Friday, June 24

Day 1: Santa Cruz, Capitola & Monterey

We took a flight out of Seattle at 8:00 in the morning. We landed in San Jose at 11:00 and the first thing we did was find a record store to buy tickets to a Grateful Dead concert next Saturday. With that out of the way we started driving down to Monterey Peninsula as we were going to the Annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival that woud be occuring tomorrow and Sunday at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. We had purchased our tickets in advance and there would be music from 1:00 - 10:00 on Saturday and 12:00 to 5:00 on Sunday.

We drove down on highway 17 to Santa Cruz and stopped here for a couple hours. This is a nice little town that has a Boardwalk and rides along the ocean and it also has a wharf with little shops and restaurants to visit. Santa Cruz has an old and new part of town to it. The town also has a popular history behind it as there used to be a large casino & hotels near the beach and also a Tent City on the beach in the early 1900's. These were eventually destroyed by fires. It was also hit pretty hard during the earthquake of 1989 but has recovered OK. We only stayed for a couple hours as we walked down the Boardwalk and into a couple stores before leaving.

We drove south from Santa Cruz and turned off at Capitola. This is a little town right on the coast where a lot of the college and high school kids come during their spring and summer breaks. The beaches are always packed and it is hard finding a place to park around here. It's a nice day and we went to walk on the beach. Around 3:00 we decided to eat lunch at Margaritaville. We have been here before and knew they served good food for lunch. There's always lots to look at through the open windows of this restaurant. Beside the restaurant is a moat where you can rent paddle boats. Beyond the moat is a sandy beach. You can also see some colorful adobe-styled condos that form a curved row of buildings, each with a great view of the ocean. After lunch we walked in some small shops and book stores before starting towards Monterey Bay. We like coming here as it usually breaks up the ride between the Bay Area and Monterey.

We continued south on Highway 1 as we drove past Watsonville and Castroville before we finally reached Monterey Peninsula around 6:00. We have reservations to stay at the Sea Breeze Motel in Pacific Grove for the weekend. Our room is a seperate little cabin. It's not a great place but we only planned on sleeping in it and it was only $50 a night. There are several rooms like ours, as well as larger rooms with kitchenettes, that are connected together. A lot of the divers stay here. We have stayed here several times when we come down to Monterey. It's only a five minute walk to the beach.

We went down to Cannery Row and ate dinner at the Mark Thomas Outrigger. They are known for their exotic drinks, seafood and the view. Their lounge is like an enclosed pier, with glass on three sides and a fireplace in the middle. This is where we have been in the past to watch the July 4th fireworks in the harbour. It's pretty quiet tonight as we eat next to the window and watch some seals play on the rocks in the ocean.

We drove 150 miles today.