Thursday, March 30, 2017

California's Central Coast: Monterey and Santa Cruz

For Spring Break this year, my oldest son (almost 7 years old) and I took a road trip to Santa Cruz and Monterey for 4 days and 3 nights.  As I've written before, I had the wonderful opportunity to live in this area for a brief time in my life and it always feels like coming home when I visit.  This trip was no exception.

My son and I stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Capitola.  It was a nice hotel, though definitely more geared toward business people this time of year than tourists and children.  Still, it was enjoyable.  We had a 1 king junior suite.  No exciting views, but the room was spacious, there was a bathtub, which is my son's primary request in a hotel, and it was a lot nicer than the old hotels you find on the beach.  The free breakfast was pretty basic fair, but my son did say this place had the best waffles he's had in the past 2 years of trips he remembers.  As an added bonus, one of my local favorites, Erik's Deli, is only about a 5 minute walk from the hotel.  And the mall, which includes a Target and Kohls, is only about 7-10 minutes on foot.  Great location overall.



I let my son lead the trip this time.  We took our required trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for a bit to play miniature golf.  My son went on a couple of rides, but as it's the off-season, not much is open and they're doing a bunch of construction, so our time there was limited.

On our second day, we took a brief drive to Felton before driving down to Monterey.  It was a beautiful morning.  A little fog, still damp from rain the night before.  The forest has never looked more beautiful than it does right now with all the rains this past winter.


By the time we got to Monterey, the day was gorgeous.  Weather was in the 60s with plenty of sunshine.  We started off our day by taking a walk from Fisherman's Wharf to Cannery Row.  This walk is not too hard, but it is a long walk (about 2.4 miles each direction), so don't do it if you aren't good with walking long distances.  It's worth it though for the beauty.





Once we got to Cannery Row, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  My son enjoyed it much more this trip than he did when we went a year ago.  Without the little ones, we were able to go at his pace and explore what he was interested in.  He was especially fascinated by the jellies and sea stars. 









On our final full day in the area, we decided to take it easy and explore Santa Cruz.  My son and I woke up early to see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean.  There are few places on the Pacific where you can do this since, you know, the sun rises in the east and we're on the west coast.  So, it was a special experience for my son.  We watched the surfers and fishermen, took a walk along the paths on West Cliff Drive, and tried to soak up the beauty of nature.






It's amazing how much beauty is in such a small area.  I can't wait to go back again sometime soon.  If you're thinking about taking a trip to this area, do it.  You won't regret it.

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