Santa Cruz - Day 3

Today we got up and went to Felton (about 3 miles away from our hotel) to ride on the Roaring Camp Railroad.  It is a 19th century steam train ride through redwood groves and up a winding narrow gauge grade to the summit of Bear Mountain.  It takes about an hour and a half and is really fun and the scenery is great.

The conductor was a friendly old guy who narrated the history of the railroad during the train ride.

There were two more train cars and a small engine attached to our railroad car, but in order to make it up the hill through a switch-back they had to detach the two cars and have the small engine push them up behind us to reconnect at the top.  We had a front row view to them doing all the disconnecting and reconnecting of the cars.  Very interesting.

That night we drove to Capitola-by-the-Sea and had dinner at the Shadowbrook Restaurant.  It was built in 1947 and is world famous.  Tim and I came here for our first anniversary over 23 years ago and it still looks the same now.  They have a tram that takes you down the hill to the restaurant, which sits on one of the waterways leading to the ocean.  The food is great and the atmosphere has a nice, old world charm to it.

Santa Cruz - Day 2

The next day we all went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  It had been over 14 years since Tim, Hayley and I have been here but it hadn't changed much at all.  The kids all enjoyed the rides, the food and the atomosphere, especially our resident history buff, Hayley, who kept stopping to read every sign telling of the history of the boardwalk..  Hannah went on the Giant Dipper with Tim and I and thought it was great.  She is our daredevil, trying every ride there.  She even talked me into going on the Drop Tower with her.  That was an experience.  We finally got Hayley onto the log ride and she loved it, though Parker didn't care for the drop at the end.

 

We all went down to the beach for awhile.  The kids loved going in the water.  This was Parker's first time ever going in the ocean and he thought it was awesome.

 We went to the big arcade for awhile and everyone had fun playing all the games.

This is the two story miniature golf course.  It is in a building that used to house a giant swimming pool.

We all had a really great day.  I took quite a few videos as well and will have to post them on

the flip share site as soon as I figure out how to do it.