Down on the Boardwalk, down by the sea...

...on a blanket with my baby, that's where I'll be. Well we weren't on a blanket it but we did mosey on down to Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk. It was quite fun. We saw some sea weed, lots of sea shells and even walked in the ocean a bit. It was very very cold so with only 60 degree weather it isnt the greatest time to be in cold water.

Of course both of the kids ran right to the water as soon as their shoes and socks were off. A higher tide came in and made Baby J lose his equilibrium and he fell soaking his shirt quite a bit. I picked him up and just let him run around in his diaper for a while while his overalls dried. We collected a nice array of sea shells.

After that we went on the boardwalk. There was a lot of different stores and diners there. Under the boardwalk there were sea lions resting on the sticks and framework. You could see some even swimming under there and even out a little way in the ocean. We saw high tides and surfers too.

We then drove up Highway 1 which runs right along the coast. The sun started to go down and we stopped in a few places to get pictures along the way. It is a great stretch of road if you ever get a chance to drive down it. There were many different places to pull off to explore.
We pulled off again at Scott's Beach just north of Dansville (I think it was anyway). The sun just dipped below the clouds and the waves were taller than me crashing together and rolling up the beach. We saw little birds, running down to find food and then running up the beach and the tide came in and then again back down and up. I think they were sandpipers but I'm not entirely sure.

We found a lot of crabs that were pecked our of their shells and even some shrimp. It may have been a prawn but I'm not sure. I asked King Triton for a sand dollar because I have always wanted one but with no success. We did find a half of one in Santa Cruz though. We did find an old clam with had a pretty thick shell as well and a whole muscle which I promptly came home and boiled to eat. When it popped open I saw what the meat looked like and thought better of partaking and threw it away. Sorry I'm not french!

We continued in the dark up to Ano Nuevo which was closed and then to Half Moon Bay and stopped at a diner called Joe's. It was fantastic, the waiter was great and the food was pretty good too. Then we drove on home and missed all the traffic.

You can see the complete photos on the photobucket link and I will try and post the videos probably in a day or two on the family youtube channel.