“traveling to a village”
Luke 24:13
~
So one of the things we did on our vacation last week was visit the town of Solvang. If you’re not familiar with it (or even if you are) it is a lovely Danish town in centralish California, just north of Santa Barbara.
Wikipedia says: Solvang was founded in 1911 by a group of Danes who traveled west to establish a Danish colony far from the midwestern winters. The city is home to a number of bakeries, restaurants, and merchants offering a taste of Denmark in California. The architecture of many of the façades and buildings reflects traditional Danish style.
My sweetie and I had been there before, separately. He had been there several times as a child; I went with my mom the summer after my high school graduation. I don’t know about him, but it seemed all new to me. We had a restaurant recommended to us for breakfast (Danish pancakes ~ yum! And “maple leaf” syrup, which I loved. I’m pretty much a maple syrup snob, so that’s saying something.)
We arrived late at night, so we just checked into our hotel and tumbled into bed. But as we walked through the hotel lobby, I grabbed a copy of a Solvang-themed magazine. After a vacation, I always like reading any material that I picked up along the way. Kinda makes it fun to relive our travels.
The next morning we were up early so that we could enjoy that wonderful breakfast, and then we wandered the town for a few hours, wandering in and out of shops, entertaining ourselves and each other with unusual finds. We really had no goal, and weren’t even sure what we’d find in any direction. Kinda wingin’ it, I guess. Which I think worked out fine, but then I don’t know what we missed, either. We were on foot, so our exhaustion and the heat played a part as they both increased.
A few days later we were home, and I took some time one afternoon to page through the Solvang magazine. It was interesting. There were several articles about the town’s upcoming Danish Days, including a bio of their lovely “Danish Maid” which I’m guessing is sort of like being the queen of the Rose Parade, I guess.
But you know what else was in the magazine? A map. A two-page grid of the streets of the main part of the village, including all the different shops. And I thought, “Oh. That probably would have been helpful last Saturday.”
Our visit was fine and fun. But if we had an idea of what our wandering choices were, could it have been better? Is there something we missed? Doesn’t help to know now.
A rather obvious lesson, but one that needed to be re-learned, apparently. If you have directions, or helpful information in life, read it before it’s too late.
Read your Bibles, people!
Light Expectations 