I woke up in Solvang, California on my birthday and it was a good one!
I started the day with coffee and cards. Breakfast was delivered a little while later. It was a continental breakfast and the stand out part of it was the freshly made danish pastries.
After breakfast we got back out to do some more exploring. I'm wearing my
thrifted Gloria Vanderbilt dress. I chatted with both of my girls and got lots of birthday texts and messages.
It was a Sunday morning so the town was still pretty quiet and empty.
It felt like we had it to ourselves.
We checked out the statue of the famous Danish author, Hans Christian Anderson. There's also a Hans Christian Andersen museum and book store.
I wanted to get into this Christmas shop before we left and it did not disappoint.
The town is like something out of a fairy tale.
Our plan for the day was a vineyard tour in the Santa Ynez valley. Mr. Click gave our hotel's skeleton a little upgrade (just for a photo of course) while we were waiting for the tour group to pick us up.
We were the last to be picked up from our group so the drive was quick to the first vineyard.
The first stop was
Sunstone Winery and the grounds were beautiful.
We sat with our group at a long table and got to sample a nice selection of different wines. We were able to explore the vineyard and got to see the wine cellar and sample some olive oils.
The next stop was
Saarloos & Sons in Los Olivos.
We didn't think we'd have time to see Los Olivos so this was a nice surprise.
This was a tasting room right in town and we sat out on the patio to sample the different wines. Each one had a special meaning for someone in their family with their photo on the bottle.
We had lunch here as well. We pre-ordered sandwiches from Panino and my English Cotswold & tomato was amazing.
More views of the tasting room.
We had some time to walk around the town and do some shopping. Of course there were horses walking down the street.
It was such a cute, quaint town!
It was another stunning location.
We had this view from the tasting area.
We visited the emus. We all had time to relax and enjoy the vineyard before heading back.
Later that night we had dinner at
Osteria Grappolo.
They brought me out a mini Pannacotta for my birthday.
The town was getting sparkly for the night and we could see the full moon. What a special birthday!
We were up early the next morning to head to LAX.
We experienced all kinds of weather on the drive back.
We're definitely going to miss California! Thanks for coming along on the trip!
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