After settling in our hotel room, we decided to hit the streets of Solvang.  Had to stop for a picture by the giant wooden clog, of course.

Our first stop was to try some aebleskivers.  Three for around $3.40—not bad, considering they are such a tourist destination.

Across the street is Ingeborg’s World Famous Danish Chocolates. 

The selection is overwhelming.  I decided that we should try a Flodeboller.

It ended up being a sticky mess, but the lady who worked their kindly provided damp paper towels for us.

For dinner we ate at California Tacos.  I know, not very Danish.  It is a hole in the wall just outside of the touristy part of Solvang–where the locals go.  Two tacos and a drink for $6—not bad. 

Dessert time (again): Danish waffle from Olsen’s. 

Cream puff from Olsen’s—more like an éclair, since it has whipped cream, custard and raspberries.

Cream puff from Mortensen’s.  Also more like an éclair, with whipped cream, custard and raspberry!

Between the two cream puffs, I liked the one from Olsen’s because the chocolate was not as heavy, and it was considerably cheaper.  The danish waffle was just ok—will probably skip that one next time.  I found it interesting that all three contained raspberries—I guess that is a Danish thing?

For breakfast we walked across the street to Paula’s Pancake House.

Scrambled eggs with hash browns and Danish sausage and Danish pancakes with cinnamon apples.  What a yummy way to end our trip! 

Also, I should note that I was given a plastic cup with a huge crack (which I did not notice), so water was slowly leaking onto the table.  This was “Spill #4”.  Spill #3, which I did not record before, was attributable to D, when he knocked over a water glass at Vito’s.

I remember seeing a blurb about the Hamlet Inn in Sunset magazine a while back and thought it looked interesting.  The owners basically renovated a motel and made it “Ikea chic”.  The price is reasonable, and you can’t beat the location.  Everything is very minimalist, so don’t come expecting a four star property.  For us, it served its purpose. 

The kids enjoyed their “hideout”.

As a kid, I remember going to Solvang with my parents at least a couple of times.  D had never been, so we decided to stay a night on our way back home.  Solvang is a cute Danish-themed town, with little shops and bakeries lining the streets.  I was pretty sure our kids would not last long walking and window-shopping, so I tried to find other things to do.  Here is the itinerary I came up with, which worked out well:

Stop #1: Ostrichland USA

610 E. Hwy 246, Solvang, CA 93463; note-this address did not show up in our GPS, but it is easy to see from the highway.

Ages 13 and above $4; 12 and under $1; $1 for a bowl of food to feed birds

This is a once in a lifetime experience.  When else will you have to opportunity to see so many ostriches and be in awe of their strangeness?

The feeding is only recommended for adults, as the ostriches are quite aggressive. 

Don’t forget about the emus.  They seem so small and docile in comparison. 

Continue through Solvang, and go to

Stop #2: Seein’ Spots Farm

2599 Baseline Avenue, Ballard, CA 9346; donation suggested to go in the gate and pet the animals.

This lovely farm has chickens, ducks, goats, and a pig, but the main attraction is the miniature donkeys.  Neither D and I are “animal people”, but these donkeys were so friendly and cute!  The kids were kind of scared of the goats, but they did pet the mini donkeys.

This farm also has a zonkey—half zebra, half donkey!  (It is behind an electric fence, so don’t get too close!)

Now you will do a little backtracking.  Head back towards Solvang, and on the right you will see

Stop #3: Quicksilver Ranch

1555 Alamo Pintado Road, Solvang, California 93463

No charge.

This ranch features miniature horses!  I believe you can only see these guys through the fence, but they are also a sight you do not see everyday.  However, it was warming up, so the kids didn’t last too long.  I tried to cheer them up by giving them some juice and telling them that the next and final stop would be a park.

Continue backtracking towards the touristy part of Solvang, on Alamo Pintado Road, and you will come across

Stop #4: Sunny Fields Playground (on the left). 

900 Alamo Pintado Dr, Solvang, CA 93463

One of k’s classmate’s mom told me about this place.  It is not your run-of-the-mill park, as there are a lot of interesting features to keep the kids occupied.  D was glad that there was a shaded resting place for the parents. 

The water feature was especially nice on a warm day.

All of these stops are fairly close together, so the driving is minimal.  Afterward, you can head back into Solvang proper, and treat yourself to some Danish desserts, which we will cover next.

For the last leg of our trip, we stayed a night in Solvang.  On the way there, we stopped for lunch in Los Alamos at Bell Street Farm.  After reading their five star Yelp! reviews, we had to check it out.  It is close to the highway, in the middle of seemingly nowhere.  You order at the counter, from a friendly man in a cowboy hat.

We ordered two sandwiches: rotisserie pork: “hot and crispy pork belly-wrapped shoulder on ciabatta,
apple and jicama slaw, house mayo and pickled onions” and country grilled cheese & rosemary ham: “Bravo farms white cheddar cheese and framani rosemary ham on multi grain bread with whole-grain mustard”.

These were not cheap sandwiches, but the quality of ingredients was there.  It will be interesting to see if the rest of the area starts to follow suit with its “farm-to-table-hipster” vibe. 

After riding the surrey, we hung around Cannery Row for a little bit. 

The kids pretended to be statutes…

…and found a nice place for a tete-a-tete.

Next we went to Fisherman’s Wharf.  We stopped at a café, where “spill #2” occurred, this time courtesy of k.  Thankfully, no change of clothes was necessary this time.

We met up with Uncle Simon’s family for lunch at Old Fisherman’s Grotto.  This was probably our most impressive food highlight of the trip.  We were seated in the upstairs room, which felt semi-private, and had a nice view. 

This is Auntie Jackie’s niece from Taiwan, who is visiting the United States for one month, as a high school graduation gift.  She seems to really like kids!

Everything was excellent, with ample portions, as you can see.

In the afternoon we went to the shoreline on 17 mile drive.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, as always.

We ended up at Vito’s, in Pacific Grove for dinner.  The kids love the bread there, and you can’t go wrong with the pasta.

We decided to skip the Monterey Aquarium this time around and rented a surrey instead.  The kids enjoyed it and we had a nice leg workout.  Only n was able to sit in the front basket, but k enjoyed being in between mom and dad.  n rang the bell as a warning for others to stay out of our way!

On our way back to the rental shop, we ran into D’s brother, who was on his way to the Aquarium.  He was able to take a picture of all of us.

If you look close, you can see the seals on the beach.  Again, the overcast weather felt very nice.

On Friday morning we went to Katy’s Place for late breakfast/early lunch.  This place is popular, and we had to wait around 25 minutes.  A six year old girl started chatting up k during the wait.  D’s dad said it gained popularity when Jessica Simpson ate breakfast there with her dog.  Interesting.

It was chilly in Carmel, which was actually a nice change from the hot weather in the Bay Area.

For the kids, they had those water games that used to be really popular.  I thought that was a nice change from the usual crayons.  With all seriousness, n told me, “Mommy, put this in your purse.”  I had to explain to him that we had to leave them for other kids to play with.

The restaurant is known for eggs benedict, so we had to try it out.  The sauce was quite luscious and the eggs were perfectly poached.  What do they do with all of the extra egg whites?

They make egg white omelets, of course.  This was packed with veggies, and made us feel a little less guilty about indulging in the eggs benedict. 

Note: This place is cash only, and not inexpensive, so don’t be caught off-guard!

As usual, we ate a lot of good food during our trip.  For July 4th dinner we ate with D’s brother’s family at Saigon, a Chinese restaurant in Newark.  Everything was tasty, but we were especially impressed with the sea bass.

So buttery!  It was served with a side of butter, but I could not imagine adding more butter to the rich-tasting fish.

After sleeping over in Fremont, we headed to Bitter + Sweet to visit D’s cousin and his wife.  Here is cousin Ian helping out behind the counter.

Janice blends in so well with her café!

I tried the red velvet latte, which is their “specialty” drink.  Very nice—not too sweet, and smooth.  So pretty, too!  We ordered a hot chocolate for the kids, but unfortunately n spilled almost the whole cup—onto the table, k’s dress, shoes, and the floor.  Turns out this was only the beginning of a chain of multiple spills over the weekend.  At least the drink was not too hot so no one was injured.