Valeria Out Loud

Hey WordPressers!

Hope you are enjoying this glorious Fall. Personally, I wished the weather up in New England didn’t drop twenty degrees from the jump of Fall, but here we are, there’s nothing I can do except grin as I bundle myself up.

Today I am catching you up on our full day in Solvang. Say it with me, everyone…Solvang! Yee! Isn’t it fun to say!? 😉

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We started off our day by going to a bakery that was recommended to us, but the place didn’t work out for us, Olsen’s Bakery. Unfortunately, after thirty minutes of waiting in a line, we got in to find out that there were more nuts or nut contamination that was going on than we were comfortable with for our daughter, who has severe not allergies.

So. Let me start this again. Ahem.

We started off our day by going to breakfast at Mortensen’s Bakery, for some authentic Danish pastries and espresso drinks. This bakery definitely did not disappoint! The interior was pristine and their display cases looked amazing. Like Martha Stewart decorated the cases. The people working there were so nice and the service was so fast.

Just a warning for our nut allergy folks…they did offer a few nut free things like that chocolate bun above and eclairs; but cross contamination was still a concern.

At Mortensen’s, we sat outside, which I didn’t mention was a super hot and humid day. Their pastries tasted amazing, every bite was perfect. And their coffee was super good. I do have to say that their yellow custard was very delicate. Most places make it gelatinous and it turns out rubbery.

The heat and humidity started to get exponentially hotter and stickier as we had breakfast. For me to notice, means it was hot. We left the bakery to walk and shop around the town. Get into some AC! We popped into the local vintage clothing shops first, which were a few blocks away from the main part of town. There were some vintage outdoor furniture and decor places too. From there we looped back to the main drag.

The town is super cute!

What I really liked about Solvang, overall, was the feel with the architecture. Every building was in a Danish style architecture. Each restaurant or store had a windmill, viking, woods or Danish lifestyle motif; and for the most part, even what each store sold was a kind of nod to Danish living. Very European type souvenirs being sold at most places. It really felt like we were somewhere outside of California. I ended up buying a Halloween themed tea towel from one of the local shops. It was ink screened locally, and I love it so much.

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As the heat index soared, we decided to get the girls some ice cream from the trolley, and us some iced tea and cold brew from a shop we researched along our walk, Good Seed Coffee Boutique. The coffee shop was beautiful, the service we received was top notch. Their tea and cold brea were fantastic too.

While we were there enjoying the cooling down, we figured it was time to cool off more at the pool back at our hotel. The hotel was too close to that coffee shop not to take full advantage of a midday swim. Which ironically I hung out in the hot tub the entire time.

After our pool time, we got dolled up and headed back to town.

We planned on a few wine tastings…

My husband and I haven’t gone wine tasting since 2004, when we were in New Zealand. We went to the Marlborough wine region and enjoyed a full day of getting shuttled around to vineyards across the area …tasting a lot. It was awesome. Ahh the days before having kids.

We have always talked about hitting Northern California for wine tasting but we never made it to loop it into plans, and traveling with our kids all the time, it never panned out. With Solvang being known for their wine tasting rooms, and our kids at a good age to be together on their own for a while, we dove in.

Our daughters hung out in the town to shop souvenirs for friends… and eat more ice cream. I swear, they left us then went straight to getting sundaes! They can’t get enough ice cream.

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Anyways. We started at Casa Cassara. We tasted fifteen of their wines, their list was huge! We enjoyed each wine, some more than others and we had great conversation with the pourer. So much so that he ended up pouring four additional wines to taste. Then, we enjoyed a full glass of a wine that we both agreed was their best, just as our daughters showed up with their finds to show us. We grabbed that bottle from there then moved onto our next wine tasting.

Our daughters went off for their second round of shopping, as we went to a wine house that had three labels to it, Tre Anelli, Sanger Reserve and Consillience.

Now, I was feeling pretty, pretty, pretty good at this point. All I can tell you guys is that I didn’t like many of the wines from these last tastings… non really sat well with me. *but we ended up buying four bottles anyways. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We left that last wine tasting to meet up with our girls for dinner at the Succulent Pig cafe. Where we got some great meals, breakfast for dinner, and drinks. Yes, drinks. I got an aperol spritz! I was on vacation, I got carried away and that’s my excuse this night.

The girls showed us all their souvenir finds from the day and told us all about the things they saw and did. They had a great day together.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel for some more time at the pool and hot tub.

I’d say it was a perfect day!

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Well. That was our full day in Solvang. Lots of great pastries, shopping and wine. All with a great view of Danish architecture. Ugh, I liked it there so much. I hope to make it back again someday!!

Thank you, guys, for reading along. I really do appreciate all of your support here and hope you get a chance to visit Solvang, too. Traveling is such a wonderful experience. No matter how big or small, it changes who we are inside.

Till next time! xoxo