Santa Cruz in July

[nikonf3]

This past July we decided to head down the coast. We hadn’t been to Santa Cruz in years since we’d been getting our need for beach satisfied in San Francisco at Ocean beach. It was also a magical mystery tour through the Bay Area suburbs and exurbs. We took the 680 freeway south and then around the bottom of San Francisco Bay, past San Jose and Silicon Valley, over the Santa Cruz mountains and down to the sea.
When we got there, it was much quieter than we expected. It was the middle of the week, but it was also July. We expected to see more vacationers. Pacific Avenue, the main shopping street was also a lot more peaceful than usual.
Regardless of the mid week lull, the surfers were still enjoying their bit of the ocean. (That little black line above the surfer on the left is an otter.)

For the trip back, we decided to take Hwy 1, back up to the coast. At most of the state beaches we passed, there were lots of people enjoying the late afternoon. Finally we went through the southern suburbs and right up through San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.
One section of Hwy 1, next to the town of Pacifica, used to scare the hell out of me. The road was cut into a cliff, no guard rail, then a drop off of hundreds of feet into the ocean below. That road looked raw, like it had just been constructed yesterday. Which was often the case because bits of it would regularly fall into the sea. Finally then decided it was too expensive to maintain like that so they decided to do this-

Yes, this is the loveliest tunnel I have ever seen! :-) Instead of trying to maintain the road on the side of the mountain, they decided to bore through it. Well done CalTrans!

Comments

[puddleshark]

I love those pictures. It has a very different feel to the English seaside town.

Impressive tunnel! I don't think I have ever driven through a tunnel...