We have a date with a miniature horse farm, so we exit on highway 246 which rolls through the hilly ranch country 36 miles north of Santa Barbara. The bucolic Santa Ynez Valley is a verdant landscape of rolling hills frosted by coastal winds. There are 9,000 acres of ranch land adjoining the isolated and beautifully austere Santa Inés Mission, surrounded by beautiful green rolling hills, rambling vineyards and grand equestrian estates, and an incongruously situated faux Danish village called “Solvang”. Coated with faux half-timbered homes, towers, gabled roofs and windmills, Solvang is a frightening hellscape. Crawling with tourists, many two-fisting delicious treats (ice cream cone + doughnut or ebelskiver + danish pastry, etc.), Solvang is also famous today as the setting for the movie “Sideways,” and you can spot the occasional disappointed hipster, realizing how grim Solvang really is.
