Early December:

My amazing wife went and did something amazing. While I guess I shouldn’t find that all too surprising in itself, this time she went above and beyond and got us a deluxe ocean view room at the Shangri-la Santa Monica for $6. Some internet reverse auction or something.  But we decided to take full advantage of this and make it a tiny two day “Staycation” in California.

We started out with our short commute from Burbank to Santa Monica, checked into our room and proceeded to wander about Santa Monica. Felicia had never been here before, and I have never delved into the place with a proper wander either.  We wandered and ate, then wandered some more.  After a while we settled in our room and celebrated our reunion with a bottle of champagne, then it was off to bed.

We woke in the morning with the crazy idea of driving up the coast to go see Solvang (a tiny “Danish” community in the hills outside of Santa Barbara). Checking out of the hotel and filling the car with gas, we were off.  A few hours of beautiful coastline driving and we arrived in Buellton for some delicious all-you-can-eat split pea soup (my father tells a tale of the one time he ate 13 bowls and was sick for 3 days…) and a few moments to reconnoiter.

A few minutes in the car and we arrived in Solvang, which Felicia described as “Strange.”  A tiny tourist town of 4,000 people who are dedicated to maintaining a Danish-esque environment, which on a Tuesday afternoon is quite pleasant.  I spend the next hour of walking through the town regaling Felicia of tales of my childhood running through these streets with my face covered in sugary pastry and my parents hoping their 4 children don’t destroy anything in the countless glass brick-a-brack shops which line the streets.

Eventually (around 3 pm) all the older folks here here had to go eat dinner and the entire town was deserted.  We jumped back in the car and headed back to our tiny house. All in all a pleasant couple of days with the newly arrived wife.