Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum

Since we had never been to the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum, we took advantage of a sunny and mild January afternoon and headed for some historical enlightenment and then a great lunch.

A reasonable $4.00 fee per person will get you inside the museum. There are plenty of American Indian pottery, baskets, bowls and many other Western artifacts. In fact, the Western Room has an impressive display of spurs, bits, bridles and saddles. Another room is set up similar to an early western Rancho house complete with kitchen, bedroom and living areas and all the furnishings and utensils the early settlers used.

Yet another room has an impressive display depicting the early store fronts of Buellton, Solvang, Santa Ynez, Ballard and Los Olivos. In the same room is currently a display of the early Central Coast railroads. Some local rail buffs constructed a model railroad based upon the routes of the Pacific Coast Railway (which ran from San Luis Obispo to Los Olivos) and the Southern Pacific. The model railroad is viewer inter-active and even depicts the Los Olivos Mattei tavern and depot in intricate detail. If you are a map freak like myself, do not miss the map of the Pacific Coast Railway - complete with mile markers and depot points. The railway display is currently scheduled to run thru April 2007 but in our opinion, this display is far too great to be dismantled. We are hoping the museum converts it over to permanent status!

The Parks-Janeway Carriage House is yet another structure on the museum grounds. There must be about thirty to forty carriages, buggys, stagecoaches and wagons housed and available for viewing. There are even original tourist coaches from both Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks.

Next, we stepped down the street to the Vineyard House Restaurant for lunch. We had our choice of seating - either inside or out. Since it was a pleasant day outside, we chose a corner table on one of the cozy patio/deck areas. Our table provided us with a picturesque view of the foothills surrounding Santa Ynez. Very nice. We chose a couple gourmet-quality sandwiches from the wide selection of delicious menu items. Sweetie had the Grilled Chicken-Brie Sandwich (with sliced green apples, bacon, tomato, lettuce, red onion and mayo on toasted sourdough) along with a side of pasta salad. I chose the Grilled Veggie Sandwich (with zucchini, eggplant, onion, oven-dried tomato, red peppers and brie cheese on sourdough) along with a side of their delicious fries. A couple glasses of 2006 Brander Sauvignon Blanc (one of our favorites) complemented our meals perfectly. We topped off our lunch with the special Vineyard House homemade bread pudding dessert and coffee. Wow, life does not get much better than this!