Well, I at least got my photos downloaded and selected last night before my eyes were slamming shut, so now it's 4:45 a.m. in South Lake Tahoe, California, and I'm going to try to get at least another day caught up. I was going to leave here late since I only have about 300 miles to do today, but it looks like it's going to rain here by late morning. I want to run back up the road to Tahoe and get some pictures (and ride that road again, what fun!), as it was starting to get dark last night and I didn't get many pictures of that beautiful scenery.

For now, I'm going to start with Saturday in Solvang. I finally got out and walked around the town a bit.

This guy guards the entrance to the Solvang Inn, our rally hotel.

 Love the Danish theme in the town. These are just some shots from my morning walk.

A California Crape Myrtle. There were many of these trees around the town.

Love the architecture.

Hey Kirsten, look what I found :-)

Some really cool succulents. I believe these were in front of the Succulent Cafe.

Later in the morning we visited the miniature horse farm. Apparently they have sold many of their horses, but there were still about 20 or so around the property. This white one is a new mommy.

What a face :-)

This is daddy.

Breakfast time! The keeper told us the little one is about 3-1/2 months old.

Katie, the daughter of one of our VROC members, really enjoyed the ponies. Giving this little one a good scratch, as another member, Ray, looks on.

Another baby.

We wanted to also visit the little burros, but again, they weren't open. Oh well...

We weren't planning another ride until a little later in the day, so I decided to get a couple of chores done. I found the laundromat, so got some clothes washed and wiped down the bike while I waited. It was pretty filthy. Of course it rained the next day, so not sure why I bothered. As I was getting ready to leave, this little cutie came out with her daddy and was pointing to the bike and smiling at me. I asked her if she wanted to sit on it.

On Saturday afternoon, we rode up to the Cold Spring Tavern about 30 minutes away from town. A neat little place, but it was crowded! There was a group of about 20 Harleys in the parking lot. It was a bit noisy when they took off!

This is a little group playing inside the tavern. They were pretty good. I got to listen to them for about 15 minutes while I waited in line for a drink.

Just a few shots from outside the tavern.

Sherm found a bench to relax on for a minute.

I didn't get a photo, but there was a neat little local jewelry artisan shop on the premises. It was tough to choose a piece, but I finally ended up buying a neat little fossil necklace that appears to have been a snail in its former life. I don't really wear much jewelry, but it caught my eye.

Sherm took me through a back road away from the tavern. The road wasn't in the best condition, but the scenery was nice.

Sherm toodling back down the hill toward town.

These were some pretty neat looking clouds. I'm sure they played a part in messing up my clean bike on Sunday as I left town :-(

Sunday morning, and time for a ride up the coast from Solvang to Santa Cruz. I opted to take the Pacific Coast Highway rather than 101 or an interstate. Unfortunately, it started to rain as I left Solvang, and continued for about 125 miles or so up the coast. It was interesting negotiating some of those twisties in the rain! So I didn't get many photos early in the day, since I really couldn't see much. But later in the morning it cleared off again just south of Big Sur, and I was finally able to at least get a few shots of the coast.

I love this road!

Some shots were taken from the bike, but I pulled off for many of them since I had plenty of time. I wasn't riding THIS close to the edge!

Hangin' out on a rock :-)

So much for my cleaning job...

I'm thinking I could live here.

I saw several fishing boats just off the coast.

Pretty colors along the road as well.

If the photo is tilted, it was definitely taken from a moving motorcycle!

Love this road!

You can see forever.

This is where my ride ended on Sunday, the Bella Notte Inn in Santa Cruz. I treated myself to a nice room with a bubble tub, wet bar, and heated tile floor in the bathroom. It was pretty luxurious for a bike trip! I took some photos of the room, but they' re on my phone, since my camera batteries were long gone. I have to pick up another couple of batteries somewhere soon!

I'm going to end this here for today, it's time to get up and moving so I can hopefully miss the rain that's expected in the Lake Tahoe area today. I'll be in Ely, Nevada tonight, so I'll try to get all the way caught up tonight (I know, I said that yesterday too, right?). I love keeping a blog as a way to share with friends and family now and revisit my memories later, but it's pretty time consuming. So bear with me, I'll try not to get so far behind again!