love with the area. Seriously. The picturesque, rolling hills are dotted with vineyards, but – even better – there’s bucolic horse farms (Thoroughbred, Icelandic, miniature, and more) at every turn. We are smitten. When we spotted literature proclaiming this area the “Kentucky of the west; California’s horse country,” at least that explained why we like it so much. Oh yes, we like it here very, very much.

If we ever decide to call California home again, this is the spot (well, not necessarily the exact place in the photo above, but the general area!). Or it would be if we had a few million to spare. Unfortunately, real estate with a few acres here is outrageously priced (yes, we like it enough to have checked!).

With as taken as we are by the area, it’s no surprise we’re not the first ones to have felt this way. Ronald Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo was not far from here. He used it as his retreat during his presidency and it became known as the “Western White House.” Among the international dignitaries he hosted here were Queen Elizabeth II and Mikhail Gorbachev. And it turns out Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was/is here too. There goes the neighborhood!

We’ve spent some time in the darling little Danish town of Solvang, which just celebrated its 100-year anniversary last year. Rob and I have both been here before, both separately and together, and it’s touristy but just such a delight. This meticulous, picturesque, pedestrian-friendly little village has flower-lined streets and windmills and is the closest thing to Denmark here in America.

I want to shrink our girls and put them in these traditional Danish clothes! How adorable would that be?

Ornamental storks appear on rooftops all over the town. The Danes consider them good luck (as do the Dutch…I wonder how many European cultures do?).

There’s a statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish writer of just about every good fairy tale known to children…

…and a small museum dedicated to him and his 160+ fairy tales known the world over…

…which includes things like authentic correspondence from the man himself, who lived from 1805 to 1875.

In next-door Buellton, one can’t pass up a visit to Pea Soup Andersen’s, a stopover for travelers since 1924.

The rest of the food is nothing to write home about, but the signature split pea soup is delicious. Andersen’s serves over two million bowls of it annually.