We had a great weekend!
Saturday - We left around 10:30 from our house. Because we hit some traffic, we stopped in downtown Ventura for lunch at the Busy Bee Cafe. Then, we continued our trek up the coast and made it to Buellton (where we stayed) by 4:00. We unpacked and relaxed a bit, and then we headed into downtown Solvang (a 5-minute drive from our hotel). We walked in and out of the gift shops and enjoyed the nice weather. We went back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner reservation at Mattei's Tavern, a really neat restaurant with delicious food. We decided to take the long way to the restaurant since we had extra time, and it was worth it!
This dinner was our all-out anniversary celebration, so got all we wanted: good glasses of wine, a delicious baby greens/poached pear/candied walnut salad for an appetizer, fantastic entrees (I got the 6-ounce filet and potatoes au gratin with caramelized onions; Jon got the Copper River salmon with rice pilaf and tomatillo salsa), rich desserts (warm, rich chocolate souffle cake for me; strawberry shortcake for Jon), and coffee.
Sunday - After sleeping in, we went to Solvang and ate at the Belgian Cafe so Jon could have strawberry crepes. I had a great omelette. Then it was on to more window shopping. In one of my favorite stores, I got a pair of little stud earrings (cheap!) and a cute Americana wall hanging to put on our front door for the summer (it says "Let Freedom Ring" and has a little bell on the side). Next, we drove the long way to Gainey Vineyard and made it just in time for the 1:00 tour of the winery. We also bought some swiss cheese and did the wine tasting after the tour--a fun first for both of us.
After finishing at Gainey, we decided to explore the main road, so we drove for a half hour or so and ended up stopping at the La Purisima Mission. Although I wasn't dressed appropriately (I had on newish sandals that got really dirty since there were no paved paths), the mission was very interesting. I especially liked seeing the different living quarters--the guest room was by far the nicest, and, surprisingly, the priests'/fathers' rooms were among the most sparce (or the sparcest?). After the mission, we continued driving to see what Lompoc was like. It wasn't much. So we kept driving and hit the ocean. We took a nice walk on the sand and decided we were exhausted! We drove back to the hotel and rested. We chose to go to dinner at the nearby sushi place, and we were pleasantly surprised by how good it was (one giveaway was that there were mostly locals there). I'll definitely get the Volcano again if we are ever back in Buellton. After dinner, we did more exploring; Jon enjoyed racing around some corners on the back country roads, where we passed no more than 2 cars. To close out the night, we went to Andersen's Pea Soup for coffee and dessert. What a fun day!
Monday - We got up a little earlier this day to pack and check out, and then we went to the Greenhouse Cafe at Petersen Village (in Solvang) for breakfast--yum! We got in the car to head south by 10:30, and we missed all the traffic! We even made a pit stop in Ventura to visit Jon's grandpa Ray for an hour or so. We made it home by 3:00.
We had such a great trip! Thank you for planning it, Jon. :)
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