Day 7 - Solvang & Santa Barbara

Being a day ahead on the itinerary meant that we needed to plan out Day 7. I'd had some "nice to see" points flagged, but thought that the Hubs may like to take charge, so left him at the travel section at Borders while I had the worst manipedi of my life. Still, these things are always a gamble. I met up with the Hubs and was pleasantly surprised to learn that his plans were approximately what mine would have been. A quick drive to Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley, around the Chumash nature reserve and then toward Santa Barbara.

Solvang was a cutesy little tribute to Denmark, with a smattering of random Belgian influences. It had decorative toy soldiers and windmills lining the street, lots of Danish bakeries (I hadn't realised that Danish baking was actually meant to be good. Are danishes actually Danish?) One of the wines we'd been recommended by our favourite sommelier was Au Bon Climat, or "ABC". They don't have a tasting room but they offer tastings through Tastes of the Valleys in Solvang. We sat there with Elizabeth, who arranged a custom wine flight for us and talked us through the wines. It transpired that that the approach to wine in California is quite different from Europe. In the US, loyalty is to a winemaker and not the vineyard. The quality of grape varies between plots in the vineyards, and so there isn't an assumption of consistency. The example cited to us was Sanford, where a founding wine maker left (but didn't take his name with him). He started a new label using the same grapes and vineyards, and his following claim this to be a superior wine to the Sanford branded wines.

After we'd gotten through ten or so wines, we decided it was time to get moving again. I was desperate to sneak a peek at Neverland but there was nothing visible without a significant act of trespass. Instead we decided to go eagle spotting at the Nature Reserve, on our way to Santa Barbara. The Rough Guide had described Santa Barbara as one of the most expensive places to stay, and they weren't kidding. The Oceana, which was recommended to us by the good folk of Solvang, was asking a minimum of $200 for a no-view, sparse queen. Harbour View came in at $300. At this point we decided that this would be a perfect juncture to enjoy the Motel experience. I liked the sound of Ala Mar, by which I mean that I liked it for sounding like "alamak!". We had an ocean view, sun deck, jacuzzi bath and self-serve breakfast for $99. Winner. We spent the difference on a wine tasting and dinner.

Once we'd settled into Ala Mar, we strolled down the beach and tried to find a tasting room for a wine called Marjoram, only to discover it no longer existed. No matter though, because the Hubs was picked up by two girls offering companionship and seventeen wines for $8. That English accent really does work! Britney and Lindsey were graduating UCSB and had lived their lives in California. They couldn't imagine living anywhere else apart from Australia, and I can almost understand where they were coming from. We ended up having a lock-in at the wine store with them before they decided to head off to a happy hour, while the Hubs and I headed to Brophy Bros for the best clam chowder ever before settling down at Ala Mar to a bottle of wine and a hole in the ceiling.