Santa Cruz

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to bring one of my SLO friends up to Santa Cruz and practice being a tour guide, which was an interesting task, given that my body completely shut down on Saturday, and I ended up sleeping 20 hours that day.

Anyways, fear not. Sunday came around and I felt much better, and I had also promised to show Kate many of the the rad places Santa Cruz has to offer, so there was no way we were going to leave without her seeing everything I had promised her.

Sunday morning:

We woke up around 7, the air was brisk and cool (and I felt refreshed). We got ready, picked up our belongings and brought them to the car, then we tried to sneak around the back of the house to take in the view, but Louie started barking so our plan was shut down. Instead, we joined Shannon inside and talked for a little bit while Samantha got ready. Once Sam was ready, Kate and I took her downtown to eat breakfast at Saturn Cafe (duh), which is this really neat vegetarian restaurant with killer nacho fries!!! So yeah, who says you can't have fries for breakfast? 

After our meal, we walked down Pacific Garden Mall, stopping at the neat, local shops along the way. The thing with going to a busy place in the morning is that it tends to not be busy, so everything takes a lot less time than expected. We also bought some Salt Water Taffy for our trip home (10/10 recommend). 

Next we stopped and sat out at West Cliff and watched the (what seemed like hundreds of) surfers patiently waiting for that perfect wave. I mean, it was a beautifully sunny day, and without a breeze it even felt like it could be in the mid 70 degrees. 



I mean just look at all these surfers! 



Beautiful day to explore Santa Cruz :)

After people watching for a while, we decided it be time to pack up and visit the ever-so-famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk!!! Wooohoo! (We only went on two rides, as most of them were closed and it's so expensive! Wow. Those all-day bracelets are totally worth it, let me tell you).



We worked on our beach bods before making the trip up to visit.



For once, we decided to ride something other than the Dragon Ride. 

After the boardwalk we went back to the house, as Samantha had physics homework to do, and we had to make our trip back home to SLO.

Before driving back though, Shannon suggested we stop at the Nisene Marks State Park and walk around there for a while, and let's just say that Kate really wants to live in Santa Cruz now and explore that park everyday.

One thing is certain, we stepped into a whole new world in that park, and it was beautiful.

Then after our final stop at Samba Rock acai, we made the trip back home to reality.

Even though I slept for an entire day this weekend, we did make the most of what we had, and we got to see a lot of beautiful sights. Definitely cannot complain.

Also eternally grateful for my family and all they do for me ♡
We will most certainly be back again!

Much love,
Ella



Taken on the road