November 11th-14thIn November, we spent four fun-filled days in sunny California. We woke up Veteran’s Day morning, drove to Santa Monica Pier, and then stayed the night in L.A. The next morning we drove along the coast from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. We spent a few hours walking around downtown Santa Barbara looking in the various shops and taking some fun pictures.
Hmm...someday :)
Later that afternoon we continued on our journey towards Los Alamos, CA, where we stayed in the most unique bed and breakfast. Click here to check out the website. Click on the “suites” link on the left to check out the different bedrooms. After some deliberation we decided to stay in the "Egyptian Room". It was the coolest room ever!! The ceiling was draped with material in order to resemble a sheik’s tent and the bathroom door was a King Tut statue. You had to pull on his beard to open the door. It had a fireplace, hot tub and remote controlled lights (allowed you to choose the combinations of color that you wanted). It even had Egyptian music playing and its own “Egyptian scent”. Ours was also the only room to have its own personal patio that overlooked the tree lined streets below. As we were leaving I asked the hostess what the old ship in the backyard was for. She informed us that the owner is currently renovating it to be the 7th guestroom. The theme will be Cast Away. Awesome!! Once that one is finished he wants to build a Tree House Room. Like an actual room in a tree! How cool would that be!? We definitely want to go back and stay in a couple of others.
The Victorian Mansion
The next room
The bathroom door
You know those optical illusions where two objects are morphed together and you either see one thing or the other (depending on right or left brain capabilities)? Well...where Darren saw a statue with a long beard, I saw a statue with a wide, gaping mouth. Imagine seeing that by firelight. Ahh...so romantic.
The next morning we went and walked around The Depot Mall, an old railway depot converted into an antique shop. It’s because of this depot that Los Alamos is knows as the Home of the last Pacific Railway Station. It’s the biggest antique store I’ve ever been in. It was fun to walk around and look at all the old stuff.
After looking through the depot, we headed south to Solvang, CA, in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country. Solvang, a quaint little village meaning “sunny field”, was founded in 1911 by a small group of Danish educators who came looking for warmer weather and less oppression. It consists of many shops and buildings that follow traditional Danish architecture and bakeries that offer authentic Danish food. It has a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen and a park named after the famed Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen (even though when asked, Darren thought he was a famous speed skater). For lunch we tried the famous frikadeller, medisterpølse, and rødkaal (meatball, Danish sausage and pickled red cabbage). For breakfast we tried the aebleskiver (light and airy pancake balls dusted with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam). Needless to say, lunch was an adventure but the aebleskivers were amazing!! Some of our favorite shops were Jule Hus, a year round Christmas shop, the Thomas Kinkade Gallery (so many amazing paintings), and the Solvang Antique Center. My favorite part was the antique clocks. They were so beautiful and ornate. The most expensive one I saw was an 1870 American made for $123, 000. Can you even imagine? Solvang was such a fun place to visit with its old fashioned buildings and tree lined, lantern lined streets. What a perfect vacation!
Hans Christian Andersen statue
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medisterpolse and rodkaal for lunch
there were storks on a lot of the buildings (In Denmark, a stork roosting on your roof is considered good luck)
Looks like so much fun for you two! I think I would have chosen the 50's room! All the rooms look like fun though. Makes me want to plan a trip with my hubby. It gets harder to plan those get aways once kids are involved.
So did you guys dance in the aisles at the concert?? I know Darren knows the cha cha but would have loved to have seen him do the polka. :)