We left beautiful Big Sur and headed toward Santa Cruz along the coast.  We could see wisps of fog and sea mist along the coast.  The road eventually took us inland and we began to see huge fields of strawberries and farmland with beautiful wildflowers.    We arrived at the KOA in Watsonville, a short distance from Santa Cruz.  KOA’s are not our favorite place to stay as they tend to be expensive and the sites are close together.  Since KOA’s are family oriented they also tend to be crowded and rather noisy.

We headed first to Santa Cruz to explore the area.  We drove down to their pier which is very much like an amusement park with all kinds of rides and food booths.  This boardwalk and pier did not appeal to us as much as the one in Santa Monica.  We did drive to an area where we spent some time watching the surfers. The first surfing in the mainland U.S. began in Santa Cruz.  Apparently in 1885 three Hawaiian princes came over and made surfboards out of redwoods planks.  The surfboards were made in the shape of traditional Hawaiian o’lo boards which in Hawaii was reserved for royalty.  The three princes had been taught to surf by their uncle on Waikiki Beach in Oahu.  Some Santa Cruz locals saw them surfing in the waters and the fad caught on. Some say much of this is local lore, though some or most of it is believed to be true.  Regardless, we enjoyed watching the surfers and seeing the beautiful views.  

The next day was overcast with sea mist and not a great day for sightseeing.  But since it was our last day and we can’t always expect beautiful weather every day, we drove to Carmel and Monterey.  First we went to Carmel-By-The-Sea and drove through the small, elite village of Carmel.  Clint Eastwood was mayor here for 2 years back in the 1980’s and it is home to Doris Day, Brad Pitt and many others.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any of them.  We did drive through Pebble Beach which is a famous “17 Mile Drive” which took us by beautiful homes and several golf courses.  We expected the drive to be along the coast but to our surprise much of it was in a forest called Del Monte Forest.  There were some beautiful views along the coast and they had a brochure with 21 points of interest to see along the route.  Our favorite was a lone cypress tree which is over 250 years old. Pebble Beach uses it for their symbol.  We did not get great pictures of out travels this day because it was very cloudy.

We ended our day with a rather hurried trip through Monterey since daylight was fading fast.  We did see the famous Monterey cannery and pier.

We are certainly enjoying our time in these beautiful coastal areas!  On Saturday we left Santa Cruz and headed northeast.  We stopped at Moss Landing and had brunch with Bill’s college friend Tom and his family.  Bill and Tom went to undergraduate engineering school together in Florida in the 1970’s and last saw each other 11 years ago!  Bill certainly enjoyed seeing Tom and catching up on how he is doing,  and I enjoyed meeting Tom, his wife, son and daughter.