Santa Cruz

After spending four days at Costanoa and the surroundings, we were headed to a campground just beyond San Francisco by the end of the day. We decided to spend the bulk of the day in Santa Cruz. Rachelle went to college at UC Santa Cruz and lived in the area after that. She was really keen to show Keiko and Amaya her old stomping grounds. Since we had use of the rental car until the end of the day, we parked the big rig in a Safeway parking lot and used the rental to shuttle around town.

University of California Santa Cruz

Rachelle's dorm at UCSC had changed somewhat, but we were able to go right up to the window of her old dorm room and let the girls peek in. They seemed rather confused about why a school would choose a Banana Slug as it's mascot, but noted that it probably makes more sense as a mascot than a Purple Cow...

 

Rachelle's stories about the guy who went to class naked were also met with bewilderment, but the girls clearly enjoyed hearing about their mom's earlier life in California.

No trip to Santa Cruz would be complete without a visit to the Beach Boardwalk. Coincidentally, this was also the site of Rachelle's and my third date together back in the spring of 1994! We made a bee-line for the arcade and found all of the games from our youth clustered in the "classics corner." Sadly, the Q*Bert game was out of order so I could not reclaim my title as "The Supreme Noser."

Out of Order!

Amaya, Kickin' it Old School

We played Galaga and Donkey Kong, but the biggest hit for Keiko and Amaya was Ms. Pac Man. It was unbelievable to see how quickly they mastered that. I probably spent $50 on that game as a kid, but by her fourth game, Amaya had already destroyed my score on the way to the high score for the machine.

Think They're Related?

 Not wanting to pass up any chance to swim, the girls jumped in the ocean right off of the boardwalk. They said that it was warmer than the summer ocean water in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. That's my girls....

Pacific, Atlantic, Whatever!

We cruised the boardwalk and managed to squelch almost all of the requests for junk food from every vendor they saw. In the end, we agreed to one treat:

How Many Donuts Do You Eat On These Trips, Anyway?