July 9 - 11, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

Pastries and Wine

The next morning, we quickly vacated our spot as we were excited to get into Solvang and enjoy its Danishness. We found some public parking and made our first stop at a bakery where we each got a pastry to calm our rumbling stomachs. Faith got a Danish waffle, which was more like a cream sandwich than a waffle, and I got an almond bearclaw as I needed to fill my never-ending desire for almond paste. The pastries were incredible, and we quickly finished them as we found a coffee shop to work and read at for the day. Once the touristy little town came to life and all the stores opened, Faith went and explored before coming back to report on where we needed to go. We spent the next several hours poking through the various shops and soon found ourselves in the local cheese store. The young lad working there talked to us about their numerous kinds of cheeses from all over the US and Europe. We walked out with big chunks of sheep gouda and cow gouda after getting little samples of them. We made ourselves a little charcuterie board for lunch with some crackers, apples, and dried apricrots we had on hand. The goudas were both very good but very different and provided a nice contrast to the sweets we had eaten earlier in the day. However, we still had a hankering for pastries, so we made our way through several bakeries until we found one that had what we wanted. We shared a small piece of fruit marzipan, a Danish kringle, and a chocolate-dipped lace cookie, all of which were delicious. Invigorated, we kept wandering around and eventually found ourselves hungry for dinner. Instead of having van-cooked ramen, we opted to stop at a Danish restaurant. We split gravlax, a type of cured salmon, and veal wiener schnitzel, both of which were excellent. As night fell, we found a nice little spot near a residential area in town and passed out.

The next morning, we got up early and headed back to the public parking we were at the previous day. Nothing was open yet, so I worked in the van while Faith read until the nearest bakery opened its doors. Faith wandered over and got us an almond macaron danish, raspberry shortcake, and a pineapple cheese danish for breakfast. As you probably guessed, they were delectable. We went back to the same coffee shop, ordered slightly different drinks, and repeated the previous days activities. As afternoon came, we decided it was time to keep moving, so we drove down to the coast to Santa Barbara. We explored some shops and the Santa Barbara Pier before heading to a nearby wine shop to participate in bingo over a flight of various wines. Sadly, we didn’t win anything, but it was a beautiful night and the wine was good. As darkness fell, we found a residential area to park in and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, we vacated our spot before any of the locals were up and headed towards the trailhead to some hot springs we had heard about. As we neared the trailhead, we found out that the springs had unfortunately been washed away by the previous years rains. So, we opted for a different set of hot springs. We couldn’t quite reach the trailhead as the road was closed, and, as we quickly realized, there was no way to walk around the roadblock on foot. We took this as a sign and found a coffee shop to work at for the next few hours. Faith wandered around town to various thrift stores and other shops and met be back at the cafe right as they were closing in the early afternoon. We walked back to our van, made some ramen for lunch, then started heading down the coast once again. As we were driving, I spied a sign for Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center. Naturally, I immediately started following the signs, and we soon found ourselves at the small visitor center. We explored it but refrained from getting a postcard as, though we were technically in the national park, we didn’t see anything the park protects. We stopped again for a quick snack at Crumbl Cookie before continuing on. We were scheduled to meet Faith’s family the next day in Dana Point, a small town between LA and San Diego, so we decided to make our way down there to sleep for the night. We drove along the coast via Highway 1 through Malibu and Santa Monica, gawking at the huge houses as we encountered more and more traffic. Soon enough, we were driving through the LA area and brought to near-standstill for the next couple hours as we slowly made our way south. Eventually, we made it out of LA and were able to find a nice spot to park in a residential area just a few blocks from the house that we were going to stay at for the next couple weeks with Faith’s family.