2018 - August 25th-26th - Overnight Trip to Solvang

We decided on a short overnight trip up to Solvang. Thanks to Carrie and Ed suggesting a great lunch stop outside of Santa Barbara, we started out get-away with a first stop at The Cold Spring Tavern at San Marcos Pass. The earliest recorded mention of the San Marcos Pass was in the early 19th century as the connection between Mission Santa Barbara and its farm at Ranch San Marcos in the Santa Ynez Valley.  John C. Fremont and his troops traveled the pass during the Mexican-American War on their way south from Monterey to Los Angeles.  By the late 1860s the demand had grown for improved roads over the pass.  Mr. Llewellyn Bixby and others incorporated the Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Turnpike Road Company in 1868 and operated a stagecoach company that provided passenger service and carried mail. The turnpike company completed construction on the San Marcos Pass Road by 1870.  The horse drawn stage line ceased operation in 1901. What is now the Cold Spring Tavern began operating as a stagecoach stop in 1868.   The original structure is believed to have been built in 1860.

Our choices for the day were Bar-B-Que Tri-Tip sandwich with the best beer batter onion rings I've had in years and for Mary Anne a veggie quiche with a gourmet side salad. The meal was delicious! There are several buildings in the Cold Springs Tavern group that have historical significance. Located behind the Tavern is the old “Road Gang House” which 11 Chinese immigrants built in 1868 and where they bunked while paving the toll road through the rugged San Marcos Pass.

 Across from the Road Gang House is the Ojai Jail, which was built by Constable Andrew Van Curen in 1873 in his backyard. This tiny structure had two rooms and was said to hold up to eleven prisoners at once. 

The Bunkhouse which is now the small Treasures and Trash Gift Shop was used as a bunkhouse for the stage drivers when they stopped to add or take off horses.

Originally there was a water bottling plant which is now the Log Cabin Bar. The proprietor went out of business and simply left all the machinery behind. The owners removed the end wall so that the large machinery could be pulled out. In place of the wall is now a beautiful stone fireplace. The bar began operating in 1955. We really enjoyed our stop and lunch at The Cold Spring Tavern and San Marcos Pass. It's so off-the-beaten path that if no one told you about it, I don't know how you'd ever know it existed. It is a treasure of a find! We continued our drive to Solvang. It had been nine years since we were last here by looking back at our blog entries. The Danish shops are fun to look through and also all of the bakeries with the delightful smells. Not too many towns that you can go to and see Dutch Windmills as stores! I do believe that the optimum visiting time is the Christmas holidays when the stores are packed with Gingerbread houses and the town is Christmas decorated. We spent three or four hours looking around and really enjoyed being in Solvang once again!

The gift shops have so much Danish to choose from. The wooden Tulips and small Wooden Shoes were great along with pens and pencils with them attached as well! I had to take a picture of Tower Pizza in it's real-life tower! It looked to be right out of Rapunzel!

The bakeries did not disappoint! We were even able to find a couple of Gingerbread houses … but too early to purchase! If you want retro or specialty aprons, they are available in many shops in Solvang.

The stores whether they be wine tasting, gift shops, cafe's or anything, all have unique looks to them. We spotted this sea gull sculpture on the roof of one of the stores. And then there was another Windmill building, this time a restaurant-café.

We drove over to Lompoc which was a short twenty minute drive to our night accommodations. We chose Lompoc over Solvang as the prices were more reasonable, but once there, we were so happy we had made this decision. It's a lovely little town. Today, Lompoc is called "The City of Arts and Flowers" and is also becoming known for its wines. Mary Anne found a family owned place for us to have dinner. Sissy's Uptown Cafe is a Springer family-owned business, where Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter and Son-in-Law welcome you with delicious cuisine and warm hospitality. Chefs Janan (daughter) and Jon (son) are busy in the kitchen, preparing meals with the freshest and finest ingredients. Sissy's famous desserts are all made here by Dave (dad) and Norma Anderson. Dorothy (mom) and Steve (son-in-law) are out front, making sure guests are well served. Everything is hand made and meticulously tailored for you, the guest. Mary Anne selected walnut crusted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans while I went for chicken piccata with green beans.

We found out that Sissy's Upton Café was renowned for their Coconut Cream Pie. We were told the story of how Norma Anderson, now at 94 years old, arrives every morning at 3:30 AM to make all the pies for the day! She must be a true gem … her pies are fabulous. We couldn't resist getting that famous Coconut Cream Pie! We can see why Lompoc is known for it's arts as just about every building has a mural painted on it. One could spend an entire day just going down every street, alley and parking lot in town looking at the beautifully painted walls. Even where we parked at Sissy's, the building is inscribed with Art Alley! We looked at quite a few and took a couple of pictures as remembrances. After a good nights sleep and a great breakfast at our hotel, we were back on the road heading for home. As we had come the 101 next to the ocean, we decided our return trip would be inland through the farm and agricultural areas. It is so overwhelming to see fields full of vegetables and tree orchards of fruits and nuts. We so often think of California as big cities with lots of people and tend to forget the huge agricultural section that grows something like 80% of all the US produced food. It was a pretty and relaxing drive. Reaching Santa Barbara we stopped at our favorite coffee brewery so Mary Anne could get her late-morning cup of Java. We have been going here for years and enjoying the décor and the coffee too for Mary Anne. Our last visit was with Sandra & Ray when we holidayed in Napa and the Grand Canyon.

To finish up this wonderful weekend we had decided to once again visit Brent's Deli in Northridge for lunch. If it wasn't so far from home we would be regulars. It is one of the best Jewish Deli's in the country as rated by the Choice awards. We arrived around 1:30 with a short wait for a table. We indulged with our favorites, cabbage soup for the Mrs. and hard salami for the Mr. And of course those delicious complimentary dill pickles! What a wonderful weekend with lots of new memories. The album with all of this pictures plus captioned explanations can be clicked on here.