Santa Cruz is a cool place, I could easily see myself living there. The place we stayed was even cooler. If you are traveling to Santa Cruz you should stay at the Babbling Brook Inn. It was like staying at Peter Pan's secret lost boys hide out.
We woke up early to go to Halfmoon Bay, unfortunately missing out on the tide pools yet again. However we stopped into Maverick's surf shop in town where I met Jeff Clark! For those of you who don't know, he was the first to surf Maverick's [one of the meanest waves in the world] we said hello, I asked how he was doing and he said, "Just living the dream." There was a rizty looking family bragging about how their son has surfed in hawaii, I'm not sure they knew who they were talking to. Steve was angry with me that I was too chicken to really say "hi," and ask for an autograph. Just being in the same room as the guy was enough for me, I didn't want to be one of "those," people, although I do wish I had the stones to tell him how much of an inspiration he is.
After I returned to earth we drove along the coast for the last time. At one point we noticed a large flock of birds just off the shore. We pulled over to check it out and I kid you not we stood there and watched thousands of birds fly by for a solid 10 minutes or more. Finally we decided we had to leave even though we never saw the end of the flock.
We then headed inland and up into the mountains to Big Basin State Park. Like Big Sur we lost our cell service but experienced a different type of roller coaster ride, still lined with steep cliffs but this time redwoods on either side of our car. The closer we got to the park the larger the trees became, I think we said, "Oh my god!" and "Holy crap!" at least a hundred times. Finally we reached the park, beautiful, shady, inviting and ancient. I learned there that those sequoia trees are so resilient. Many of them continue to grow even after forest fires have hollowed them out.
Goal for next trip- camp at Big Basin.
After a few hours of exploring one more time we got in the car and headed to our last stop, San Fransisco. Once we emerged from the forest I could feel my heart begin to sink. Our trip was almost over. But not before an awesome dinner in the city and a view of the golden gate bridge. Just like all of our other stops I wished we could stay for longer [honestly I wish we could stay forever]. I felt bad we weren't able to drive over the bridge and really experience San Fransisco. I've been there once before, but Steve hasn't. Maybe it will give him a reason to want to go back.
That night we went to bed early to catch an 11 am flight back home.
In the 8 days we spent in California we were able to experience more than 1,000 miles of unimaginably beautiful scenery, that seemed to slip by in a moment. I look back on it now and can't believe it actually happened. More than anything, I'm so grateful that I was able to experience it all with Steve, he'd never been out there before and I think now he understands my obsession with the west coast a little more.
I promised Steve he could pick our vacation next year, but I've already dropped several hints about Canada and photographing the northern lights. We shall see where the road takes us next.
Check out all the pictures here.
