This ride will take us through Santa Barbara and by Lake Cachuma. We will be stopping for lunch and maybe some shopping in Solvang. There are a number of nice restaurant choices for lunch and centralized parking. On the way back home we will take some back roads through Santa Barbara County ending up back on 101 South at Gaviota. Should be great weather and a beautiful ride!
Solvang was founded in 1911 on almost 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) of the Rancho San Carlos de Jonata Mexican land grant, by a group of Danes who traveled west to establish a Danish community far from Midwestern winters. It has been developed as a themed town since attracting national media attention in 1947.[11] The city is home to a number of bakeries, restaurants, and merchants offering a taste of Denmark in California. The architecture of many of the façades and buildings reflects traditional Danish style. There is a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen, as well as one featuring the bust of famed Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen. A replica of Copenhagen's Round Tower or Rundetårn in the scale 1:3 was finished in 1991 and can be seen in the town center.
Founded by Danish immigrants, many descendants still live in the town and possess local political influence. The town frequently attracts tourists from the Nordic countries, and has been the subject of several Danish royal visits, most recently by Prince Henrik in 2011.