Tour de California Day 1

Tour de California posts: Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 /Day 6

We headed out on our long trip to Northern California at 8:15 am this morning and arrived at our destination, Solvang, CA, at 11:15. 200 miles in 3 hours ain't bad, especially given the 5 miles of slow traffic through Santa Barbara. We were pickin' them up and puttin' them down.

Solvang is a Danish theme town a little north of Santa Barbara. The architecture, shops and restaurants pretty much have an all-Danish theme.



The town has changed over the years, from a sleepy quaint little burg to a very busy tourist trap. We discovered something important: Solvang is a stop, but not a destination. Our original Plan A involved spending the night in a hotel near Solvang and them completing the trip to Larkspur on Sunday. By 1:30 pm we realized that we had seen all we needed to see of Solvang and didn't relish the idea of hanging around all afternoon and evening. Do we stick with Plan A, or call an audible and do something else?

I made a couple of phone calls and decided to cancel our reservations near Solvang and extend our stay in Larkspur another night. That meant a 300 mile drive, but I was more than ready to go.

We headed north and made another planned stop at the Holy of Holies:
The Talbot's Outlet store in San Leandro.

Talbot's is Mrs. HolyCoast's store of choice, and there's only one outlet. We had to drive 278 miles to get there, and were sweating the time. We weren't sure if the store closed at 6 or 7 on Saturday nights, and we came sliding into the parking lot at 5:45 pm (they were open until 7). A little shopping (and buying), and we were on our way back north.

About thirty miles further we arrived in Larkspur and our Marriott Courtyard Hotel, conveniently located right next to San Quentin Prison. It's a very nice hotel and within walking distance of the Ferry landing (the boat kind, not the San Francisco kind) and we'll ride the ferry over in the morning to see the sights.

I drove a total of 515 miles, but it was worth it to skip the night in Solvang. More pictures from the Gay Bay tomorrow.