Solvang

Solvang was founded in 1911 by Danish immigrants who wanted to maintain their cultural heritage in the New World. The town was built in the half-timbered Danish architectural style — windmill replicas, thatched roofs, figurines of Hans Christian Andersen characters — and it has doubled down on this identity rather than away from it in the century since. The main street is a cheerful concentration of bakeries, wine tasting rooms, and gift shops selling Viking helmets and Danish butter cookies.

The Hans Christian Andersen Museum, housed above the Book Loft, is an unexpectedly thoughtful homage to the storyteller who has nothing to do with California but whose fairy tales are woven through every surface of the town. The authentic Danish pastries — æbleskiver, kringle, spandauer — are the best argument for the town's existence and should not be skipped under any circumstances.

The Santa Ynez Valley, which surrounds Solvang, is one of California's premium wine regions — particularly known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay produced in the cool coastal air that funnels through the Santa Ynez Mountains. The film Sideways brought national attention to the region in 2004 and the wine industry has not looked back. Many of the smaller family wineries along Foxen Canyon Road offer tastings that are a fraction of the Napa Valley price with a quality that rivals it.

The valley in the late afternoon, when the golden light comes through the passes and the oak trees cast long shadows across the vineyards, is the California of imagination — rolling hills, horses in the paddocks, the smell of grass and wood smoke, and somewhere behind all of it the Pacific, invisible but present in the quality of the air.