The Original Dashboard Diary [Day 10]

May 10, 2011

"Santa Cruzin"
Tuesday May 10, 2011

Not sure how we got lucky enough to accidentally stop at this spot for a pee break yesterday on the drive up Highway 1 . . . but we did and it was awesome.



Anyways, we made it to Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon and we agreed to only bike the city and not use the car because we are so earth-friendly and greeeeeeeen and want to do our part to save the world. 
Not really, but we haven’t needed to use the car yet and thats awesome. 

I saw two seagulls eating another bird, which is just weird, right?

We got to see some sea lions too . . .






Josh said this one was trying to fake everyone out and making people think it was a shark.

We kept riding around the city for a little while and saw lots of super cool things:








There were a lot of monuments for local surfers in this area overlooking a popular surf spot, which really freaked us out because we assumed this spot was the reason for their deaths. 
See the bottom for an explanation on this popular surf spot Steamer's Lane.

This was a little monument for Carl Reimer, a local 19 year popular surfer who got shot by a gang.



Next up was surfing round 2.

I felt pretttyyyyy silly biking around in my wetsuit.









The water felt like jumping in a pool of ice cubes and sent needles throughout our entire bodies. 
We thought it would be like when you were little getting in the pool before it was summertime and hoped that we would eventually “get used” to it . . . but you don’t get used to it. 
Ever. 
It was painful to say the least . . . but we persevered. 
After what I thought was enough torture, we packed up our things . . . and the boys had the bright idea to head over to that scary surfin spot we had seen earlier to “check it out.” 
I went back to the room to shower without being rushed by two boys who don’t grasp the concept of cleanliness. 
Thank the Lord, and completely to my surprise, they returned unscathed. 
Once they walked in struggling for air and nearly in tears, we googled this surf spot and read this:

Steamer Lane
By far the most famous surf spot in all of Santa Cruz, but if you want to paddle out at "the Lane," you better be a damn good surfer. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being friendly, the localism factor at the Lane is an 11. When the swell is up, the lane offers world-class waves, at times reaching triple overhead. It's the most dangerous place to surf in Santa Cruz and people actually die out there on a semi- annual basis. Once again however, it's the best place to watch great surfing pretty much year round. The lane is the stretch of coast off West Cliff between Cowell's and the Lighthouse.

We’re plannin on headin to Yosemite tomorrow for a few days of campin and rock climbing, but hopefully I can squeeze in another post with pics from tonight and more surfing tomorrow morning!
See ya!

4 comments:

tiff@thecoffeehouse said...

i love pee stops. really, i am a pro. and those sea lions are amazing!

Anonymous said...

Super jealous! Surfing is NOT an option in the Gulf of Mexico so I doubt I'll be experiencing that anytime soon. Haha.

Jillian said...

Sea lions! So so so cute. And what gorgeous scenery too. Looks like such a good time.

Emily said...

We stopped in Santa Cruz for a hot moment - but I want to go back and explore it longer. I am loving your past posts!

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