Brother Kevin

While on the road we learned that Robin’s brother Kevin had settled down in a home in Solvang California, a little north of Santa Barbara. He and his bride Teri had a long enough driveway for us to park Colectiva, which allowed Kona to play daily with Midas and Ivy, two gorgeous Golden Retrievers.

Kevin and Teri showed us around the Santa Barbara area. We climbed the tower in the County Courthouse. We visited El Presidio de Santa Barbara, the oldest surviving structures in the area. These buildings are so old that Padre Junipero Serra himself presided over their dedication on April 21, 1782. Padre Serra founded the majority of the Spanish missions in what would become California.

We took in dinner at historic Cold Spring Tavern. Back in 1868 industrious entrepreneurs established a stage coach line through Marcos Pass to bring eager travelers to the Santa Barbara coast. Cold Spring Tavern was built that year as a stage stop near the highest point on the pass, to wine and dine the customers. Most of the buildings still remain, and the ambience is totally post-Civil War.

In Nome we learned that the town is believed to have been founded by the 3 lucky Swedes (even though none of them were Swedish, 2 of them were American and one was a Norwegian.) Well it turns out that Solvang was founded by the 3 lucky Danes. They didn’t actually carry the “lucky” moniker, but at least in this case, they were all actually Danish.

We ended up getting to connect with all our nephews, Will and Jake, and our niece Hannah (at least using face time to chat with her at school in New York.)

Talk to you soon!