Wednesday July 3 found us in Santa Cruz for the day and a second night. Lorna and Melissa had insisted upon spending an entire day in Santa Cruz. The hotel prices are insane there, but I'm glad we did it. Our goals were to enjoy the scenery, catch up with old friends, shop along Pacific Ave, and whatever else seemed like a good idea; I admit it was not a very ambitious plan, but satisfactory for a vacation!
Santa Cruz is a nice little city in a beautiful seaside location, just near enough to and far enough from San Francisco to be a destination without being overrun like Atlantic City, NJ. The beaches are lovely, the surf is celebrated, the boardwalk and the long, long pier draw thousands and thousands of visitors. There's a pedestrian-friendly downtown shopping district along Pacific Avenue, a university, and easy proximity to Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur.
The boardwalk is a colorful, somewhat honky-tonk promenade along the beach, but it is very clean and well-maintained. There are rides and arcade games and great people-watching, and there's always the view of the beach and the bay beyond. The food on the boardwalk is nothing special (unless you like corn dogs and similar fair fare), but there's nothing like the setting for a stroll.
The long pier is my favorite part of Santa Cruz. There are touristy shops and eateries, of course, but also great views out to the bay and back over the boardwalk. We usually see pelicans perched on pilings and flying low over the water, but we didn't see them today.
We did however see the sea lions! Lots of them, like the big fella in the top photo. They hang out under the pier, resting singly and in groups, and enduring (enjoying?) the gawking of tourists. The sea lions in Santa Cruz don't balance balls on their noses and clap their flippers and bark on command; they relax in the shade under the pier and eat fresh fish when they want to. They're my role models.
We couldn't spend all day on the pier, though. Lorna and Melissa had to assay the shops along Pacific Ave and see if there was anything that they could not live without. In the meantime, I opted for some serious scientific research: the ancient and fabled Martinez Cocktail was likely invented near here, and Front and Cooper was just the place to learn about it.
The Martinez is very old. You can read about it at the link above, but the short form is this: it's from the mid-late 1800s, and mostly undocumented. There's a consensus today on how to make it, but it's a best guess, not a discovery of The Truth. It's a sort of a wet Martini made with sweet vermouth, or a cross between the modern Martini and the venerable Manhattan. In any event, it's a mighty tasty guess and I encourage you to try it. This one was made by by the knowledgeable Andrew at Front and Cooper.
Pacific Ave also boasts an excellent independent bookstore where I spent time and money. I love a good bookstore, so the Bookshop Santa Cruz is our traditional meeting place when we're in Santa Cruz.
Eventually I rejoined Lorna and Melissa and we walked back to the wharf for a birthday dinner at Splash! with our friend Hector, his girlfriend Jody, and his son Dmitri.
I had a very Santa Cruz soup-and-salad special of arugula salad with artichoke soup. Castroville, the Artichoke Capital of America, is just a half-hour south of Santa Cruz, so this was a locavore dinner. The restaurant staff was very friendly and all the food was fresh and well-prepared, but it does not have much for vegetarians, which was both unfortunate and inconvenient. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find good vegetarian food in California outside of the cities!
That made a full day, albeit somewhat low-key. That was by plan, because the next day was one of the longest driving days of the vacation, from Santa Cruz along the Pacific Coast Highway to Mendocino!