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!).
