Solvang? What's a Solvang?

In mid-June we had a heat wave here on the central coast. Being on the ocean, there is usually a cool wind blowing in off the water. For about a week the wind was coming quite strongly from the inland deserts. Apparently, this is called a Santa Ana wind (possibly deriving from Sanatanas, as in devilishly hot and dry). Maya got to escape the worst of it by going to the hospital, which is air-conditioned, but Matt had no escape as the apartment has no AC. It’s apparently not needed often enough. The air in the house was so hot and stagnant he had to open the windows but then the hot winds would blow through the apartment and it wasn’t really any better. It was so hot the marble floors were warm to the touch! Matt was hot, Asher was hot, when Maya was home, she was hot. It was a fairly unpleasant week, but it’s the only one like that we’ve had.
When we were coming through Texas, we met a guy at a rest stop while walking Asher. He had rabbits of his own and told us that since his live outside all the time, he gives them blocks of ice when it gets hot and that lay on the ice to keep cool. Since it was so hot here we decided to try it with Asher. We have an ice pack that is like a sheet you can wrap around a bottle or something so we spread it out on the bottom of his cage. He laid down on it just like it was a cool blanket. It wasn’t much relief, but better than none for his fuzzy little body.

In the middle of this heat wave, we decided to go down the road to a touristy town called Solvang. It was maybe not the best day to go because it was at least 95 degrees outside and the main attraction of the town is to walk around to all the little shops. But there we were, heat or no, so walk around we did.

Although some people already lived in the area, Solvang was founded as a town in 1911 by a group of Danish settlers that were looking to set up a trade school for traditional Danish crafts. That endeavor eventually fell by the way side and Atterdag Collage is now a hotel. What’s left is this quaint little Danish village in the California hills. There is authentic detailing on the eaves and windows of just about every building in the downtown. Some buildings sport models of nesting storks, which is a European good luck symbol. There are a couple windmills too – well, not real windmills, but windmill-shaped shops. We saw clocks, books, Christmas decorations, vintage-style clothing, bread, marzipan, danishes, pies, figurines, steins and lots of jewelry. Unfortunately for Solvang’s merchants we are just not big on buying stuff from that sort of quaint little shop. We did a lot of looking, but all we got was a loaf of bread from the day-old rack of a bakery and some rabbit hay from a regular pet store we happened to see.

We did visit two non-store places that were a little bit more interesting. The first was the Mission Santa Inés. Founded in 1804, it was one of the later missions to be established. Most of the buildings are gone as the mission has gone through some major ups and downs over its life. It was damaged by an earthquake that hit the area in 1812 and it seriously declined after an Indian revolt in 1824. Its nadir was 1904, but in that year a new farther arrived and started to improve the remaining buildings and restore some lost ones. Despite ups and downs the church was never abandoned. It has been in use continuously as a Catholic church since its founding. In fact, it was still in continuous use as a Catholic church when we were there. There was a wedding going on. We got a discounted admission since we were not allowed to see the church itself. So that’s another mission we saw without getting to see the whole thing!

We saw the museum, some gardens out back, the cemetery and the remains of some historical buildings marked out on the ground. One of the no-longer-there buildings was a small school room for the natives. It was the first school building in the state. The floor is all that remains. It has remained because it was constructed using a native technique. It’s an asphalt floor! Since there is oil in California, sometimes it seeps up onto the surface. There the Chumash collected it, processed it and used it for all kinds of things. Apparently, they made some of their wooden-frame, thatched huts more permanent by packing tar into the ground – thus the asphalt floor of the old school has remained. It’s about a foot below modern ground level.

The other interesting thing we saw was the Hans Christian Anderson Museum. Since he is about the most famous Dane ever (next to Hamlet) a museum to commemorate him seems appropriate in a little Danish village. The owners of The Book Loft on the main street have set up informational displays on the second floor of their shop. These are nestled in between bookcases with an impressive collection of Anderson’s work in various editions and languages. Information on his life is presented, as well as a whole history of the illustration of his work. Information about his legacy and place in literature also appears. In addition to writing he was deft at paper-cutting and reproductions of his intricate cut-paper designs are on display. These are like those snowflakes you do in grade school, but they show circus figures, landscapes and animals of various kinds. It’s an interesting museum, if tiny. Of course, since it’s a bookstore you can also buy a lot of different collections of Anderson’s fairy tales.
So, what is solvang? Apparently it’s Danish for “sunny fields.” It certainly lived up to its name that day, with the hot wind blowing and the sun beating down from a cloudless sky. Og Tak for Besøget – Kom Igen!