Santa Cruz

       In the latest installment of my life, Ben had told me to pack a swimsuit and prepare for 60 degree weather for a surprise trip this weekend. Those things don't really go together, but I did it anyway. We ended up going about 80 miles south to Santa Cruz, which is right on the coast. We left at 7am for some reason, so it was a chilly morning, but we got a GREAT parking spot, which is really something to celebrate around here. 

The Santa Cruz boardwalk and amusement park is supposed to be the “World's Best Beach Boardwalk” or at least that's what all their banners say. It was pretty cool, but mostly empty, since it was by that time about 830 in the morning. 

 We waited until the park opened and then bought a fried Twinkie and a fried cheesecake, which we both wanted to try. They were really good! Then we went walking some more, to work it off.

Not healthy.

       We had dinner on a long pier. It was more fried things. Fish things. We also saw a sea lion super up close, which was exciting. He mostly just stared at us and barked a couple times. 

Faux hawk

 After dinner the sky cleared up a bit and it came up sunny, which was nice, because then it warmed up somewhat. We then walked over to a little green park on a cliff and took a nap in the grass. Neither of us had gotten much sleep in the last few days. Later, we got up and watched a bunch of little kid surfers. They were crazy. They were like 12, and they were surfing all over the place!

         After that, we visited a couple of beaches. One was sand – a pretty standard beach. As we were getting ready to leave, this big black Lab came up and just kind of sat down on Ben! His owner was like “Oh my gosh I'm so sorry, he just won't socialize with other dogs, just people!!” It was hilarious. Then we visited a rockier beach, which was basically a bunch of tide pools. It was SO COOL. It was like Cabo Blanco in Costa Rica, complete with sea anemones, starfish, and sea urchins! I poked the sea anemones and they felt really sticky. A quick Google search told me that they were trying to sting me. I also tried to pick up some starfish, but they were stuck tight to the rock. They were also super close to the wave zone. I wasn't watching very closely and ended up drenched to the knee. Oops. So I let them be.

       

 
It was a real winner of a day, that's for sure.