A Toast to Twenty-Eight

(Post by Tracy)

Betcha didn't think I'd be coming back to finish telling you about November, huh? I was starting to wonder that myself!

Nonetheless!

The second weekend in November was fabulous as well. It was the weekend before my birthday, so I decided to claim it as My Birthday Weekend. Conveniently, it was also a long weekend because of Veteran's Day.

Since moving to L.A., we have visited the Santa Barbara area a few times with Tom's family, but we hadn't yet spent more than a day, and we hadn't yet taken advantage of the fact that it is considered Southern California's "Wine Country." (In case you forgot - and how dare you - Tom and I spent part of our honeymoon in Sonoma - part of California's better-known and larger "Wine Country" near San Francisco that includes Napa. We looooved it and daydreamed of retirement in Wine Country. Because that's what you're supposed to do when you're 25 years old and honeymooning - dream of retirement, right?)

Anyway, in my searching and planning for My Birthday Weekend, I read about a town in Santa Barbara County called Solvang, dubbed The Danish Capital of America. The word "solvang" is Danish for "sunny field." Sound adorable? Yeah, I thought so, too. And it was. We spent Thursday night through Sunday and had an awesome time.

Friday: We splurged (Birthday Weekend, remember?) and paid for a jeep tour around the Santa Ynez Valley that included tastings at 4 wineries and a picnic lunch. They picked us up and dropped us off at the hotel, and it was us and one other couple - who we obviously became great friends with by the end of our 4th wine tasting. Reminiscent of our honeymoon, and such fun! Pictures:

Doesn't the pick-up truck in the field just scream Grapes of Wrath?

With our new besties, Kayley and Jeff

Saturday: I had planned that we would visit some of the wine tasting rooms in the city of Solvang, especially convenient because of Solvang's small and walkable size, but we were (dare I say it?) a little wined-out. Unimaginable, I know. S0 we still walked all around the city, and instead of pigging out on more wine, we opted to pig out on the treats at each bakery we had to visit as well as the hearty Danish food at lunch and of course our delicious dinner at the fancy hotel restaurant. In addition, we shopped and window shopped and took a horse-drawn trolley tour of the city. So adorable, so fun. After dinner Tom and I took advantage of our hotel's hot tub, relaxed, and watched a movie.

Oh and I forgot to mention the great hot breakfast and chic afternoon wine and cheese spreads our hotel provided... Mmm. I'm ready to go back! Pictures:

Tom eyeing a creepster troll. Those Danes and their trolls...

Dalahäst - The traditional horses from Dalarna, Sweden

Guess what else I got for my birthday? Gorgeous fall leaves!

Tom and Hans Christian Andersen

Twilight from our hotel balcony

Sunday: We felt satisfied with how well we had experienced the city of Solvang, except for one more thing we wanted to see: the Santa Ynez Mission. The whole history behind the missions in California is so interesting, and I really had no concept of it until moving here. I guess kids in California learn about the missions in 4th grade, right around when I was learning about the great prairies of Illinois.

Anyway, basically, (this is very much just my rough understanding, make sure you do your own fact-checking),while Europe was colonizing parts of America, part of Spain's way of colonizing was by sending missionaries from Mexico into the southeastern portion of what is now the United States, starting in 1769. They did what I guess I imagined missionaries did, spread information and Christianity and claimed places, and then (I think) the missionary system started to fizzle when Mexico won its independence from Spain in the early 1800's. In all there were about 20-some missions. When the system stopped, I think what happened to the actual mission buildings depended on who was there, where it was, and what it could be used for. I want to say that many of them now are being repaired, restored, counted as historical landmarks.

So we went to the mission for Mass. It was beautiful. The land around it was gorgeous. We toured the mission after Mass and gained knowledge! Pictures:

The mission's gardens

Finally it was nearing time to leave Santa Barbara County, but we had one more stop we had to make. Apparently Tom's family long ago (when Tom was in junior high) went to a semi-famous restaurant in the area called Pea Soup Andersen's, and you know how those once-visited-when-young places morph and turn in your memory? I think Tom really just wanted to see if it was what he remembered. And I like food, so I was like, "Yeah, sure, food!"

It was kind of funny, but the food was good, especially the pea soup. Pictures:

And so My Birthday Weekend drew to a close as we started our drive back to Los Angeles. A last birthday wish that Tom granted: a quick stop at the outlet mall on the way home. What a guy.

A great way to ring in 28.

Camping and Cheering for our Packers

(Post by Tracy)

Hey, dudes. November was a great month full of fantastic weekends for me and Tom. So great that I just couldn't interrupt its funness to update the blog with details of the funness. Therefore, allow me to travel back in time and attempt to fill you in 30 days late. Since it's the first weekend of December, I'll start with our first weekend in November.

A little back-story: I have been wanting and wanting to go camping. Unrelated, the Packers were going to be in town (well, San Diego) to play the Chargers. You see it, too, right? The ability to have a weekend where two wonderful worlds collide??

So we got Packers tickets and reserved a campsite at the San Diego Metro KOA. Mom and Dad shipped me their no-longer-being-used camping gear, and we did a trial overnight camping run in Tom's grandma's backyard in October. (What we learned: camping can be fun and romantic, and we really needed to buy better sleeping mats.)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so with no further ado (and hopefully not too many more cliches), here is the story of our Camping-Packers weekend:

Started by packing up all the essentials.

Don't you think Tom's "Ok, now look excited!" look has really come a long way since we started documenting life on our blog?

Some day I'm going to do a post filled with just those pictures... Heh, heh, heh...

My personal motto: Be prepared. Be very, overly, unnecessarily prepared.

Who did you think the Boy Scouts learned it from, anyway?

Our sweet home for the night. Fellow Packers fans a campsite over lent us some lighter fluid, and we were set.

(And no, don't think I hadn't thought of that in my preparations!

It just apparently isn't readily sold at Target, the grocery store, or the sporting goods store.

Seriously, where does one find that stuff?)

After we cooked hot dogs, cracked open a few brewskies, and polished off a few s'mores, we had fun playing around with the settings on the camera.

I'm sparing you by only including the best few photos.

After all, I still remember what Jennifer told me after my trip to France with my first digital camera:

"Just because you can take a million pictures doesn't mean you should..."

Oooh...

Aaah...

A lot of firewood later, it was time for bed.

Morning! Breakfast!

And after packing up our tent, onward to the game!

The game was awesome. There were SO many Packers fans there. This dude was absolutely loving everything. He had a Packers tattoo on his calf, and I wish I could remember specifically what it was - something fabulous. For now let's just imagine it was a tat of Aaron Rodgers' face. Actually, it just might have been...

And even though I think a lot of these Packers fans were California-dwellers (like me and Tom), I could tell they were real Green Bay-ers in their hearts - because it was cold and rained for 3 complete quarters. A beautiful day for football - in Wisconsin.

Notice how this guy doesn't mind at all.

(Perhaps because of how much beer he had. Which would still prove my point.)

After our victory.

Ready to change into some drier clothes.

And head home, listening to the post-game show on the radio, during which the announcers (no joke) lauded all of the Green Bay fans for what gracious opponents they are... And playfully made fun of us for being Cheeseheads.