Santa Cruz Vacation Part 2

I'm back with part 2 of our family vacation. You can read part 1 here.

On Wednesday we spent the morning at our beach house and I did a couple loads of laundry. (Because Mom life never stops, even on vacation). We had plans to get on the Roaring Camp train at noon at the boardwalk.

I promise we were all excited. Just tired of waiting for the train to start! Andrew fell asleep in my arms about 15 minutes in to the ride, so I didn't take any pictures. The train ride lasted an hour and went through town and then up in to the mountains. It was so nice!

We unloaded in Felton for an hour. We were excited to see all that Roaring Camp had to offer. I suggested we pan for gold, maybe visit the general store or try out the hand cart. Unfortunately by the time we ordered lunch and scarfed it down, it was time to board the train again.

 The steam train went by us and we all kind of regretted not riding that one.

I would definitely recommend doing the train ride, but allow yourself more time in Roaring Camp!

 The train dropped us off back at the Boardwalk, so obviously we had to get ice cream cones.

And these spiralized potato chips things for Adam. Which I accidentally dropped on the ground when I saw Andrew starting to fall.

 We drove back to Aptos and parked by "our beach". The 3 big kids were excited to be there.

Andrew was not. He screamed and cried because it was so cold and windy. He piled towels on top of himself and told me he was hiding.

 Meanwhile Lucas found a log to drag around.

 And Ryan worked hard on his castle.

 Back at the beach house we picked up Mexican food and played Exploding Kittens.

 Oh yes, and there were microwaved s'mores.

Andrew and Jenna went to bed fairly early, and oh my goodness, Ryan and Lucas were wild! We ate way too much candy and played way too many games of Exploding Kittens, and it was so much fun hanging out without "the littles".

 Someone was up bright and early Thursday.

Lucas played a game at the boardwalk and lost....but the man next to him won and gave him this minion. We took it along in the car on Thursday to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We arrived at the aquarium and immediately went to the "open sea" exhibit to find some sharks. We ended up sitting there for an hour to watch them being fed.

 We looked for sea lions but only saw a couple way off in the distance.

 Ryan and I snapped this photo because 8 years ago, we sat in this exact same spot.

See!? We took Ryan to Monterey in July 2011.

July 2019. Kids x4!

 Of course we had to find all the sharks.

 I thought the penguins were so cute!

 After the aquarium we hit up the candy store for more sugar.

Each child chose a small souvenir in Monterey. Lucas chose a shark tooth necklace. He made me ask the salesperson if it was real, and she said yes.

 Jenna chose a unicorn bracelet.

 And Ryan chose this cool car.

 Dinnertime!

Adam and I both agreed that the food on this vacation wasn't great. So we were especially excited to eat at Bubba Gump's.

There is a dish on their menu called Shrimpin' Dippin' Broth. Yummy shrimp in a spicy broth, served over rice inside a bucket, with sourdough bread. And guess what? It is no longer on their menu.

 Yes Lucas, that's how I felt when I found out. (He slept through most of dinner)

We ordered different shrimp dishes and luckily they were both ok. Just not quite what we had been hoping for!

 We had to stick our feet in the famous shoes.

 After our day in Monterey we played more Exploding Kittens!

Friday was our final day. Minion man got to see the sights of Santa Cruz as we drove through downtown.

 And arrived at Natural Bridges Beach!

 I thought this beach was beautiful. There was a path that followed along the top of the cliffs and at certain points we could literally feel the spray from the crashing waves.

 It was an overcast morning.

See that round stump-looking thing? The water would shoot up the sides of it and through the holes on top and make a really loud noise. But it would only happen during certain waves, so it was always a bit of a surprise. At first it really startled us!

 Natural bridges was nice but we had to hit the road in order to avoid traffic. Despite leaving by noon, we ran into a lot of bay area traffic....and it didn't let up until we reached Roseville nearly 6 hours later.

Goodbye Santa Cruz! We all had a lot of fun on this vacation, and Andrew even told me this weekend "I want to go back to Bob's house!" (Bob is the beach house homeowner). Coming back from a fun trip is hard, but now I'm excited to plan next summer's family vacation! What a blessing it is to get away and spend time together as a family, seeing new sights and making memories!