Day trip from the City - Beach time in Santa Cruz

A week ago, the weather was beautiful. It was beach weather. That kind of weather makes it perfect to drive south of the City. The place we had in mind was none other than Santa Cruz. 

We relaxed by the beach with a cold beverage and then we went to Santa Cruz downtown in the afternoon for a nice stroll on Pacific Ave. It was a perfect Santa Cruz beach day.

It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. The weather was nice in the city so we assumed the weather was the same down in Santa Cruz. We didn't leave the city until a little after 9:30am. Traffic was ok moving and we got to the beach before 12noon.

We were ready. We got our sunglasses, chairs, our beach mats, umbrella and sunscreen. There was some breeze so the umbrella was never steady the entire time.

 

We got our popcorn and our cold beer by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing.

  

We got hungry after a couple of hours and we decided to snack on a corn dog and our favorite garlic fries. The Northern California water is icy cold so I didn't go in the water but that is ok. Relaxing by the beach is actually what I've been wanting to do after a long week.

Around 3:30pm, we decided to pack up and freshened up. The Boardwalk was crowded with people.

I love the Boardwalk.

 

Everytime we are in Santa Cruz, we always make it a point to go to the Santa Cruz downtown. It is a cute little downtown and it is lively with people walking up and down. There was an Antique Street Fair near the parking lots.


Pacific Ave. is dotted with shops, cafe, public art and musicians.  We found this beautiful sculpture called Untitled Clevis #2 by Harold Moodie.


We are almost out of coffee at home so we decided to dropby the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting to get a couple of coffee to take home with us. 

   

Mijo decided to try the coffee first. He ordered the Sweet Italian blend. I got the Santa Cruz dark. Both coffees were hand made using a manual drip. The coffee were tasty so we decided to get half a pound of bag each.

 

Next stop was at the Bookshop Santa Cruz. We spent at least a couple of hours at the bookstore. I found some Freakonomics series books which I've been wanting to read so I decided to get a paperback copy.

We chanced upon this mural along Plaza Lane called Adventures in Paradise painted by James Carl Aschbacher and Lisa Jensen Aschbacher.

Our strolls took us to a cafe called Mutari. We were craving for something sweet so we decided to go in and try their Chocolate Sipping Flight.
   

The day was funfilled and filled with sunshine. We love truly Santa Cruz.

~rl