The third day of our vacation we headed to Santa Cruz, to introduce Anna to the boardwalk.
I spent most of my teenage summers in Santa Cruz, especially the high school years in the mid-80s. My dad lived in an awesome carriage house, just up the hill from the beach and boardwalk. While I didn't really hang on the boardwalk itself all that much, I was certainly down at the beach there a lot.
Anna had never really been to an amusement park, so this was a momentous occasion. She woke up that morning and said "Is this the day we go to the treat sidewalk?"—the promise of treats being what she remembered of my description of the place. As she often does, Anna started out cautiously—wanting to hang back and check everything out before she hopped on anything herself. Once she gained confidence though, she loved the kiddie rides and went on the same ones over and over again. I'm pleased to say she also shares my love of waste-of-money games, like the one where you shove token after token into a machine in the hopes that it will push more tokens down so that you can win tickets which you exchange for cheap, crappy, dime-store, plastic toys ($5 worth got us a squirt gun)!
All in all, it was a great day. Lunch (as always when I'm in Santa Cruz) at Zachary's, rides and games, chocolate/vanilla soft serve, and a nap in the car for the long drive home (Anna's nap, not mine).
Tomorrow we head to Santa Barbara for Family Camp! W00t!
