“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”—Kirt Vonnegut
According the the National Weather Service our raging heat wave of up to 100 plus degrees is expected to last until July 10. Sometimes a change in venue is all that is required to stay cool outside rather than being cooped up in your home all day. Yesterday, at 8:30 am, Bill and I drove 22-miles south over the Santa Cruz Mountains from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz which took about a half-hour. There was literally no traffic to suffer through as most people had already headed to the beaches before or on the 4th. The fog lifted rather quickly and the temperature was a welcomed 70 degree with the gusty, cooling wind at our backs.
This quintessential California beach area serves as a mecca for surfers, sun-worshippers, biking and boating enthusiasts, hikers, volleyball players. We road to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the Wharf to see and hear the barking sea lions swimming and resting under the pier, while the seagulls were soaring and diving into to the ocean to catch their prey. We rode to the Walton Lighthouse at Seabright State Beach to watch the surf splash over the rocks.
We continued on to the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor before heading on to Capitola Village. The pier that had collapsed at its center has almost been completely replaced, and soon to open to tourists again. We stopped to see the surfers on Pleasure Point Beach. After stopping for an outdoor lunch near at the Lighthouse Field State Beach, we did a five-mile loop to Natural Bridges State Beach before heading back home by 2 pm. After clocking 24 miles, we felt so invigorated and fulfilled by the experience of communing with nature.
