Waffles, Birds and Rembrandt

 In true road trip fashion, Saturday was a busy day of unique and educational activities. We started the day with breakfast at The Belgian Cafe. I had french toast, Matt had chicken fried steak and eggs and the boys each had waffles. We also tried the cafe's Danish sausage. The food was good, the service was quick, and music from the 70s and 80s played in the background. Matt was a happy camper.

After breakfast, we visited the Hans Christian Andersen Museum which was on the second floor of a bookstore. The little museum was interesting, and the bookstore was a place you could easily spend the day. I purchased a Han Christian Andersen Fairy Tales book and also a book on the National Parks called Subpar Parks. The second book is a funny book about the worst reviews the parks have received on social media. It will be an enjoyable read and it has interesting facts and tips about each park.

The forecast was 87 degrees, so after some time perusing many books, we decided to get the outdoors activity taken care of before it was too hot outside. Joe had found the perfect place for us to visit just two miles outside of town. It was OstrichLand USA. We purchased food and fed ostriches and emus. There were many to look at and feed, but you could tell that they were getting full from all of the people feeding them. There were warnings of ostriches grabbing the bowls out of visitors' hands and I watched one aggressive bird try very hard to do just that to a lady. You could purchase an ostrich egg for $50 which was about the same as 18-24 chicken eggs. That would be some big omelet!

We headed back to Solvang and completed the self-guided tour of the Santa Ines Mission. There was a small museum with paintings, tools, and assorted religious artifacts. We were able to see some of the original arches of the building and some flooring from the first seminary in California.

Next, we visited the Elverhoj Museum of History & Art. It was located in a residential part of the town and had been handcrafted in the 1950s by a local artist and his wife. It was built in the style of an 18th-century Danish farmhouse and later turned into a museum when the heirs wanted a more modern home. The museum has lots of interesting information about the history of Solvang and Danish culture. It also has a really nice exhibit of 21 small etchings made by Rembrandt and an exhibit documenting the work of the people of Denmark to rescue 95% of their Jewish population during WWII when the country was invaded.

Elverhoj Museum

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through shops and looking for an unusual gift for David's friend, DeRon. Poor guy. This has become an unsolicited tradition for DeRon. I also found a Christmas ornament to mark our time in Solvang and of course, there were occasional stops for ice cream, fudge, and beef jerky.

Dinner was at Tower Pizza which was on the ground floor of a cool round castle-looking tower and then we played some board games in the boys' hotel room. One was an "Apples to Apples" type game that David bought at the bookstore called "Prepare to Die" based on the movie Princess Bride. The day came to an end with Matt and David trying out the pool and jacuzzi and me falling fast asleep.