We started the day by going with Jim and Brenda to breakfast in the nearby town of Solvang. It's a beautiful Danish town with allot of shops and restaurants. We ate breakfast at a pancake house, then walked around the town. There were many small shops with pretty little trinkets and doodads. I hurried Nannette past one shop that was selling children's Danish outfits for about $150. I love my grand daughter, but we're trying to stick to a budget on this trip.
We found a chocolate shop with a huge assortment of sugar free chocolates. Nannette picked up some of each to try out. Then we walked to our friend's favorite bakery. Luckily I was still stuffed from breakfast or I'd have bought one of everything.
The last thing we did was to find a shop that served Æbleskivers . The link will explain what they are, but I'll have to tell you how good they were. The guy cooking them had just sold out, so I watched for 5 minutes as he cooked a new batch. He poured batter into a pan with round impressions in it. Then after a few minutes he used a stick turn the half shells 1/4 turn, then repeating until they were a full circle of crusts with the remaining batter trapped inside. He'd keep turning until he could poke the stick in and it would come out clean. It took almost 10 minutes to cook a new batch.
Last he put 3 in a small paper bowl and poured powdered sugar and raspberry syrup over them. They had a very cake like interior, and combined with the syrup very well.
We returned to our friend's home in Buellton by noon and packed up to go meet the rest of our touring group back in Santa Barbara. The temperature had climbed from the low 60s up to the low 90s by the time we left and I was worried that I'd be sweating the whole way. But as we descended out of Buellton toward the coast, the temperature dropped until it was almost chilly. It felt wonderful.
Nannette led the way in the rental car with the GPS to guide her. It was only 50 miles and took us less than an hour to reach the home of another friend's father. He is out of town but had told Shauna that we were all welcome to stay in his home for the night.
Nan and I found their home. Shauna was already there with her step mother Suzan. It's a beautiful home right by the golf course. They gave us a tour and we chatted for a while as we waited for the others to show up. John and Angela called from the Regan Library that they were on their way. Then John asked Shauna if she knew whether the "Red Road" was worth taking. Shauna replied that he was the one holding the map and she had no idea which road was the red one. Then Shauna gave John directions to the house.
The other person we were waiting for was Greg. He's a guys that Shauna has been dating for a while, and he called to say he was stopping for lunch. So Nan and I figured we had enough time to go grab lunch ourselves at a nearby Mexican cafe. We sat out on the patio so we could see any motorcycles as they came up the road toward the house, but other than a few small scooters, we didn't see them. Nan called Shauna to see what was going on, and Shauna told us she'd accidentally told John an exit that didn't exist so they were 20 miles past us and were turning around. After a few minutes they went zipping past, but on the wrong road.
We ran down by the road figuring they'd eventually turn around and come back, and sure enough, after 5 minutes they came back toward us. I started waving, and with a surprised look on their faces they waved back and pulled off. We got in our car and they followed us back in.
Greg had arrived by the time we were back, and the evening's jokes became Shauna's direction giving ability, and John's mysterious Red Road. We got allot of mileage out of both jokes.
We sat around the pool chatting for a while, then decided to drive down and take a walk on the beach (if Shauna didn't get us lost on the way). There was a cool breeze blowing and the tide was very high. It was so relaxing to walk along as the waved lapped on the shore.
By the time we were back, Suzan had started cooking a lasagna for dinner. She has such an elegant home,and the meal was so good we suddenly realized we'd probably started the whole trip with food and accommodations we wouldn't be able to match, or in other words, the rest of the trip might be all downhill from here.
Nannette and I in from of the Pancake place in Solvang
A street in Solvang
Angela, John, and Nannette out by the pool at Suzan's home
Greg and Shauna (we gave them a very hard time with dating advice and Greg took it well)
Greg Shauna John Angela Nannette and Clay on the beach
Our elegant and sumptuous dinner (did I mention the fabulous cheese cake desert?)
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