Road Trip! Santa Cruz, CA and Environs...

sopas ej · #1 Posted **May 1, 2026, 9:46 PM**

Some weekends ago, in the middle of April, my partner and I decided to give ourselves a long weekend and spend it up in Santa Cruz. We've passed through there a number of times over the years, and overnighted there maybe 3 or 4 times prior. When we did stay there, we'd stay somewhat close to downtown, but this time we stayed literally walking distance to the Santa Cruz Wharf and Boardwalk. I've taken pictures of Santa Cruz and posted pics of them in the past on here, but I believe the links are now broken. Most of the pics were of downtown Santa Cruz and the historic Mission area.

On this trip, Santa Cruz was our home base while we explored other areas. We've come to appreciate Santa Cruz more on this trip... Usually when we stay on the Monterey Bay, it's usually in the city of Monterey (which we love) or Pacific Grove (which we also love). But this trip was really fun. We made it a point this time to look at other towns in the area that we've never stopped at, and to go hiking among the redwoods. Fun fact, in Santa Cruz, you can literally drive from the beach to redwood forests in the mountains in 15 minutes.

So here we go, my usual random photo dump of scenery, food, cocktails, random closeups, and such.

Santa Cruz, CA

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Photo by me

We had dinner at a tiki-themed restaurant on the wharf. We often start dinner early at a restaurant, and then as time goes on, more people come in and it gets busier.

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I had a good Zombie.

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This dish was called a Tamarind Pua'a. It was pretty good.

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My 2nd cocktail, a Venus Saturn. It was delicious.

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They had an extensive rum binder, with rums from some countries I didn't think made rum.

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The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is the oldest surviving amusement park in California, founded in 1907. It is a California State Historic Landmark. It was prominently featured in the 1980s film "The Lost Boys."

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Creepy.

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They have an indoor miniature golf course, on two levels.

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Breakfast across the street from the beach...

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...and then BAM! We're in the mountains at a Buddhist monastery and retreat center, among the redwoods, in Soquel, CA. This is where we hent hiking. We took our own, sweet time on a not so long loop trail.

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A banana slug.

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We saw a few memorials here and there along the trail; I guess the monks and nuns don't want to clear them out? I see why some people would want to make makeshift memorials to people, but... Anyway, this looks more like an impromptu shrine to the Buddha. But we did see memorials with individuals' pictures.

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Photo by me

There's nothing like sipping chai from a paper cup, in the shade of redwood trees in the mountains.

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View from a Thai restaurant in Soquel. This totally doesn't look like southern California to me.

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Our lunch. Dumplings and ginger salad.

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And papaya salad. All of it very yummy.

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The town of Aptos, CA.

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I got a coffee, my partner got a tea.

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A closed, old hotel that dates from the 1870s, I think. Looks like it's being restored.

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Back in Santa Cruz. A bit of history, when the Spanish settled what is now California, Branciforte was the third secular pueblo they established in 1797 (the other two being San Jose in 1777 and Los Angeles in 1781), Santa Cruz being the Mission. Branciforte as a pueblo never really prospered. After California become part of the US, eventually, the city of Santa Cruz annexed what was left of Branciforte.

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Dinnertime at a Oaxacan restaurant. It's been our experience that in northern California, the Mexican food tends to be less spicy than in SoCal. But this restaurant has pretty good food... and good cocktails!

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Mmm...

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My dish was yummy.

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This coffee liqueur cocktail was really good.

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A church that was turned into a house, I believe.

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Breakfast at an old-timey place in Santa Cruz, before we hit the road to go home.

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We often take a leisurely, somewhat indirect route home when going home from points north in California. This is downtown Soquel. It's not very big.

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This is a very small blurb of a town called Moss Landing, CA. We've always seen the signs for it when driving through this part of the state, but we've never gone into the actual town until this trip.

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Ahhhh, Avila Beach, CA. I've posted pics of this place before. It makes such a nice pit stop driving north or south through California. Much, much better than stopping at a combination gas station/Subway or a Taco Bell off the 5 Freeway somewhere in the Central Valley.

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Our usual place.

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My view.

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My cheese and charcuterie board. Pretty loaded with stuff. This was my dinner. My partner had a niçoise salad.

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Dessert.

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LAsam · #2 Posted **May 1, 2026, 10:54 PM**

It doesn't get much better than the central coast. Great set of photos... as always. The first ones at the beach in Santa Cruz I can almost feel as if I'm there.

craigs · #3 Posted **May 2, 2026, 1:44 AM**

Nice pics of a beautiful area with a surprising diversity of sights, both natural and manmade.

Have you ever been to Capitola? I'm surprised not to see any pics of it in this set!

xzmattzx · #4 Posted **May 2, 2026, 3:03 AM**

Nice pictures!

That third picture of the seaside amusement park seems like Classic California. It looks like it belongs on that 1980s license plate with the blazing sun.

My brother is a park ranger in Sequoia N.P. right now. He is living amongst the sequoias rather than the redwoods.

38 Geary · #5 Posted **May 2, 2026, 3:09 AM**

Nice tour! Glad you enjoyed the trip. Santa Cruz is great for a day trip or short weekend trip. In all my years of going it never misses. Always a great time out.

plinko · #6 Posted **May 2, 2026, 3:16 AM**

This thread is >

craigs · #7 Posted **May 2, 2026, 3:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures!

That third picture of the seaside amusement park seems like Classic California. It looks like it belongs on that 1980s license plate with the blazing sun.

My brother is a park ranger in Sequoia N.P. right now. He is living amongst the sequoias rather than the redwoods.

Your brother is in the redwoods, though! The giant sequoias, Sequoiadendron giganteum, are redwoods. They are slightly different from the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens. Both types are awe-inspiring and well worth visiting.

EastSideHBG · #8 Posted **May 2, 2026, 2:13 PM**

Beautiful!

Quote:

Originally Posted by plinko

This thread is >

ChrisLA · #9 Posted **May 2, 2026, 3:22 PM**

Nice, I need to visit Santa Cruz for a nice weekend getaway.

ColDayMan · #10 Posted **May 3, 2026, 2:04 AM**

I love a good road trip and this was a good one. Thanks!

xzmattzx · #11 Posted **May 3, 2026, 4:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigs

Your brother is in the redwoods, though! The giant sequoias, Sequoiadendron giganteum, are redwoods. They are slightly different from the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens. Both types are awe-inspiring and well worth visiting.

Thank you for pointing it out! He would obviously know that, but in our texts and family texts I don't think he mentioned it.

Of course, he left Friday to work at Crater Lake anyway...

dktshb · #12 Posted **May 3, 2026, 7:06 PM**

Great shots of Santa Cruz and Avila Beach. I much prefer Avila over Pismo. CA punches above all other places when it comes to cute quaint beach towns all up and down the coast and quaint mountain towns the foothills of the Sierras.

montréaliste · #13 Posted **May 4, 2026, 2:02 PM**

I was in Santa Cruz a month after the earthquake in 1989, and the cute downtown had been severely damaged in parts. Some buildings had already been bulldozed, I believe while others had been evacuated. There were tents set up for businesses to continue trading. Somehow, it seemed to be running pretty normal in spite of the preceeding fuss.

For anyone able to eke out a living between LA and SF, the whole middle coast is indeed very attractive.

sopas ej · #14 Posted **May 6, 2026, 1:58 AM**

Thanks for all the comments!

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigs

Have you ever been to Capitola? I'm surprised not to see any pics of it in this set!

Yes, we've been to Capitola. I even took a lot of pictures of it and posted it here some years ago, but the links are now all broken. We didn't go to Capitola on this trip because we made it a point to see other towns near Santa Cruz that we've never stopped in before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by montréaliste

I was in Santa Cruz a month after the earthquake in 1989, and the cute downtown had been severely damaged in parts. Some buildings had already been bulldozed, I believe while others had been evacuated. There were tents set up for businesses to continue trading. Somehow, it seemed to be running pretty normal in spite of the preceeding fuss.

For anyone able to eke out a living between LA and SF, the whole middle coast is indeed very attractive.

Downtown Santa Cruz is now all rebuilt since the Loma Prieta Quake, of course.

Indeed, the central coast of California is beautiful. It's one of my and my partner's favorite places in the state. Hehe he's already made hotel reservations for a long weekend we're planning in August (we like to have little long weekend getaways within the months of our birthdays).