a stroll on the beach

while hunting for a blog worthy sunday afternoon, we took a long stroll across a few of santa cruz's beaches. we found that the rides at the boardwalk were running, the tide was going way out, the kayak surf contest at steamer lane was heating up, and the jazz festival on the wharf was.....well.....jazzy.

here's a little movie we made this afternoon from the main beach. the main beach is packed with people all summer long, but in mid-march, the cool 60 degree weather keeps them in silicon valley. the movie starts looking west to monterey bay, then turns north toward the wharf, panning around to the boardwalk amusement park, across the beaches, and then finally stops looking south with the monterey peninsula in the distance. it then zips back to catch some serious giant dipper roller coaster action. get ready; it's hot.


after that, we passed under the wharf along cowells beach.

the tide was further out than we have ever seen, and it afforded us our very first uninterrupted walk along the beach around the corner to steamer lane (this beach would normally by submerged, even at low tide).

usually we have to take the cliff-top sidewalk to reach these points.

steamer lane, a world class surf destination (or so they tell us), was hosting a kayak surf contest. it was pretty cool. here's a video of a kayaker competing on the waves.


an excellent time was had.