Solvang Day Trip: 11/29/14

My fiancé and I have been wanting to go on a day trip somewhere for a few months now. We were mulling over our options and trying to decide between Santa Barbara and San Diego. However, we both have been to each of those places multiple times and wanted to try somewhere different and "other worldy." We decided to head up to Solvang, somewhere we have both only been once and hardly remember. I am SO glad we took this trip! It was so fun to explore somewhere different together. This town has so much character and is like a little Dutch village. I took a ton of pictures and can't wait to share them! Enjoy! The morning started out early. We left around 8am and decided to stop at the outlets since it was Black Friday weekend and we hadn't done any shopping yet. Of course, I had packed some healthy snacks for our drive!

We got to the outlets and immediately went in to a kitchen store. Our first purchase was probably the one we were most excited about...a Pyrex glass container set!!!

We also went into Banana Republic and bought some clothes. My fiancé bought me a beautiful necklace too! I love it!

We left the outlets and made our way up along the coast. We drove past a beach and decided to stop for a bit and get some fresh air. We had some bananas with my yummy nut mix: almonds, cashews, and macadamia nuts, while enjoying the beautiful beach and ocean waves.

We loved taking our time to get up to Solvang, but were so excited when we finally made it! We had planned on going to Paula's Pancake House, a famous breakfast spot (even though it was 2pm) in Solvang that is known for their huge Danish pancakes.

My fiancé was all over that. Seeing as I am gluten intolerant and am trying to be as strict as possible with my GF diet so I can feel better, I decided to just get a veggie omelet with fruit. The omelet was SO good....I know eggs are just eggs, but oh my goodness, I polished off the plate! It was delicious!

My fiancé got their Danish pancake combo with a  sausage, biscuit, strawberries, and scrambled eggs. The man can eat! And he was so excited! :)

We were proud of ourselves for not getting too full after eating. He didn't finish all his food, and even though I did, I still felt light and not overly stuffed. Eggs have an amazing way of filling us up without getting us uncomfortable!

We walked around the antique shops and came across some interesting stores. We went into this really cool clock and music box shop. All of their clocks played music on the hour!

There were a lot of random shops in Solvang, but we loved walking around and exploring. I really wanted to buy this sign, since it basically describes me perfectly!

"If you can't stand the garlic, get out of my kitchen." YES!

Surprisingly, we got hungry a few hours after our breakfast/lunch. We decided to split 2 scoops of ice-cream, peanut butter swirl and vanilla. The lady at the ice cream shop gave us almost 4 scoops! The minute we got it we thought, "there is NO way we will finish this!" Then...we finished it.

It started getting cold, so we decided to bundle up in our coats and scarves and walk around the pretty Christmas lights they had decorated all around the town.

For dinner, we went to this little spot called Succulent Cafe. It had such a romantic atmosphere, we had to sit outside even though it was cold. They had their silverware in mason jars, and I LOVE mason jars! We were so excited to eat here.

We started off with their sea salt fries with homemade ketchup. These fries were delicious! But we had to exercise some self control and cease and desist while we were halfway through in order to fully enjoy our dinner! I loved that they were served in a pot. When I have my own kitchen one day (soon!), I would love to decorate with and serve food in mason jars and pots!

My fiancé ordered a pumpkin seed crusted lamb dish, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I got their side arugula salad with feta cheese. This salad was DELICIOUS! The feta was so good and I kind of wished I had ordered two of these salads!

After dinner, we decided to head back home since we had a pretty long drive. We had such an amazing time in Solvang and can't wait to go back. Sometimes, you need to just get away for a day and step out of your usual routine!