Blogs from Santa Cruz, California, United States, North America - page 3

My sister Kathleen, who is visiting from London, rented a beach house this weekend, and she invited us all there. My dad couldn’t make it, but everyone else could. It was right on the beach in a great area and it was mucho fun. Enjoy the pictures. Santa Cruz is a typical California beach community with surfers and a beach-side amusement park. It is about an hour south of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean. The boardwalk features a roller coaster along with other rides and a Fun House. The Fun House includes all those silly mirrors that make you look taller or shorter, fatter or skinnier. When we were teenagers, my mother moved us from Modesto, California to Campbell, California. Modesto was a small town and being a doctor’s x-wife in a small town didn’t ... read more

Today we traveled down to Carmel via Highway 1. On our way, we stopped at Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing. Apparently this restaurant/fish market has been featured on both "Dirty Jobs" and Bobby Flay's "Throw Down". Phil beat Bobby with his Cioppino...not surprising...food there was delicious!!! Stopped in Monterrey to check out the wharf area. A Navy boat was tied-up there, and it was interesting to see the security involved with it. The harbor patrol was out in a small dingy, but had their rifle out, just in case... We walked around the wharf shopping area and then drove thru the old cannery row. There were a few canneries still in operation, but it was mostly shopping in the old buildings. We then headed to Carmel...it reminded me so much of Leavenworth, but with a ... read more

its heading on midnight so I am starting to fall asleep - but must blog some more! May as well "finish off" Santa Cruz as got some good snaps down on the Boardwalk - one of the classic ones left in the US by all accounts - all the fun of the (fun) fair - along with more fried food than you can poke a stick at - deep fried cheesecake anyone? (I kid you not!). I got here about 1-ish and was lucky to get into a room - which I then proceeded not to really leave for about 3 hrs (typical) - checking the wifi etc and doing early post. As I had not had breakfast (in Salinas no time) or lunch - when I got here - finally got a falafel sandwich c.5.30pm ... read more

Wow, what an amazingly challenging adventure we had! This was our first long-distance, multi-day bike adventure and honestly...I think we did pretty well. We put a lot of time in gear preparation since we didn't have a lot of time for physical training. Haha! Within hours of getting Minnie a bike at Target, we had decided to take this trip from Fresno to Santa Cruz to make it to our friend's 40th birthday party this past Sat. So we researched, gathered, and bought gear for biking, camping, adventuring, and partying! And of course, we had to bring our adventure dog Bella - so she had to have gear too! We left for our Journey early Monday morning (the 10th), with bikes weighted down and spirits high! It took us a few hours to work out the ... read more

Geo: 36.974, -122.031Trip took us from Eureka south to Willits and then east to Clearlake in a lake district. More redwoods as well as a trip up into snow country. Then south through the Napa Valley where we visited a couple of vineyards - the Caberbet Reserve was excellent. We avoided San Francisco by heading southeast through Vallejo, San Jose and then west to Sanata Cruz on the coast. Four lane highways look like side streets around here. Steep climb through the mountains from San Jose to Santa Cruz. Had dinner at a very nice Mexican restaurant. The rains are back but weather is supposed to be better tomorrow when we head south through Monterey.... read more