The two big attractions at Santa Cruz are the pier and the boardwalk. The boardwalk is a mile-long amusement park packed with really good rollercoasters, carousels, games, food, kiddie rides, and whatever else a good theme park would have. Plus the ocean.
The pier juts out about a half-mile into the Pacific Ocean. It’s not just a pier — you can drive out and park, go fishing, eat at any number of seafood restaurants, visit bars, shop for souvenirs. We had a lunch that left us speechless. Clam chowder out of bread bowls, fish and chips, fried calamari with french fries. All of it was simply the best we’d ever had — especially the calamari, which was buttery tender inside with a hard, crunchy crust. And cheap, too.
Everybody likes to visit the sea lions on the pier. First you have to get past the sentry, though.
Down beneath it’s a regular condominium for these great beasts.
They’re quite comfortable around us humans, and will readily pose for photographs.
This sleepy pair was happy to let you pet them. Sea Lions have very soft fur, nice to touch.
You have to take pictures of all this.
The dark side of living around here is the fires. We could clearly see the Lockheed Fire, which has grown to over 5,000 acres, from the pier. It’s visible here as the small bright spot top center. We could smell the smoke on-and-off all day.
All day we saw these going back-and-forth along the length of the beach, but I didn’t figure out what they were until I saw the news story on-line this morning.
Here’s the best shot I got from the pier, cropped in a little.
At the far end of the pier you can usually find pelicans hanging around. These too are accustomed to having us around, and you can get pretty close to them.
But not too close.
Late afternoon the Friday entertainment came up. Papa Doo Run Run is a hugely popular local cover band, and people came out in throngs to see them. The line for autographs was about a hundred long. LF and I agreed that lying on a sunny beach in California listening to a good band knock out Beach Boys songs was about as good as life gets. Young and old, couples wearing tie-dyed clothes without irony, everyone was having fun; Santa Cruz is awesome.
As evening fell the beach got much cooler, down into the 50s. It was time to head up and see what the local entertainment was all about.
LF and I strolled along the boardwalk while daughter C spent time with some nice young man she’d met on the boardwalk. He took her for a ride on the back of his bicycle and bought her dinner at a local taqueria, while LF and I settled on a funnel cake. Mmm, healthy dinner.
We caught the last few songs from the band up closer, joining in with the crowd on “Shout.” Besides a lead singer they had a lead signer, a guy rockin’ and rollin’, sending out the lyrics to “Born To Be Wild” in sign language.
Where else but here?