Part Two of my Independence Day Weekend in Santa Cruz -With Video!- (4)
9:51 AM by , under 4th of July, beach, Santa Cruz
To continue where I left off in Part One, I finally made it to Santa Cruz and almost instantly hit the beach with my friend, Robert, and his dog, Beefcake. The next day, July 3rd, we went bigger and drove north on Highway One for around eleven miles to the beautiful beach seen above.
Looking back south as we started walking north
We basically decided to walk north as far as we could, and it was very rewarding. Within one-hundred yards or so we were the only people around and the terrain was so beautiful!
Flat rocks with occasional red spots
Green moss and red rock
The rocks led to more beach
This rocky ecosystem also had some neat tide pools. We were always near lots of wildlife with all sorts of birds, pools full of sea-life, and occasional seals in the area.
These birds made cool noises
Tide pools
Three starfish
Seal
Passing a "no-pass"
Though we passed a couple "no-passes", we finally got to one that we weren't going to be able to easily get around. As you have seen from my pictures, this was a breathtakingly beautiful spot, and it may be hard to believe, but there was occasional litter to be found so Robert and I decided that as we walked back we would pick up all the trash we found. Robert was taking care of Beefcake so I carried the trash. The first thing we found was a Disney helium balloon that had yet to be popped. I opened it carefully so that I could use it as a bag to carry all the trash we would come across and as I bit into it I could taste the helium as it seeped into my mouth. It turned out that there were at least six of these balloons scattered around the two miles or so we covered on the beach. In all, the trash we gathered was enough to fill up one balloon.
Something that felt really good was almost as soon as we had decided to pick up trash and grabbed that first balloon we were rewarded with good karma in the form of a nice dog-frisbee in perfect condition! It was bright, neon colors, and it seems like there would be no way we could have missed it on the way there, so we figure we were rewarded by the karma police. Check out the video at the end of this post to see Beefcake make a nice catch!
We then went to the beach by the Boardwalk
River meets ocean
The 4th of July
As you can see, Robert stays in a neighborhood very close to the beach, and though his house needs some work, most of the places visible in this picture are worth over one million dollars because of this prime location.
The BBQ was going all day, and through the night
Are old buddy Asha showed up with some delicious bacon-wrapped scallops, but we also cooked sausages, burgers, and corn. Also, In three days Robert and I ate an entire Costco apple pie, and drank many American beers! Yum! I bought the Kirkland microbrews while at Costco. I thought they were pretty good!
Laid-back America
Lots of soccer
Nightfall
All we had to do to see an epic fireworks display was walk down the street to the beach where crazy people were lighting off an incredibly dangerous amount of powerful fireworks! It made for an exhilarating atmosphere, but it was scary at times because it is easy for these types of fireworks to be shot off wrong, which leads to them exploding without leaving the ground. This actually happened right outside of Robert's house, but luckily I was inside, asleep on the couch, at the time. Hey, it was almost 11:30!
Tons of people on the beach
The moon was nice and bright too!
In all, my time Independence Day weekend in Santa Cruz was a blast, and I can't wait to visit there again. California sure is a wonderful place to be in the summer!
Some video clips from the trip!
4 Reply to "Part Two of my Independence Day Weekend in Santa Cruz -With Video!-"
Anonymous on July 9, 2009 at 12:17 PM
The red rock looks like it could be stained from iron or some other reddish thing? Very beautiful. A.J.
Miho on July 10, 2009 at 5:51 AM
It seems that you had really really really fun!!!
I envy you :p
Beefcake is so cute:)
Kym on July 20, 2009 at 4:36 AM
Robert's flip is amazing. And that middle starfish looks like it is a ballerina!
Ren on July 26, 2009 at 8:06 PM
Kym> Haha, nice observation!
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