The Getaway - Part I

This past weekend, I dipped into my credit cards, and decided to take the wife out for a planned weekend getaway to Solvang, CA. It's about 140 miles north of Los Angeles. Since I get out of work at 2:30 PM everyday, we hit the road at around 3:00 PM, not expecting much traffic. We underestimated the 101 Freeway it seems, as there was traffic, even that early on in the afternoon, pretty much all the way to Ventura County, which is almost 45 minutes away from where we live . . . with good traffic. Regardless, we made it through, and enjoyed the rest of the drive up north.

We got to Highway 246, which takes you straight through the Danish town of Solvang. Right before we got there, we pulled over to the side of the road to hang out with some Ostriches . . . yes, the giant birds. They have an Ostrich farm up there which offers a pretty reasonable price for feeding and photo ops with their Ostriches and Emus. Nice little time.

After that, we made it to our hotel, after enjoying the Danish architecture that permeates the town. I had made reservations for this place a week or so in advance, just based on how good the room looked. Well, it wasn't quite that great when we got there. Different bedspread, too much "quaint-ness" for our tastes. But, it's just a room, and we did have our share of fun in there. I don't think I need to elaborate much about that . . . hint hint.

That late afternoon, we decided to explore the town a bit. We walked to the main thoroughfare, and discovered that the whole town closes at 6:00 PM. Restaurants were still open, but none of the shops were open for business that "late" in the afternoon. They must be on some elderly early bird schedule. We made it to a restaurant with a windmill on it and decided to sample the "Smorgasboard" . . . which is Dutch for buffet. It was, nothing to write home about, but . . . apparently, blog-worthy. Stuffed, we somehow managed to get back to the bed and breakfast, even though we could barely walk. It was quite the challenge.

That night, after digesting, we hit up a local pub and had a couple of drinks. Well, the Cosmopolitan I had probably contained 3 shots of vodka in it, so it might have been more than a couple. We enjoyed the local color, as we overheard several townie conversations about this and that. It was quite interesting. Then, feeling a little tipsy due to the Jack and Coke that finished off our night of drinking (for myself), we headed back to our room.