California Dreaming — Part One
After David had went surfing in Hawaii on our honeymoon in 2022, he was itching to try it again. I let him know that we should try to plan a vacation around surfing since we were young, and I didn’t want him to think later in life that he regretted not surfing more. In 2024, we decided to travel to California for David to try surfing again!
In June, we flew into San Jose, California. After arriving, we immediately went to Enterprise and rented a car. David drove us from the airport towards Castle Rock State Park. The drive was mountainous and hilly. When we got to the park, we started on our way towards Castle Rock. It was a bit of a narrow path through a forest and up a hill. We got to a place where we could look over a waterfall and catch our breath.
We walked around some more trails and saw a lot of interesting looking rocks. There were groups of friends with rock climbing gear and crash pads, which were large pads for people to fall onto safely if they slipped from rock climbing. They would carry the pads on their back, and I thought it would be funny if they slipped and fell on the crash pad as it was strapped to their back and couldn’t get up. But they all had at least 1 friend with them that could help them up if that were to happen.
After walking the trails for awhile and enjoying nature, we drove into Santa Cruz, California for dinner and to check into our hotel. The road between the state park and Santa Cruz twisted back and forth down a steep descent. Thankfully, neither of us got carsick!
The next day, we awoke in Santa Cruz and walked to the beach. I had found a nice hotel within walking distance of the boardwalk and beach, so we walked to the beach and found a café called The Picnic Basket to eat breakfast. David’s 2 hour surf lesson started, so I went back to the hotel to relax.
When his surf lesson was about over, I started walking to the beach, found a spot, and sat and read. I saw him walking up the beach with his surfboard, so I walked over to meet him. Unfortunately, he had lost his water shoes in the water while surfing so his feet were burning against the sand. I gave him my water shoes and changed into my tennis shoes. We made it back to the surf shop and then went to get lunch at the Ideal Bar and Grill where David told me all about the lesson.
After lunch, we walked across the street to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It was a free educational center that had informational exhibits and a few marine animals on display. We saw a short film and learned more about the marine life in the Monterey Bay area. It was a nice center, and the employees and/or volunteers were all very polite. Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel to relax before heading out for dinner and shopping.
At dinner on the Santa Cruz Wharf, we made friends with a seagull who flew by our table and perched on the side of the dock. We also shopped for souvenirs, and I got a small purple sparkly turtle figurine. We then walked to the boardwalk where we walked through the arcade area. We didn’t do much since David was feeling tired from surfing. Stay tuned to read more about our California trip!
