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!

Solvang, CA.

At 11:55 am on Friday, jon and I left the house and headed to California’s Denmark! Aka a little slice of heaven.  We hit traffic in la, obviously, then got a little bit sidetracked trying to find the kardashian’s store in Calabasas (it’s closed) but that is neither here nor there. We drove through Santa Barbara and up through the mountains. It was at about 4 pm and the lighting was perfect. the scenery was breathtaking. We were on our way to motel 6 when we spotted a more convenient motel. We hastily cancelled our reservations without even looking at the room, a move we would dearly pay for. The lady in the office was sweet, but boy could she talk. She burned up the few precious minutes of remaining daylight we had and had hoped to see solvang with. She showed us our room and we left before we started regretting our decision and headed to solvang. It was no more than 5 minutes down the ‘busy’ road. We passed an LDS church along the way, nestled among a Baptist church, a winery resort and a jehovahs witness hall. A little something for everyone, eh? :)

Driving into solvang was everything we had hoped it would be. The buildings, streets, trees…everything was perfect! It reminded jon and I exactly of our time spent separately in denmark. My dad, Amanda and I went on a scandinavian cruise in 2006 and it left from denmark. We had a couple days to look around and it was beautiful. Jon served his mission in Sweden and in some areas the nearest temple was in denmark, so they’d spend the day there on temple days.

Our first stop was the solvang brewing company for dinner. It was complete with Danish folk paintings and romantic lighting. That being said, all the doors were open and it was freezing inside. The main fireplace wasn’t enough to keep the place warm. We got there at about 5:30 and just beat the dinner rush. We sat right next to the fireplace. We got a Danish sausage sampler for our appetizer; Jon liked it more than I did. The spicey sausage could have been the culprit of my painful stomach ache later that night...though it also could have resulted from the food we ate on our road trip which included tootsie rolls, banana bread, dots, chocolate covered peeps, spicy cheetos, salt and vinegar chips, chocolate granola bars, etc…with little to no water consumption. Anyway, for the main dish jon ordered a Danish burger and I had his French onion soup. His Danish burger was made with a beef and pork patty and had lingonberries. He loved it.

After dinner, we struck up conversation with one of the store workers and asked him what there was to do at night. We told him we didn’t drink to narrow down our options. He asked if we were mormon and continued to tell us that he used to be, too! He went to mexico city on his mission, the same mission my dad went to. He was really nice, but said that everywhere in solvang closes early, I guess that is European.

We walked around for awhile to scout out all the places we wanted to visit the next morning. It was so cute, even at night. Now that it gets dark so early, it always seems much later than it is. Secretly, I really like having it get dark at 5. We went back to our motel at about 8 and were forced to deal with our rash decision. It. Was. FREEZING! In our room!! There was no heater, and a big gap above the swamp cooler that was allowing a draft. Jon went to get a heater from the lady at the front desk while I laid on the bed crippled in pain. Luckily I fell asleep at about 8:30, and jon was successful in getting a heater. More good news, the bed was a king size. That is absolutely unheard of since we have been sleeping on a full our entire marriage. Still, I woke up in the middle of the night to jon RIGHT next to me, and sharing my pillow.

my dads dream come true.

this is a teeny replica of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. when my family was there, we saw the real one on the shore in denmark. 

horrifying.