Santa Cruz

We have a family "camping on the beach" trip planned in a couple months and I'm trying to get excited.  I've never been camping and sand annoys me but The Lime is excited and I don't want to be Miss Debbie Downer.  One of the reasons The Lime is so excited is because we'll swing by the Boardwalk while we're in Santa Cruz.  He's seen the commercials numerous times (they're always on during the A's games) and he always asks, "When can we go?!"  Trying to explain two months to a three year old has been difficult.

LaVor swung by the grocery store the other night and surprised me with a movie from Red Box (our first time).  He said I had asked to see Chasing Mavericks when it was in the theater but I admitted I had never even heard of the movie.  I figured it was about surfing based on the title, and although I've never been surfing, it's a topic that interests me.  So we stayed up late and lounged on our comfy couch while tapping our feet to great tunes from the 90's and enjoyed the story of Jay Moriarity.

His favorite picture of me

The movie was filmed in Santa Cruz, since that's where a majority of the story took place (except when they were at Mavericks).  So many fun memories came back to me as they showed different spots LaVor and I spent a lot of time visiting.  We'd always park at the parking lot where 41st Street and E Cliff Drive met, longboard along the cliff, visit the shops along 41st, grab a bite to eat at Pleasure Pizza or meet the Hatch family for Mexican, drive along W Cliff and stop at Steamer Lane, watch the surfers jump off the cliff into the water, drive further up the cliff as we blasted Jack Johnson and admired the houses, catch the sunset at Natural Bridges, and finish the day off with a bonfire on the beach (once with hot dogs that made us sick...blah).

Pretty sure these were his Big Papa glasses

Santa Cruz was a popular hangout for us when we were dating (and also where we got engaged) but it got pushed to the back burner when we got married and had a kid.  Now that that kid is old enough to appreciate and enjoy different experiences, we might be frequent visitors once again.