Goodbye LA, hello Daneland

We packed up and left Santa Monica yesterday morning. While everything went fine there, it felt good to get out of the massiveness that is LA. We drove up Highway 1 and marveled at the miles and miles of sandy beaches - it's so different from northern California where we have cliffs and rocks and an occasional relatively small sandy beach.


We did manage to find a nice small beach surrounded by rocky tide pools that wasn't infested with surfers.

Once we got to Santa Barbara we headed inland a bit on 154 over San Marcos pass.


There were some great views looking back towards the ocean.


The weather was fantastic. The Boy wore shorts and even Mrs Notthat took off a layer of jacket.


There is a really pretty lake called Lake Cachuma (Indian for "Great Place for a Casino") that we stopped at. They wanted $8 to get in to see the lake, but Mrs Notthat talked them into giving us a 15 minute pass so we could just zip in and out. It turned out that another mile up the road was a nice viewing area that was free and easily satisfied our curiosity. You can see the dam in the background.

And finally we made it to Solvang (Danish for "Shops Shops Shops and Windmills"). We got a room at the Hamlet Motel ("Now skull free!").


Shopping does not fit into The Boy's list of fun things to do, but there is this place called Nordic Knives that caused him to raise an eyebrow. The plan is to hang around and poke the town this morning and then head back home this afternoon.

Assuming we can distract Mrs Notthat enough to get her out of this place.

That's it - move along...

PS: We were pea soup-free last night for dinner. Actually, I doubt there is much danger of any of us ordering pea soup even under the best of conditions.

PPS: Unless it has bacon in it.