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Honeymoon 2014 |
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We continued our Honeymoon
in Santa
Cruz, CA which is often called the "Boulder of California" and
is home to Kathy's alma-mater. For two nights, Kathy put us up in
an Airstream travel trailer at the Santa Cruz KOA. What a unique and
wonderful surprise this was for Randy. |
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The Airstream was super
cool and super retro on the inside. |
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The bed was in the back of
the trailer. |
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Kathy took us to Geisha
Sushi in Capitola Beach for dinner on the first night. We sat at the
sushi bar and quickly learned that our chef was also a UCSC graduate
who studied English Literature like Kathy did.
Instead of browsing the menu, Randy asked the chef to just to feed us...basically make whatever he
wanted. So he did, and everything was delicious. |
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The chef also surprised us
with a new creation he named the Honeymoon Roll. It is not on the
menu and was conceived right there. It is stuffed with raw scallops
and topped with King Salmon and three different kinds of roe.
Absolutely amazing. It was so good we convinced the chef to write down
what he did and add it as a "secret menu" item for when
we returned. |
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While walking around Santa
Cruz, we visited some of Kathy's most memorable places. One was the
Sea and Sand Inn where she worked in college. |
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Randy with the
Boardwalk in the background. |
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Steamer Lane Lighthouse
along Westcliff Drive. Kathy sometimes took her dog to this beach. |
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Selfie on the beach. It
was windy on the coastline. |
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The water was very cold
but that did not stop Randy from chasing waves. |
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For dinner we drove to
Johnny's
Harborside restaurant. Views were great from our table as you
can see. We watched a fishing boat come in and unload the day's
catch into waiting vans. |
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We dined on super-fresh
seafood and chilled Pinot Grigio. |
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While we were enjoying
dinner we noticed a steady stream of cars heading towards the beach.
After finishing up at Johnny's we followed everyone else and walked to the beach.
We found a beach party and concert going on! A Michael Jackson
tribute band was playing and the place was packed. We had a blast
partying with a few thousand of our closest new friends in Santa
Cruz. |
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The crowd danced away to
Michael Jackson's best hits, which is all of them. The band was
coaxed back twice to play more songs. |
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We met two of Kathy's
friends from college for breakfast one morning. Pictured here is Ann
and Dan.
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This cafe was a common
meeting place when these three attended UCSC together |
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While visiting downtown
Santa Cruz we visited several shoe stores. Kathy LOVES shoes.
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Kathy likes all things
retro, even socks.
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This sock store had thousands of socks to choose from. |
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While honeymooning we
often stopped to remember why we were there.
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We took a nice drive to
UCSC and visited the Bay Tree Bookstore. That big yellow thing above
Kathy is the school mascot, the Banana Slug. |
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Randy found a "how to"
book on dating and by chance opened it to the most appropriate page.
This would have been handy in late 2012. |
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Back in downtown Santa
Cruz, Kathy took us to dinner at Pleasure Pizza, another favorite
establishment while in college. The special-of-the-day was Bacon
Cheeseburger pizza, so Kathy had to try it.
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You may not believe it,
but Bacon Cheeseburger pizza, when done right, tastes exactly like a
bacon cheeseburger. There are even pickles on this thing and the red
sauce you see isn't marinara...that is ketchup!
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A Pleasure Pizza customer
waits for her to-go order while watching World Cup Soccer. Great
pictures in the background.
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Randy ordered a Pesto
slice and a beer. It was very good, too, but Kathy's slice was the
winner.
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Kathy took us to Natural
Bridges State Beach to cool off a bit as the weather in NorCal for
the entire trip was very warm. We named the beautiful rock in the
background "Poop Rock" because coastal birds of every type
congregated there to "shoot the shit", both figuratively and
literally. All that white on the rock is not rock.
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A closer look at the
inhabitants of Poop Rock.
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Natural Bridges State
Beach is a beautiful NorCal destination.
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Yep, water was really
cold...again.
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Love that feeling of sand
between our toes. |
