Sidetrip to Solvang

We are driving into the Coastal Range of California's mountains this morning, which lifts my heart, since I do love the mountains.

One of those unscheduled sidetrips reached out today and caught us by the sleeve and pulled us into Solvang, California.

Solvang is an authentically Danish little town founded early in the twentieth century by a group of Danish educators whose goal is near to my heart -- finding warmer weather!


The town is immaculate and rich in story-book German style architecture.

And yes, there were flowers everywhere, although today my pictures are of the buildings.

There is no Starbucks in Solvang, but the Danes do know how to make a good cup of coffee, even decaf latte's. While I was getting my latte, Chorro made a new friend.

Spires, to 'inspire' one's thoughts toward heaven, are a prominent feature of many buildings.


And wonderful clocks and clock towers can be seen in every direction.

Many buildings had weather vanes at the top.

And this one was topped with a stork, which I understand was a common feature for good luck. Here, bless somebody's humorous heart, the stork is on top of the elementary school!

Windmills, ah, the windmills need no description.


It was definitely an inspiring stop and a wonderful few hours spent in Solvang. Being taken back to a simpler life and simpler time has so much appeal in today's far-too-busy world. Under the clear blue skies the early morning sunshine bathed streets were a true delight. We arrived in Solvang early enough in the day that there was little traffic and it was easy to imagine horse drawn buggies being pulled through the streets to the rhythmic clip-clop of horses hooves.

We travelled further to make our camp, and that 'find' will be tomorrow's story.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Refugio State Beach

Camp Refugio is California at her best. Beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine. Waves lapping on the beach. Palm trees. Surfers!

Just a couple of hours north of Los Angeles on Highway 101, heading toward the mountains,
we began to get glimpses of the ocean over to the west.

Our destination was Refugio State Park, and here is our first look at it. Yes, this looks like a place that has "relaxation" for its middle name.

You know that Chorro has our routine down pat. I have a very limited amount of time to get parked, levelled and connected, and then it's tour time. So we walked the beach and let the beautiful warm day soak into every pore. Here we are looking back toward the campground.

Can't you just hear those waves coming in?

We came upon a large tide pool with a lot of gulls hanging out

They really didn't mind us being nearby and mainly just continued keeping their bottoms cool.

Finally, we got close enough that a few left. Taking pictures of birds in flight is a real challenge for me.

I will keep working on it. :)

Waves and more waves. In fact, I thought they were "perfect" waves, just the right size.


These surfers seemed to find them okay as well. Can you see them in the picture above? They are tiny dots far out toward the islands in the background, which are the Channel Islands. Foot ferries run to the Channel Islands and the number of visitors per year is very limited.

Here are the surfers getting into their sport.

And here's Surfer Girl!

I believe in the Beach Boys song she was not wearing a wetsuit, but this is March and the water is still cold.

We spent hours watching them, trying to anticipate when they were going to catch the wave and stand up. They were fascinating and dedicated. They surfed long into the dusk of the evening.

But when the sky started to get some color, my lens went for the sunset pictures. The ocean sunset was beautiful and provided a soft pastel ending to the day.

Tomorrow is a new day.

LA in Bloom

Chorro and I went for a walk around the neighborhood this morning and aahhhhh, the flowers we saw! There are two things that say "spring" to me -- the greening of grasses and trees and -- flowers. Los Angeles has an abundance of both of them. I invite you to join us on our walk. I will be quiet today and simply let you see the beauty as we saw it.