California Coast Adventure, Part III

Okay time to close out my series of posts about a road trip we took in early September with our Northern CA based friends. You can check out parts I and II in these posts: California Coast Adventure, Part I and California Coast Adventure, Part II.

We ended our road trip with a trip to Santa Cruz and spending a very fun evening on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park.

I haven’t spent time on a beach boardwalk amusement arcade and amusement park area since I was a child growing up in Long Island, NY. I really felt like a kid again on the boardwalk!

First we went through the arcade area and John and I got into an intense game of Pacman:

Then we headed to take a ride on the famous Looff Carousel which was featured in the 1987 movie The Lost Boys (as were other parts of the Santa Crux Boardwalk):

Image credit: Wikipedia

Me trying to take a selfie while holding on to a moving carousel horse!

The boardwalk was amazing at night and my friend K and I enjoyed wandering around looking at the rides and the naughty nutritional choices (ha!) while our husbands went to go ride the famous Giant Dipper historic wooden rollercoaster.

Somewhere towards the end of our roadtrip we stopped at an amazing farmstand along the highway. We passed by miles and miles of gorgeous farmland including lots of artichoke crops.

When we got back to K and M’s home we had to spend time with their sweet Black Lab puppy who we picked up from dog camp on our way back to their house.

John got attacked with puppy love our evening back!

On our way to the airport the next day to fly back to Denver, we stopped for lunch at Fixins Soul Kitchen in the Oak Park area of Sacramento. Our friends have taken us there before and we had another exceptionally yummy meal!

We also stopped at a lovely independent bookstore around the corner, Underground Books before heading to the airport and I purchased a new tote bag.

At the airport, we saw a curious sight – a man appearing to be traveling with a doll in his backpack. I got closer to investigate on the shuttle train to our flight gate and I’ll close this post with the photos I took and you can come to your own conclusion about his travel decisions…

Thanks for reading about our adventures over these three posts!