Santa Cruz

JULY 2nd

I may have found one of my favorite places.   We started our day at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History where our children were introduced to the concept of taxidermy.  Funny thing.  I really thought we would have knocked that one out in Tennessee by now.  However, after several inquiries as to whether the mountain lion was ever alive…it became very clear that we needed to address that one pronto.  Olive was especially curious about the creepy glass eyes and how the animals could be "empty".  Who killed them?  Why are their mouths all open?

Some people just have weird jobs.  That is my typical response to scenarios like that.

Either way, we got a nice lesson on the local wildlife community through the museum exhibits.  We got real familiar with everything from banana slugs to golden eagles.  The live honeybee exhibit was a favorite of mine.  We watched successful  honeybees come home to the colony and perform a special Honey GPS dance.  Did you know this?  If a bee finds an especially good honey spot, it comes back, covered in pollen, and starts doing a secret code dance (lefts and rights and wiggles and waggles) that give the rest of the bees directions!  It is the coolest thing to watch!    Life is so awesome.

Upon leaving the museum, we stumbled on this.  I bet everyone knows that the Santa Cruz boardwalk is the home of an amusement park.  Certainly, everyone that plans on visiting Santa Cruz is aware of this.  But I literally had no idea!  That is the benefit of not knowing where you are going to be that afternoon!  You don't waste anytime googling it.  The kids stared longingly over the fence.  Their little mouths barely managed to eek out the question.  "Mom…are we going over there?"

Um…yeah!!!

But first, there was something we wanted to show them.  The museum director had given us the heads up that we could find Sea Lions underneath the pier.  So, with our secret agenda in mind, we forced the kids to walk all the way through the amusement park and down the pier.  We are sooooo mean!
We were NOT disappointed.  Like the children of typical tourists, they squealed and ran from one end
of the pier to the other.  Listening for those terrible barking noises and conspiring with other touristy families in their quest to spot the babies.

And with THAT out of the way, we made our way to the amusement park!  Olive was especially brave and opted to ride the Pirate Ship with me.  She tried to sneak onto her first roller coaster, but sadly, she was a quarter of an inch too short.  You just can't argue with the measuring stick.  I must admit to having some struggles of my own.    Surrounded by the smells of Philly Steak sandwiches, Corn Dogs and Deep Fried Cheesecake (what????!!!), it occurred to me that we had primarily been surviving on noodles and grilled chicken for 3 weeks.  I realized that if we ever do this again….I am REALLY going to have to step up my camp food game.  This is just NOT gonna cut it.

After using up $50 worth of carnival tickets, we stopped by the Surfer Museum lighthouse and listened to a Gypsy band practicing as the sun went down.   From there, we walked down to the beach and played in the surf at this beautiful natural bridge.  The chilly air and soft light was a beautiful backdrop to the end of that day.  I could have ran up and down that beach all night.     

If I were a honeybee…
I would do some kind of wiggly waggly dance.
Point you to a day just like that one.


Our trip summed up so far:

Currently in:  Santa Cruz, CA
Days Remaining:  10
Miles Driven:  4,475
Money Spent on Gas:            $1,316
Money Spent on Sleeping:    $   241
Money Spent on Eating:       $   801
Money Spent on Other:        $   285
Grand Total Spent so Far:   $ 2,642