First Lady Jill Biden takes a vacation break for some shopping in the Santa Ynez Valley

SOLVANG, Calif. - First Lady Jill Biden has been shopping in the Santa Ynez Valley while on vacation in the area.

She popped in to a few places Wednesday with family members and friends to see the local area stores and pick up some items.

They included the Santa Ynez General and the Book Loft in Solvang.

The First Lady posed for some pictures and signed some books along the way. She was wearing a blue and white country-style summer dress.

"Just very lovely and seemed very relaxed and if anything happy to be here in Santa Ynez," said Santa Ynez General Owner Pearson Turnbull. The store of home furnishings and apparel is located on Segunto St. not far from where the Bidens are on vacation.

Several black Secret Service vehicles and staff members were in place for the visit.

Turnbull said it was a quiet day at Santa Ynez General then, "the First Lady and her entourage probably ten people and it was very unexpected and there were so many people in the store so quickly."

He said they did find some items to take back to the White House after this trip.

How they came upon this story is a mystery but it was on their agenda and is now a memory for the owners.

Turnbull said, "she has such a huge following.  and such a positive impact and it is great to have her stamp or approval. When  we opened the store five years ago,   we were a little store  in a little town.   We never anticipated the  First Lady  would be coming through our doors!"

Nearby in Solvang,  the group stopped in at the Solvang Book Loft. It is a 50 year old store. They were looking for some summer reading. 

Melanie Eckford-Prossor assisted the First Lady Wednesday. "Someone said 'oh I can't believe she came to the book loft.'  English professor, book store, it's a match. They just enjoyed browsing and enjoyed browsing summer reads,  like a lot of out customers. "

Then came the surprise within the surprise. Eckord- Prosser said she struck up a conversation about teaching. "We are both community college professors and I just left SBCC (Santa Barbara City College) a year ago and  what it was like to be English professors and how important it was for English professors  regardless of political affiliation was to see her as working First Lady and committed to the community college mission. "

Plans for the Bidens to stay at a private ranch were kept a secret. Some roads were closed. Extra security has been in place in the valley for several days, and restrictions on airplane traffic overhead have been established.

Shelby Sim is the President of Visit Santa Ynez Valley. He said back in the 1980's former President Ronald Reagan came to the valley for his mountaintop Rancho del Cielo retrat. "It's great to be back on the Presidential radar  and have folks come out to the Santa Ynez Valley. It's mid week and it is filling our hotels and it is a great bump to our economy."

The geographical locator has been a big boost in that it is in the media limelight this week. Sim said, "hearing it on the convention floor, hearing it on all the news stations, the president is taking off to vacation to the Santa Ynez Valley, as a designation and marketing organization we couldn't have written it any better ourselves."   

In addition to the shopping outings, the valley business overall has had a boost with an estimate 300 White House staff, security, regional law enforcement and working press on this trip.

"As soon as we were aware we helped them get rooms, we reached out to get hotel rooms and we did that as much as we could and of course any kind of red carpet as we can do," said Sim. He said that translates into a sign of welcoming hospitality and also a spike for area businesses such as food, retail, and transportation services.

In the small town of Ballard, Bob's Well Bread also received a sizable order from the Biden group on the ranch.

The Biden trip is expected to end over the weekend with a departure on Air Force One Sunday.