With no firm travel plans for September, we received a home exchange offer to spend a week near the beach in Santa Cruz, CA. So we decided "why not!?"
We arrived at the San Francisco airport in the early Tuesday afternoon, found the car our exchange partners had parked at the airport with ease, and headed straight over to the Pacific Coast Highway taking the scenic route to Santa Cruz.
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| Pacific Ocean at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Moss Beach |
We made stops at the
Fitzgerald Marine Reserve near Moss Beach, and the
Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park. This lighthouse, at 115 feet high, is one of the tallest in the U.S.
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| Pigeon Point Lighthouse |
North of Davenport we stopped to enjoy the surf crashing on rocks and kite-surfers at Waddell Beach in the afternoon sun.
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| Kite-surfers at Waddell Beach near Davenport |
The
Whale City Bakery in Davenport caught our eye, so we stopped for a casual dinner before checking in to our condo in Santa Cruz. It was cute and comfortable, and oh-so-close to the beach.
We drove some of the streets in town and discovered the
Santa Cruz Boardwalk was closed this time of year, except on weekends. We also explored West Cliff drive to the west, then back in town walked to the end of the historic
Santa Cruz Wharf.
Wednesday we explored more of our local area near Santa Cruz.
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| Natural Bridges State Beach, looking west |
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| The beach near Natural Bridges |
Later we drove over to the beautiful campus and
Arboretum of
University of California, Santa Cruz, where we spotted a new bird, the
Red-shouldered Hawk.
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Red-shouldered Hawk at UCSC Arboretum grounds
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| Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos), Australian plant at arboretum |
Later we drove over to Felton to see the 80 foot long
Felton Covered Bridge and then to a walk through the redwoods at
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
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| Felton Covered Bridge (photo courtesy of Wikipedia) |
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| Inside the Felton Covered Bridge |
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| Redwoods in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park |
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| Obligatory pose "inside" the trunk of a redwood |
Later that evening we went to
Natural Bridges State Beach, just west of Santa Cruz, for some sunset photography.
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| Sunset at Natural Bridges |
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| Last light on the remaining natural bridge |
Unfortunately Mike was feeling a bit under the weather Thursday so we lounged around and read, listening to the sea lions just outside.
We took it easy again on Friday, stopping first for brunch in picturesque
Capitola. Then we continued with a very scenic drive down to the
Big Sur coast area.
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| The colorful vacation rentals and wharf in Capitola, across from our brunch spot |
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| Capitola Venetian Hotel and beach |
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| Along the Big Sur coast |
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| Big Sur coastline |
We stopped at
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and walked the short trail to the McWay Falls viewpoint and the ruins of the Waterfall House.
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| McWay Falls hitting the deserted/restricted beach |
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| McWay Falls |
Saturday, Mike's brother and his wife drove down from Tracy to join us for the day. We walked out to the
Santa Cruz Breakwater Lighthouse just outside the harbor and along on "our" beach (Seaside) then into the Boardwalk where we all took a ride on the
vintage 1924 "Giant Dipper" wooden roller coaster!
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| Santa Cruz harbor lighthouse (aka Walton Lighthouse, ca 2001) |
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| Santa Cruz Boardwalk |
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| Beach volleyball tournament near the boardwalk |
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| Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk |
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| You don't see surfboards on (lifeguard) fire trucks very often :-) |
We walked along the beach near the Boardwalk, stopping to watch a beach volleyball tournament. We also went out on the Wharf again for a light meal before walking back to our condo.
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| A very unusually decorated car near our condo :-) |
Later, the four of us had a lovely dinner at the remarkable
Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola. We descended down the hill to the multi-level restaurant via private cable car! Too soon it was time for them to head back home.
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| Waiting on the cable car down to the Shadowbrook |
Sunday morning we visited the tiny
Santa Cruz Surfing Museum before driving down to the Monterey Peninsula. We drove through Monterey and Carmel, stopping only to take a few pictures. We decided to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium again another time.
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| Santa Cruz Surfing Museum (photo courtesy of Wikipedia) |
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| Mike checks out Surfing Museum exhibits |
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| Monterey Bay |
Fogged rolled in so our views and photographs were not the best, but that was all forgotten when Mike spotted another new bird for us, the
White-tailed Kite, along the very scenic
17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove. We had a chance to watch him hunting, hovering and diving several times.
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| White-tailed Kite |
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| White-tailed Kite hovering as it hunts |
Our last full day in California was spent in
Big Basin Redwoods State Park. We got an early start to hike the 11 mile loop out to Berry Creek Falls. The cool morning quickly turned hotter and muggier than we anticipated, especially since we were at higher elevation.
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| Susan on the trail to Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin State Park |
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| Mike with a redwood too big to hug |
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| Berry Falls in mottled sun |
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| Berry Falls detail |
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| Susan in a stand of redwoods along the trail |
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| Another cascade along the trail |
The total elevation gain ended up at about 1800 feet and we ran out of water near the end. It was a tough hike, but worth the effort to see the falls, which was magnificent even with the low water flow of September. I almost stepped on a rattlesnake on the return trail.
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| The best shot of the rattler getting away. We believe it was a Pacific Rattlesnake. |
Tuesday it was time to go home again. Our generous home-exchanger Laura gave us a ride to the San Jose airport where we soon learned that our flight was delayed. After an uneventful flight we drove home up the canyon through Lyons around midnight in pouring rain, not knowing that in two days we would experience historic flooding, closing that stretch of road for months. But that's another story.
Here's a map of the part of California we covered on this trip.
