Back in August, Scott and I found ourselves with a very rare and enticing situation on our hands – a free weekend! We usually have at least one wedding or engagement session per weekend, but that weekend we found ourselves entirely open and decided it would be the perfect opportunity for a mini summer trip. We brainstormed a few places to visit, and ended up choosing the Santa Ynez Valley, a new untapped spot for both of us, filled with stunning vineyards and located just above Santa Barbara.

And that’s how it became one of my new favorite places. Amazing food, beautiful rolling hills covered in grapes, wonderful little oak trees lining both sides of the highway, and well, Solvang (who doesn’t love Solvang?) – it was the perfect location to refresh our minds before the fall wedding season. Come take a tour with us!

(Special thanks to Betty of Type A Planning, Josh & Lauren, and Bonnie Tsang for their amazing recommendations on where to go and what to do!

When we first drove in (or Scott drove in and I reluctantly rubbed the sleep out of my eyes) we found that the weather was not quite the perfect sunny wine-country weather we imagined. But what could make that better? Sandwiches! We drove straight to Panino, an amazing sandwich place that came highly recommended. They were deliciously fresh and tasty:

Afterwards we headed to the place I was looking forward to most on the trip – Saarloos & Sons! A beautiful tasting room that I first saw on Design*Sponge. But an absolutely lovely interior alone, though giddy-inducing, was not quite enough to make me as excited as I was – a built-in cupcake shop, however, was!

I’ve had my fair share of cupcakes, but I have to say Enjoy Cupcakes *ahem* takes the cake (yes, I just went there, I did). I know this is a strong and dangerous statement to make, but they are in fact the BEST cupcakes I’ve ever tasted – the sweetness, the consistency, the ratio of frosting to cake is all perfection! And the best part, many of the flavors are wine-inspired, like Chocolate Blackberry Syrah and Pineapple Chardonnay. The Honey Mousse was my favorite:

Afterwards we visited Solvang to walk around for a bit and also stopped by the mission to take in the view of the hills – and do some crazy jumping shots of course. It seems Scott is quite excited about our mini-vacation:

That night we had dinner at Root 246, a new restaurant in Solvang with delicious food and a clean, modern vibe:

On Day 2 we visited a few different wineries, my favorite which was Foley Estates. As you drive up the road to the tasting room it feels like you’re pulling up to a Tuscan villa!

In the midst of our winery tour, we came across an awesome little find – an ostrich farm! I may look smiley but I was really holding onto that feeder for dear life. Ostriches are all kinds of violent when they eat:

And some emus! I’m not going to lie – they are definitely no cuddly puppies (but a little less spastic than ostriches when you feed them):

It was almost time to head home, but we couldn’t leave Los Olivos without having just onnnne more of those amazing cupcakes. So we picked up some sandwiches and some creme brulee cupcakes and had a little picnic at Firestone Vineyards…

Stay tuned for more on Firestone Vineyards next! Just a few weeks after our trip we returned there for Scott’s sister’s beautiful vineyard wedding! Can’t wait to share about their amazing day!

       

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