SOLVANG, Calif. — First Lady Jill Biden enjoyed a shopping spree in the Santa Ynez Valley while vacationing in the area.
She stopped off at a few locations with family and friends on Wednesday, browsed local stores and bought a few items.
These include Santa Ynez General and The Book Loft in Solvang.
The First Lady posed for photos and signed books along the way. She wore a blue and white country summer dress.
“They looked very nice, very relaxed and very happy to be in Santa Ynez,” said Pearson Turnbull, owner of Santa Ynez, a furniture and clothing store on Segundo Street, not far from where the Bidens are vacationing.
Several black Secret Service vehicles and staff were on hand for the visit.
Turnbull said it was a quiet day at the Santa Ynez General store. “The First Lady and her entourage was probably about 10 people, so it was totally unexpected to see so many people in the store so quickly.”
He said several items were found that he would be taking back to the White House after the trip.
How they found out about this story is a mystery, but it was in their plans and now it is a memory for the owners.
“She has a huge following and is such a positive influence, so it’s great to have her approval and endorsement. When we opened five years ago we were a small shop in a small town and we never expected the First Lady to come into our store!” Turnbull said.
Near Solvang, the group stopped at the Solvang Book Loft, a 50-year-old store, where they were looking for summer reading.
“Someone said, ‘I can’t believe she’s coming to the Book Loft,'” said Melanie Eckford Prosser, assistant to the first lady on Wednesday. “It’s the perfect combination: an English professor and a bookseller. They were just browsing and enjoying their summer reading, as were many of our customers.”
Then came a surprise within a surprise: Echord Prosser said she began a conversation about education: “We’re both community college professors, and I just left SBCC (Santa Barbara City College) a year ago, and we talked about what it’s like to be an English professor, and how important it is for English professors, regardless of their political stance, to see her as First Lady and committed to the mission of community colleges.”
Plans for the Bidens to stay at a private ranch were kept secret, some roads were closed and extra security was put in place in the valley and airspace above the area in the days ahead.
Shelby Sim is president of the Santa Ynez Valley Tourism Association. He said former President Ronald Reagan visited the valley in the 1980s for his mountaintop Rancho Del Cielo vacation home. “It’s great to have the president’s attention again and to have people coming to the Santa Ynez Valley. It’s the middle of the week, our hotels are full and it’s a great boost to our economy.”
The geolocation service has received a major boost this week as it has garnered media attention. “We heard the news at the convention and on every news station that the president was going on vacation to the Santa Ynez Valley. As the designation and marketing organization, we couldn’t have written it any better ourselves,” Sim said.
In addition to shoppers, the trip was attended by an estimated 300 White House staff, security personnel, area law enforcement and media personnel, and drew businesses throughout the Valley.
“As soon as they realized we had helped them secure a room, we reached out and did everything we could to secure a hotel room for them, and of course, we rolled out the red carpet as much as we could,” said Sim. He said it was a sign of welcoming hospitality and would also lead to a boom in local businesses, including food, retail and transportation services.
In the small town of Ballard, Bob’s Well Bread also received a sizable order from the Biden group of ranches.
President Biden’s visit will depart on Sunday aboard Air Force One and is scheduled to conclude over the weekend.
