Eats, treats, and shopping.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early! Since I had gone to sleep at 8:30 the night before, I kept waking up in the middle of the night wondering why it wasn’t 7 yet. I woke jon up at 5:35 and told him that it was the longest night ever! we got ready and headed into town at about 8:30. We ate at Paula's Pancake House. It was freezing, so no one was really eating outside. Usually there is a really long wait, but we walked right  in and sat on the patio. Jon ordered the Danish pancakes with warm cinnamon apples and I ordered the scrambled eggs with bacon and hash browns. It was really good and actually quite warm thanks to the hot chocolate. We spent the day shopping in all the adorable stores and site seeing. We stopped at two different chocolate factories, and indulged in all the Scandinavian culture. We ate lunch at a cute little Nordic bistro. We sat out on the patio again. It was on a corner, so there were lots of people out and about, we even saw a horse drawn trolley. I got the caesar salad and chicken artichoke soup. The soup was soo good. Jon got the Scandinavian combo which included a Danish sausage, three Swedish meatballs covered in brown gravy. and some red cabbage that went untouched. What we enjoyed most about solvang was the food and the cute little Christmas store we went into.

We left solvang after lunch and drove on the coast through Santa Barbara, then headed to Los Angeles!

We drove straight to the golden state cafe to meet up with brynne and tanner! The burger joint was really nice and had a fun vibe. The burgs were excellent, but the conversation and company was even better! It is always so fun seeing old friends in new places. They are the best. :)

We had a motel reservation Saturday night set up which was actually really close to where we ate. We walked over there and promptly cancelled our reservation upon seeing the front desk employee behind thick plexiglass and a live tree growing in the lobby. It wasn’t as good as it sounds. We did find a really nice antique store on our way there and spent some time looking around. We saw a famous person there, but three days later, we still can’t think of his name…. we will give you 6 hints.  Short. Old. Flamboyant. White hair. Glasses. Gay. Emphasis on short and flamboyant. We think he is in television shows.

After our time in the antique shop, we decided it was time we needed to find a hotel. It was probably about 8 o'clock, and we were getting desperate. The frei’s suggested we try the negotiator. Dealing with priceline was a nightmare, but we ended up getting a really nice room at the double tree  in downtown LA with free parking (it was supposed to be $30 a day). the room was half the usual price thanks to the negotiator!