While Grandma was visiting, we parents snuck out for a weekend alone. Actually, we told Leilani about it ahead of time. She didn’t really have a problem with the idea, but I could tell from her questions that she kinda wondered why she couldn’t come along. So we set off on Friday after work.
We always used to stop for sunsets when traveling together. Now we stop when we can, but more often than not, we can’t because of dinner or getting somewhere not too late. So this time, we just pulled over on Hwy 1 and hiked a short ways to the ocean:
We found our little B&B, the Jewel Box, in Capitola. We got lucky getting a room (reserved just the day before) because it just happened to be the wine and art festival weekend. Nothing fancy, but a nice little suite in a little house. One great thing about was being right next to the organic vegetarian restaurant in town.
The next day, we just went walking to coast, down to the pier and beach:
They were renting little fishing boats on the pier, so we just decided to go on a whim. Ahhh, unplanned, unpredictable exploring on our own.
We puttered around, avoiding the kelp (because it gets caught in the propeller, and it hurts the kelp), and eventually saw the dolphins they told us were around:
We also saw this colony of sea-birds, I don’t know what they are nor why they are just floating here. It was rather incredible to see thousands of them just bobbing and squawking:
Two hours later, we were back on land, exploring some more. Right by the beach are some colorful bungalows, the one on the end had a colorful garden. How colorful was it? It was so colorful that Sonja didn’t even need to photoshop this picture:
We finally made it to the wine and art festival. We skipped the wine drinking because of all the lines, and just walked around looking at art. This one was made from maps:
And this one is made from fruit. It’s traditional Thai fruit carving:
Nature’s art (fortunately for me that Sonja found this flower prettier than anything we saw):
Dinner at the vegetarian restaurant again:
Inside the B&B. One of the best parts for us was finding some interesting books about the area and looking through all the DVDs to watch one (Fried Green Tomatoes). Ahh, the luxury of time:
The next day we walked around town again. We found a few garage sales to rummage at, we went back to the art festival for another quick look, but we mostly strolled on the streets of the little town down by the river. This little house reminded me of one on Kaua’i:
I talked Sonja into crossing the abandoned railroad bridge:
And more time to do more hiking: we stopped to see Lisa in Santa Cruz and go for a long walk in the Pogonip forest to the old Lime Kilns:
And then a Falafel dinner before heading back home after dark. In the meantime, Leilani had a fun weekend with Grandma, got to ride the train, go to the park, and do crafts. She was happy to see us again, but I don’t think she really missed us. Thanks Rosemary!
