Photo Essay: 3rd Annual Scarecrow Competition, Solvang, California

It’s the sort of quaint, cute little town that shows up on television shows, you know the kind that has a warm and loving, though slightly dysfunctional family at the center of the drama. I was in Solvang, California because my partner AJ, for some utterly ridiculous reason, had decided to ride a bike for 200 miles. 200 miles in one day mind you. I had gone down (with a few of his friends that he had talked into doing the ride with him) and as he went off to cycle around for 14 hours straight, I decided to walk around the town. 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara, Solvang is known in California as the tiny little Danish town, with bakeries, restaurants and merchants offering a sampling of Denmark, but with better weather. I plan on doing a post on the town itself but what I loved about all small towns like this, and this one specifically was the local town spirit. As it was October, the town merchants were hosting their third annual Scarecrow Contest, with scarecrows sitting in their window or just outside their door. Most of them were thematic to the store they protected (a Willy Wonka inspired one outside a chocolate company or one made of bread outside a bakery). I won’t say which one I voted for but in my books, the entire town was a winner for hosting this competition.