Our Epic Road Trip: Santa Cruz

 We have been wanting to visit our friends Story & Chris in Portland since they moved up there last year. Since our wedding anniversary was coming up, we decided to take a road trip for a week and broke up the fifteen hour drive in two days by stopping in Santa Cruz overnight. I heard about a steam engine train ride that goes through the the redwood forest in Felton, CA so we were all over that. We waited until dusk to hit the Santa Cruz boardwalk since it was so hot and crowded. Liv had so much fun, and luckily no one was bitten by any Lost Boys!
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It was only a five hour drive to Santa Cruz so we arrived fairly early.

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Next time we’ll have to taste some artichokes

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We couldn’t tell what these workers were picking (could it be artichokes?)
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The sweetest cats lived in the general store

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It was interesting to see how this old steam engine train is still operated after all these years
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The redwood trees were majestic, Liv has never seen trees that tall
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A storm destroyed the old train tracks.
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At the top of the mountain, the train stopped so we could get out and explore 

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As soon as we got back to our hotel, we changed clothes and headed to the boardwalk. It was Retro Night so all the rides were $1.00! This made Liv very happy so we rode everything we could. Here’s the problem, I was really excited to ride the Sky Glider. Any ride that is mellow and I can take in a view is perfect for me. However, we left Liv’s jacket in the car so Antz went to grab it and I wanted to ride the Sky Glider before the sunset so Liv and I went on together. Everything was cool until we noticed the height kept going higher and higher until we were both very scared. I tried hard to play it cool but my poor baby was in tears. I kept trying to make her laugh but my heart was pounding. Every time the bucket we were in passed a tower it would bump us so hard I internally freaked out. So I tried my best to distract Liv and take a few photos until it was over while Olivia covered her eyes. I was sure I would drop my camera but fortunately, I managed a shot of Antz happily waiting for us below. Never again will I subject us to something like that. In the end, it was worth the view but I found out I wasn’t supposed to take photos during the ride!

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See, it doesn’t look so high from here

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We love the pirate ride
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Too bad Olivia wasn’t tall enough for the swing ride!
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My face of fear, sort of

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Poor baby, she is not enjoying it at all. I did manage to get her to smile

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Nothing some cotton candy won’t fix
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Who knew Totoro loves fried chicken?
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These were massive doughnuts

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https://player.vimeo.com/video/138539413 Santa Cruz Boardwalk from sunkissis on Vimeo.

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Liv drove her own bumper car. She did incredibly well!
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I was hoping this Wurlitzer organ would play the same music from The Lost Boys. For the record, I watched The Lost Boys approximately 86,000 times in the eighties. 

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Olivia insists we take these cheesy photos, so do not blame me!

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