So this is my last post of the vacation series. This post is all about San Luis Obispo/ Pismo Beach and our last stop which is Solvang before heading home. At the bottom of the pictures, I will also include Ryan’s pictures which are located on an imgur link. There will be one last post about the vacation overall but this is just my tips/thoughts/suggestions to those who want to embark on the same or similar journey!
San Luis Obispo does have the famous Madonna Hotel which I would have loved to visit but we were on a time crunch. After passing San Luis Obispo, we came upon Pismo Beach. We wanted to see the dunes and it was pretty cool. It looks like the Sahara desert. We had to park in a preservation area which was $5.00 and there was a short guided walk to the dunes. However, the walk surprised us because it took us into a forest filled with poison ivy. Once we made a left, we were even more surprised by something that you would typically see in Florida. There was a large lake bed that was covered in moss and had lots of ducks/random birds. Fun fact: Ryan knows all about ducks. So he was telling me which ones were female and male, different types, etc. Once you pass all of that and the obvious picture taking, you take a guided path filled with native plants to the beach/dunes.
The only downfall was that a small portion of where the beach meets the dunes was fenced off for animal preservation. It was sad. You can see bird feathers everywhere and it just looked like someone beat the crap out of the birds. It didn’t block the views; you just couldn’t walk directly to certain parts. We really enjoyed this beach and hope to visit again! So SLB is pretty similar to Santa Maria in my opinion. I would go to Santa Maria every year for Thanksgiving as a kid because of my dad’s side resides there. But I do have to mention (of course) of a great sandwich place we ate at for lunch. Did I tell you how much we love sandwiches? Anyway, we stopped at this place called Papa Napoli Italian Deli (friends picture my Italian accent saying the name because that’s exactly what I did).
After lunch, we drove to our final destination. Since we’ve been to Santa Barbara plenty of times we decided to make Solvang our last stop. We couldn’t remember if we ever been there when we were kids. We were still excited nonetheless. Once we came upon this cute Danish town, I immediately wanted apple strudel. It was in the air along with a bunch of Asian tourists (hey I can say that, ok?). Solvang is definitely a chill spot to be at for drinking wine and indulging in delicious food. However, we skipped the heavy drinking part (shocking!) and wanted to relax on our last day of our long road trip. We checked into our cute motel and immediately did what most tourists do.. eat. After eating and shopping, I persuaded Ryan to go to Chumash Casino simply because I have never been there. BAD MISTAKE! I don’t gamble and it shows. We stayed less than an hour and drove back to the cozy Solvang!
Alas the pictures! 🙂
And this is the sandwich that I was talking about.. Papa Napoli Italian Deli… pastrami!
And here begins the pictures for Solvang! 
I love this town! This place has an all year round Christmas store! I bought the cutest Christmas ornaments. That will be in Christmas 2014 post haha! 
I had to take a picture of this bakery since this is my MIL’s maiden name! 
This is at Solvang Brewery. I liked their beer surprisingly.
Oh and here is the famous apple strudel! haha I don’t know if its famous but damn it was the best I ever had.
Ahh our last expensive dinner out! We ate at a place called Hadsten House Restaurant. It had a really cool ambiance and it was pretty swanky. Too bad, we wore tshirt and shorts. We apparently didn’t care to look at the attire. He ordered filet mignon and I ordered salmon which was a bit salty for me but hey you lose some you win some. 
And this my friends was the next morning! Danish pancakes with a giant sausage. hahaha
So I leave you with this wiener and I hope you like it! ok ok just kidding. Here is the link to my hubby’s pictures that he took from his phone: http://imgur.com/a/6zBey#0
Overall, I can’t say how grateful we are to take part in such an awesome vacation. From Seattle to L.A., it took about 19 hours of driving time and 1126 miles . I think we worked hard to achieve our goals!
Now back to the grind and start saving for next year’s vacation..
EAST COAST! WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!
Next post will be about tips/suggestions/and opinions for roadtripping
Thanks for reading!
Xoxo
Fin
Julie
Julie 
