Visiting Solvang, CA

Solvang is this strange but quaint little city in Northern California just a bit inland from the ocean. Situated in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, Solvang was established in 1911 by a group of Danish Americans looking to escape the harsh midwestern winters. Sarah and I took a brief stop in Solvang during our trip up to Monterey. While we weren't able to stay for very long we were able to sample one of the most delicious treats we've ever had; Aebleskivers!

Most of the fun to be had in Solvang is noticing just how much detail has gone in to making Solvang feel very different from the rest of California. I've never been to Denmark but I can only imagine that the architecture here must be based on much older, traditional architecture. I kept wondering whether what I was looking at was the "Disneyland Effect" of making something seem so real that it must be a reflection of what Denmark is actually like. While I have my guesses, we'll need to go to Denmark to confirm them. Besides, Denmark is where the city of Bilund is located... and Bilund is the home of LEGO.

After a nice lunch and a walk around town, we stopped at the Solvang restaurant and had Aebleskivers. These delicious balls of dough are covered in a fruit sauce and are in my top five desserts consumed of all time.



We'll have to go back to Solvang and spend some more time visiting. There are countless shops and food stops just waiting to be explored. The city is so unique and further reinforces my observations about how diverse California really is.

Have you been to Solvang? What did you do while you visited? Post up below.

My Cheapest Hobby Ever: World of Warcraft

Ya I'll admit it. I play World of Warcraft. My hobbies have always been on the geeky side of things. While sports are great and I can get pretty passionate about a game, its not something I follow or participate in at all. Instead, I was drawn to train sets as a kid, LEGO (for life), fixing up my car as a college aged person, and now I'm into photography. One thing ALL of these hobbies share in common is the large amount of money it takes to get some serious enjoyment out of them. Just about the only hobby I've had in my life that didn't cost me an arm and a leg has been World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft (WoW) costs money to play every month. There's the initial buy-in of the discs to install the game on your computer, and then a $15/month fee after that. You might be wondering how this is a cheap hobby when other video games only cost around $60 to buy and is free to play afterwards.

WoW is updated periodically throughout the year with new content and stuff to do, is hosted on servers, and connects millions of people together in the artificial world Blizzard has created. The monthly fee pays for this continuous evolution of the game and the upkeep of the servers. If you haven't played a game like this before, the monthly fee might be confusing but with these extra factors, its easy to see why the fee is justified.

The money saving part of the game that comes in to play is that the game doesn't exceed the cost of $15/month no matter how much or how little you play. Let's do a comparison to illustrate my point.

Photography 

To continue taking pictures at the rate I enjoy, I need batteries to power my flash, new lenses to open up the power of my camera and new bags to hold an increasing amount of gear. To save money, I can hold off on buying lenses or suffer through a small bag. But really, the chance to spend more and more money with this hobby is governed by the size of your wallet.

World of Warcraft

There are many things a person can do in WoW. Fly around, kill dragons, fight with other players, make money on the auction house, or just stand around and talk to other nerds. No matter what you do, the price is fixed at $15/month.

The money saving aspects of this game don't stop at the monthly subscription either. Before I got heavily into photography and resurrecting my LEGO collection, WoW was about my only past time. Because of this I didn't want lenses or new LEGO sets. I was perfectly content with teaming up to take down some bad guys to get pretend armor. To me, the pixels were a perfectly acceptable Christmas or birthday present to myself.

Tons of people, including a few friends of mine, have told me stories about how they pulled themselves out of debt just by sticking to WoW as their single hobby. Rather than going out to bars and paying a month's subscription (per drink), some will stay home, hop on voice chat with their friends and kill some zombies. Yep, it sounds nerdy. But is staying in debt worth more nights out at a bar? Besides, once you get out of debt and pay off some bills, there's nothing saying nights out in real life with your friends can't happen again.

I know, you've already heard about the potential addictive qualities of games like World of Warcraft. You hear stories in the news all the time about some insane parent who went on a WoW binge and left their baby alone for hours at a time. Its really sad and happens far too often. But, when compared to other hobbies like, I don't know, sitting on the couch for marathon runs of baseball games, is the video game hobby really any different? And when you're sitting on that couch watching the game, are you participating in tasks with friends/family like you would if a big dragon was standing there waiting to be slain for phat loot?

Online video games aren't for everyone. I'm not advocating that everyone do it. But for some people its a great hobby and it has the potential for being a big money saver for anyone who plays. Life isn't all work and sleep. You have to have an outlet for fun. Hobbies can cost very little or quite a lot. If you have a personal goal of saving money when it comes to fun activities, an online video game like WoW might actually be what you're looking for.

Sit Or Squat: iPhone App Review

Have you ever been out for the day running errands, shopping, sight seeing, or just enjoying a night out and all the sudden needed a bathroom and not known where to go? Me neither. But THOMAS has.

He has the smallest bladder known to man, and the second we get in the car, he has to "go" again...and again...and again. I just had to downloaded this app for him.

Sit Or Squat uses your iphone's GPS feature and finds all bathrooms that are near your current location. You can use the map feature to see where they are in relation to you, or you can use the list feature and see the names of the locations and their distance.

The amazing thing about this app is the amount of detail included for each location. It will only show you places that are open, if the location has a handicap bathroom, seat covers, if there is a stall or a single room, baby changing tables and it also includes a star rating system so that you can see what others before you have said about this specific bathroom location.

Best part, this app is free! I recommend it to anyone with an iphone. You never know when you might need to go!

LEGO Project: Slave 1

The LEGO Project series is a look through the Second Snack collection of LEGO sets from Thomas’ childhood as well as some modern sets. For years these LEGO bricks and pieces have been laying dormant in plastic bins but with the pooled resources of the Internet, reassembling sets is now a reality.

Was there any character in Star Wars cooler than Boba Fett? For a guy who had all of three or four lines in the original Star Wars series, Fett became something of a cult favorite among fans. Maybe it was his unique armor, dark demeanor or mysterious origin. Or, maybe it was his great equipment. The best tool in his arsenal was his star ship, Slave 1.

LEGO has had a few versions of Slave 1 with the most recent coming out under a year ago. The version I have is from 2006 and consists of 537 bricks and pieces. Slave 1 wouldn't be complete without Boba Fett himself so you get him, two other bounty hunters, and a Sky City workman. The Slave 1 is an awesome set with a bunch of weird colors making it a really good representation of the ship from the movies.




Questions or comments? Post up below!

Meme Monday: You Are Not Humphrey Bogart

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.