Sandpiper Lodge Santa Cruz

... colour in the sun, very exciting! Then found a half price jewellers and got a new ring to replace Charlotte's lost one yay. Then went on the 17 mile drive around the Monterey peninsula, saw big waves and the famous Lone Cypress Tree. Charlotte then fell asleep during the Day After Tomorrow, which was very exciting having now been to New York and LA!   

... rundown, so instead we picked a little town just outside Santa Cruz called Capitola.<br><br>Although not quite the Big Sur that we would be travelling down later on in the week,the drive along the coast was fantastic and we stopped off a number of times at beautiful deserted beaches with rough, Pacific waves. <br><br>When we arrived at our b&amp;b, The Jewel Box, we were so pleased, it was really sweet and had a ...

... great for a first impression of a Cali beach...but then again I've always kind of considered Cali to be gross with city side-effects...kind of like the ones I had in front of me. I'm sure they get better...<br><br>Randoms:<br>-Super tall skinny trees<br>-Christa and I singing "Anthem" by Good Charlotte? surprisingly still knew the words<br>-Shotgunning beers in the sink at 9:30...a.m.<br>-"Going to California" Led Zep<br>-Conversation with Brits about Jaegerbombs. They had just heard of ...

... find that I have to 'perform' for people watching, which gets in the way of my personal enjoyment of the movement. The other goals involved tricks - I wanted to nail the chest roll (flicking the hoop from one hand to another in a roll across the chest) and pizza toss (throwing the hoop from your waist horizontally upwards and catching on your waist again) . And the final goal was to connect with people, to share, to learn and to make friends.<br> The first ...

... came in holding incense and conveying her love for Cait's new Frye boots. When we awoke in the morning, more like afternoon...we all agreed to wander into the city, to get some lunch and check out the spunky retro stores around the area. Chris took us to this great burrito place where they had a salsa bar one could only dream of. I give the restaurant props because it had quite possibly some of the strangest mixes to Mexican that I had ever heard of, but the food in ...

... lots of fun. One thing we did forget was to bring a flashlight to get us back to the parking lot!! It was quite a trek with all our stuff but we made it. Saturday Our final day in Santa Cruz.... This morning we headed on down the coast. We passed Monterey, Seaside and many other oceanfront towns. We took the 17 mile Drive which travels around the Pebble Beach properties. We didn't see Tiger out practicing though! The drive has 21 ...

... middle of the chaos which must drive the resident's nuts. Then we head off to hunt for AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. The owners of the team and the stadium made a brilliant decision in terms of where to build it - turns out it is almost in the middle of town, but right on the water. In terms of its pure location, it is streets (literally) ahead of the old Candlestick Park. We later learn it was well ahead of the old stadium in lots of ways - not the least of ...

... and meanwhile helped fix my money belt, which had already started to fall apart. Great. Then again, I hate using those things. Sushi is one of my favorite things to eat and always is the first thing I crave when I travel, followed closely by frozen yogurt and fresh, cold skim milk. I of course won't be able to (or more specifically won't dare to) eat any sort of raw fish for a long time, especially considering my lethal shellfish allergy, so I had quite a sushi feast and ...

... that has been bred into me by this society is secretly screaming at the injustice that I paid the same price for my ticket as those receiving visual stimulation and even if I don't want it, I should at least have the choice whether to actively reject it! My internal cacophony of complaint is interrupted by the movement of the 777 no longer related to the loading of luggage into the belly of the bird, but now by actual movement toward the runway. I am on my way to Hawai'i!

... up and down the Strip marvelling at the casinos from inside and out. Amongst the amazing sights inside the casinos were real life tigers, roller coasters, circus artists, and gondolas to name but a few. The Venetian has to be the best inside - as the name would suggest it's a very believable mock up of the Italian city complete with St Mark's square, canals, singing gondolas and blue sky that looks like you are really outside. The heat in Vegas was unbelievable (40+ deg C ...