What else is in Santa Cruz that I don’t know about?
Every time I think I know the lay of the land in the Bay Area, I discover that after 25 years I remain a neophyte. I’ve been to Santa Cruz countless times in the almost 25 years I’ve lived in the Bay Area. The boardwalk, with the Giant Dipper roller coaster was an early discovery, and we’ve found that in the off season, you can get on and off this ride so fast that you will literally make yourself sick! The boardwalk discovery was closely followed by exploring the beaches, which include regular old family beaches, as well as beaches for surfers, nude beaches, and beaches for those of the gay persuasion, often nude, and sometimes surfing. In the winter, there’s the Holiday Lights train that leaves from the boardwalk and chugs through town, giving a great view of the local “went too far” Christmas decorations, all while sipping hot cider. After a time, we discovered another side of Santa Cruz when we took up sailing and met Mark Kraft and the gang at Pacific Yachting and Sailing down at the harbor. More recently, we’ve used the spa at Chaminade as our “get away for the weekend and forget about it all” destination. So, I figured I had seen it all, or at least a good approximation of “it all”, until we found ourselves wandering down Pacific Avenue on either side of Soquel Ave. on a warm summer Saturday night recently and thought I’d passed through a space warp onto the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade! There were more strange people, looking and acting, than I typically see in an entire weekend in San Francisco (of course, maybe I don’t know that city half as well as I think, either…) This part of Santa Cruz is quite an experience, with lots of interesting places to wander, eat and drink, while taking in the indigenous species that appear to abound on this street!
– Chris