13.06.2019 - Santa Cruzin'

[Sam_Smith]

Travelling this time was DH (54) - driver/eater/moaner/petrol head/biker

Me (51) - navigator/planner/booker/spreadsheet creator/feeder

A much better night's sleep was had by all thankfully and we fetched breakfast at a much more suitable time than of late.

We had both really enjoyed San Francisco, but it was time to move on again. We had 89 miles to drive to Santa Cruz, so it was not going to take too long.

One thing I had definitely underestimated on this road trip is the times it would take to drive places. It was easy to find out the miles between destinations, but actually driving it was a different story. The speed limit on the freeways are much lower than in the UK, and on this second stage of the trip where we will be travelling all the way back down the coast to San Diego, there was a lot of slow winding roads - but more of that later

Leaving San Francisco, the weather was much cooler, and the roads were pretty quiet

Do you know the way?

It wasn't long before we started to see this

and by lunchtime we had arrived at our next resting place.

The Comfort Inn Boardwalk was run by the oddest little Indian man I had ever encountered. I kinda got his humour so I actually thought he was quite funny, but as American's don't really do sarcasm, I was surprised that he was getting away with it

This was more of a hotel than a motel, and the price reflected that, at £559 for 2 nights

It wasn't actually ON the Boardwalk either, but just a short walk down the street directly opposite the main entrance, so pretty close - no sea views though, and when you deviate from the see front, Santa Cruz did feel a little seedy.

Once checked in we found ourselves here

Mmmmm yes it was ummmmm... interesting

Not really our thing tbh but we still walked the whole length of the Boardwalk and back again to have a good look around.

There was a beautiful beach

which was pretty quiet because the weather was looking a bit dodgy

We found a snack and sat and people watched for a while

before continuing to look around

Then the BEST thing happened... I found a stall selling these!

Apple and cinnamon for me and Oreo cookie for DH

Boy oh boy they were good! I have never actually tried one in Disney before so it was such a nice surprise to be able to get one here.

As the afternoon started to turn into early evening the mist started to roll in off the sea and the clouds assembled, so we decided to go back to our room for an early night.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk is where the Lost Boys was filmed, and I still have nightmares about that film, so we made our escape

Back in the room we decided to jump in the car and visit a local Safeway for some supplies. Snacks and beverages were bought along with a supply of Advil. I had a list of places to visit in Santa Cruz, but tbh we just weren't feeling it. It was a bit scruffy and just not us, so after checking how far it was to Yosemite we decided tomorrow we would go there; having missed out the previous week.

[Mortimer Mouse]

Oh wow- are those funnel cakes? It's hard to tell with all that topping on! yum.

[Sam_Smith]

Yep. Epic 😍