A Tale of Two Peas

I've been traveling to central California quite a bit in the past two years. Sometimes it is because of  races but I have been known to travel there even when there isn't a race happening there that weekend. Yeah, just for fun. Can you imagine? Me neither but my sister tells me that it happened once.

As many times as I've been to this area, it was only on a recent trip that I finally stopped in to have some pea soup at Pea Soup Andersen's in Buellton.

Buellton is a small town right next to the Danish town of Solvang. It's pea soup, it's not a big deal by any stretch of the imagination but as I have already mentioned, I visit this area quite often so I felt like it was something I had to try.

The restaurant has been around for quite some time. It looks dated but then again everything in this area looks older and Danish to me so maybe that is the way it is suppose to be. There is a store connected to the restaurant that sold everything from food to all kinds of knick-knacks.

I even found this little toy dog that reminded me of Teddy. 

Apparently, lots of people have stopped by for pea soup. Now you know. 

Pea Soup Andersen's actually had a pretty large menu that serves many other things aside from pea soup. But I came here for the pea soup and forgot to take notes of what else they serve here. I ordered the soup and sandwich combo. They were both just okay for me. 

The pea soup had a strong gingery taste and the texture was more smooth than chunky. There was something about it that didn't quite sit well with me. Maybe I was biased because this was the second time in my life that I have had split pea soup. 

The first time being the day before at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant and Cafe. The inside of this place looks a lot different than Pea Soup Andersen's.

Complete with a fancier, smaller and simpler menu. 

So what you are looking at here is the first pea soup I've ever had. Let me tell you that it was magnificent! It was everything that I had hoped pea soup would be. It was not too salty. It is chunkier than your standard pea soup making it a heartier meal but in the best way possible. It also had small pieces of ham hock in there that really made this soup a meal for me. So this place spoiled me and now I can never go back to just any old regular pea soup.

I also ordered this Grilled Flat-bread appetizer with tapenade, hummus and muffaletta. Muffaletta is a spread made by blending together black and green olives, capers, celery, red bell pepper, garlic and olive oil. So good!

Do you like pea soup? Are there other awesome soups out there that I don't know about. If so, please tell me!

Los Olivos Wine Merchant and Cafe
2879 Grand Ave
Los Olivos, CA 93441
805-688-7265

Pea Soup Andersen's Restaurant
376 Avenue of the Flags
Buellton, CA 93427
805-688-5581

Legend of the Nojoqui Falls

So this is more of a story than a legend but that doesn't mean we can't make this story legendary. Ok, no it is just a story.

So just down the road from where Samuel L. Jackson buys his produce is the Nojoqui Falls Park. Just as the name would have you believe, it is a park with a waterfall about a 0.6 mile hike in. I mean up.

It's not as bad as I'm making it out to sound. It's more of a gradual incline. Plus, it is 0.6 miles of natural beauty. Plus, it is only 0.6 miles.

About 0.2 miles into the hike, Sister K and I noticed this sign. 

Upon closer inspection of the sign, we discovered that making a lot of noise while hiking reduces the chances of surprising a lion. Wait, what? No one said anything about mountain lions. I want my money back. Oh yeah, this was free. Surprising anything that you can't out run is like at the top of the list of bad ideas for runners or it should be. 

My sister and I are pretty soft spoken people so we felt that it would probably be safer to just play some music on my iPhone while we hiked. She tells me to select Gotye's Somebody That I Use To Know. So I did. So that was the day we used Gotye to scare off the mountain lion while hiking to Nojoqui Falls. I can't make this stuff up.

What the heck? No one said anything about stair climbing.

So we finally make it to the falls. It was pretty dry there that day but still pretty cool. This fall is seasonal so depending on the weather/season when you come to visit will determine the amount of water flow of the falls. This fall is unique in that instead of eroding the side of the cliff it is actually building outward.

And just so you don't show up and think that this is a massive waterfall and accuse me of false advertising, here I am next to it for size comparison.

Classic Organic Farm (Where Samuel L. Jackson Buys His Produce)

Have you seen that new iPhone commercial with Samuel L. Jackson? The one where he cancels golf and cooks a romantic dinner? If not, here is a screen shot.

Source

In this particular scene, Samuel is asking Siri for assistance with locating a local organic market where he can buy mushrooms for his risotto. I know, I am an amazing story teller. It's a gift.

Source

I am giving you this background because prior to Sister K telling me this interesting little factoid, I had not known the significance of this farm either. Anyhow, seeing that this farm was only 10 miles from the town of Solvang in another little town called Gaviota, we had to go and check it out. Because if it's good enough for Samuel L. Jackson, it's good enough for me. The farm is located on Hwy 101 and is easy to miss if you are not looking for it. There is but one little dirt road that leads into this farm. Driving up to the barn, I see a large peace sign on the side of the barn. Groovy baby!

There is a small pick-your-own strawberry area directly across from the barn. Strawberry picking is hard work. I'm embarrass to say that it took us a really long time to pick this pint. I know, we suck at strawberry picking or any sort of farm work actually. 

But there is just something about being out in the fresh air, picking your own fruit while getting a tan that makes you appreciate not having to do that every time you want some fruit. I kid, I actually had a lot of fun and wish that I had more opportunities to slow down and do this more often.

Inside the barn are pre-harvested organic produce that you can just buy without the work. The produce here are amazingly fresh and beautiful. We originally had plans to buy some of this produce and cook it up in our hotel room which has a little kitchenette but after a full day of sightseeing this plan went out the window. Next time!

This is how you pay for your produce. It is so laid back here. Go and pay them a visit the next time you are driving through or looking for some mushrooms for your risotto. Tell them Siri sent you.

Classic Organic Farm & Market

2330 Old Coast Hwy,

Gaviota, CA 93117

Miniature Unicorns and Zonkey!

I am taking a rest day today. Yep, completely off from running or any other sort of activities that may be mistaken for exercising. I went on a run this past Monday after my not so good race in wine country and that sucked as well. So I'm just going to give it a rest until Friday. I have a pretty long run coming up this weekend in preparation for the Ojai Marathon so I need to make sure that I am mentally prepared for that. It's been awhile since I've done a long training run. I know that sounds weird coming from someone who runs as many races as I do. So that's enough talk about running. Let's talk about miniature horses and donkeys!

As you know, I like to roll my vacation time into my race weekends and kill two birds with one stone. So naturally this past weekend when I was in town for the SB wine country half, I tried to fit in as much activities as I could. Luckily, I was traveling with Sister K who is the master of fitting in as many activities as one can in a short amount of time. Really, she's a genius at what she does!

One of our stops this past weekend was at the Quicksilver Miniature Horse Ranch. We had passed this place a couple of times during our other visits into this area but had not stopped to check it out until now. So I have to just say that miniature horses are adorable! If I had the space and money, you'd know there would be a couple of these walking around the grounds of my huge mansion.

They really are cute! I found them fascinating because they are about the size of a large dog when they are babies. I don't know why but I started to talk about unicorns with Sister K while we were walking around admiring these animals. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that had unicorn in the brain since I overheard some other people there also talking about unicorns. I think seeing horses the size of dogs causes one's brain to go haywire. Before you know it, you actually start to think that maybe, just maybe they can breed unicorns. Maybe I had just been out in the sun too long because as Sister K pointed out...unicorns are not real but miniature horses are so if you are in Solvang anytime soon, so check them out. It's free.

So this little guy caught my eye. The little brown and white one. 

Just look at that little face! He would make a beautiful unicorn. Yes he would.

Just make sure you don't do this. Just leave your box of fingers in your car.

Quicksilver Ranch

1555 Alamo Pintado Road

Solvang, California 93463

10-3pm

Our next stop was at the Seein' Spots Farm to check out some miniature donkeys. There was this large tom turkey on this farm that was making a lot of noise dragging his wings on the ground. I'm not exactly sure if he wanted to show us who's boss or if that is some normal turkey behavior. 

Sister K + Donkey equals Konkey. Okay I made that up.

But here's something I didn't make up. This here is a Zonkey. Zebra+Donkey. Who knew!

There was also this magnificent horse there. Want!

Seein' Spots Farm

2599 Baseline Ave

Solvang, CA 93463