Solvang

Dave's schedule has him leaving for work each weekday at about 7:00 am and returning home between 7:00 and 7:30 pm. So he gets to see Clay for about 30 minutes on either end of the day. The upside is he has a job he likes with people he gets along with; the down side is the commute runs about 1:15 minutes each direction on a good day.

On Monday D took the day off and we headed up the coast to Solvang... without the camera. Ugh. Of course. So this 'family day' post will have to rely on images hijacked from the internet...

I hope this hijacker won't mind the photo I swiped off his blog.

It was awesome going up on a Monday. Traffic through Santa Barbara was non-existent and the 154/San Marcos Pass was really pretty, well except for all the east side which was totally scorched in the big fire a few months ago. The weather was great - 70 degrees and everything else looked scrubbed clean from the few days of rain the week prior.

The other great part of Solvang is also why Palm Springs is nice to visit. It's made for old folks and it runs slowly making it perfect for a baby. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get up there and our first stop, after getting a recommendation from the visitors center, was the Red Viking Restaurant

The Red Viking, 1684 Copenhagen Drive, Solvang, CA 805.688.6610

Imagine AC, DC and Lil C in a booth waaaayyyy in the back surrounded by booths of retirees who each had a sweet comment about Clay on their way out. I'm not sure the place would even register on the Zagat scale. My salad was clearly an overdue bag of greens with a 'plop' of blue cheese dressing splattered in the center, but it served our purpose for the moment. They also serve the famous Danish aebelskivers which is like a spherical pancake with jam and powdered sugar. Not really my thing but they're popular.

Aebelskiver

After lunch we cruised around the town. Clay discovered lots of doorways to hide in, rocks to pick up and stairs to climb. We got back in the car and headed to a pick-your-own apple orchard. On our way up Alamo Pintado Road we passed Sunny Fields Park, it looks like a cool old medieval city. We didn't have time to stop this trip but we'll check it out next time.

Apple Lane Farms is just up the road from downtown Solvang about five minutes drive. Much of the apples had been picked but we found a corner of the orchard with some Granny Smith's and some super small but ripe Fuji apples. In between the rows were pumpkins on the vines. I wasn't sad we didn't stay long because Clay kept picking up the rotten or insect-ridden apples from the dirt. To alleviate this we put him on Dave's shoulder and he picked a couple of Granny Smith's himself. A picture of that would've been great.

1200 Alamo Pintado Road • Solvang, CA 93463 • 805-688-5481

Our last stop was Quicksilver Ranch, a miniature horse farm. The smallest ones were absolutely adorable. With stocky legs and round bellies they don't grow more than waist high. People keep them as pets or as show horses. Can you imagine one of these running around your backyard? While we were there a couple of the 'vaqueros' were rounding up a young horse to get washed and clipped before they delivered her to her new owners. They let Clay pet the philly's mane before they took her into the stable. If only we had a ranch and an extra $2,250 Clay could finally stop torturing Bo Bear and ride around the cul-de-sac on a miniature horse.

1555 Alamo Pintado Road Solvang, California 93463