A few days in Santa Ynez...

I'm always trying to get my mom out to see more. 

She's more of a home body, but I know there's certain things she would enjoy, and Solvang is one of them.

So for her Christmas presie this year, Pat and I gave her an all inclusive trip with yours truly for a few days in Central California! I booked us a cute little air bnb (She's never stayed in one) and we were all set.

 

Sadly - the 2nd day of our vacation my body decided to turn against me and I got sick. It was similar to when I get triggered, but we still don't know the what or the why. Is it menopause messing with my already crappy condition? I felt totally fine when I got up - all was well until it wasn't. I don't know - but that really sucked and put a damper on things since we ended up back at the bnb late Sunday morning and I was in bed all day. I was so upset about it, but my mom in her chippy look at the brightside way she is - still had a wonderful time.

 

And despite the damper - we indeed had a great time. I cherish time with my mom and I took so much joy in watching her light up at everything from horses to the beautiful countryside up there to even the marveling of LA when we drove through. Her childlike enthusiasm has never left her and that's one of the best things about her and one of the million reasons I love her.

 

She's already talking about doing another trip with me sometime! 

 

We left on a Saturday and breezed up. First stopped in Santa Barbara and wandered around (more than anticipated since my Google Maps is weird and I'm not the best map reader...) and landed at Finch and Fork for our 1st meal. It was inside a hotel and was some fun people watching. Then we found ourselves in a Farmer's Market that was quite immense. Then wandered the main street and in and out of some stores.

 

Not too bad!

Walking along the area

Lost somewhere...

We then headed into Los Olivos. It's such a cute little town I wanted to show her, and of course do a little wine tasting for myself. Since mom isn't a drinker - we just hit up one. Four Brothers Winery tasting room. They had lovely seating outside and the wines were pretty good! I ended up buying a bottle of the Syrah and mom enjoyed crushing on the oldest brother who was helping us. 

 

Loved the random decor

We found a pop up nursery! 

 We then headed into Santa Ynez and checked into our bnb. The host left us more goodies than I've ever received at a bnb including a bottle of wine! Yay! The place was really small and cute and perfect for us. It was on a lavender farm, but unfortunately the lavender weren't in bloom, but still so pretty. There were quails and squirrels all over.

 

Miss my little quails from Loftwood!

Dinner at Trattoria Grappolo that was quite good!

Sunday was the unfortunate "Jami got sick" day so we only got out to Solvang for the morning. We did have breakfast and walk around a bit, but we were back at the bnb the rest of the day/night while I recovered from whatever the hell happened to me.

 

Morning cup of Joe

Paula's Pancake House - this is supposed to be the place to go - but it was just "meh"

The pancakes were pretty good but wasn't blown away

The tiny museum with a big giant troll

Solvang

Monday woke up feeling much better and was hell bent on doing a re-do of Solvang. We started to do an Adventure Lab but it got kind of complicated. I ended up not doing any damn geocaching this whole trip. Sigh. We had a lovely time wandering Solvang and stocking up on cookies, pastries and candy. Then we kind of had that realization - it's really small. So we found ourselves tossing around different ideas. As you all know - LA - and LA on a weekday - sucks. So ya gotta be hitting the city by 2 at the latest or after 7pm. Since we didn't really have set plans and some of the places we were thinking of hitting up had closed, or weren't open yet, etc - we decided to just head on home. But not before stopping at the Ostrich Land on our way out. I've always wanted to stop here! It's very cute, just a few bucks to feed the Ostriches and Emu's. The Ostriches were a bit terrifying but the Emu's were cute

Hi Hans!

I love her

The crosswalks by the school were so cute!

Hans Christen Andersen Park...thought there was more too it, but it's just a park

Mom wants a Viking

Our stash!

Tourists

There's so many Ostriches!

Hungry Birds

Hai Friends!

Trying not to get murdered

The Emu's were nicer

After this we hit the road. We decided since were were coming home a bit early to have an early dinner somewhere. Mom chose BJ's and she got herself a free Pazookie Cookie for her birthday!

 

 It was really a great trip despite the setback. There were some lessons learned (plan ahead more. Learn to read a damn map) but we had a such a fun time. Mom and I travel very well together. I will always be grateful to make memories like these. Love you Ma!