Cotton Candy Girl
We went to Santa Cruz for the day and wandered around the downtown area, weaving in and out of the shops. Towards the end of the day (a.k.a Maggie is tired and we need to drive home so she can nap) we went down to the beach and walked along the pier. The sand volleyball courts were filled with teens from a nearby school, apparently PE happens at the beach in Santa Cruz. The rides were closed and the boardwalk all but empty. We let Maggie run wild along the boardwalk and out to the pier, checking out surfers in the distance.
I stepped away for all but two minutes to take some pictures and came back to find that Maggie somehow had convinced Barry to buy the biggest ball of cotton candy in the world. They sat together enjoying the sticky mess all while fending of the pesky pigeons. Maggie, as we’ve learned, really enjoys sweet tasting things and cotton candy was no exception. Girlfriend got right up in there letting chucks dissolve on her fingers and tongue.
For all the other exciting parts of Santa Cruz, the highlight was letting Maggie eat a pile of sugar. When we finally threw the ball of cotton candy away, we all had bits of it floating in our hair and crusted in our fingers. By the time we got back to the car, Maggie was really ready for her nap and we were happy to see our supply of wipes….
The Routine
Right outside our cabin door there was a trail that hugged the shoreline and it might have been the biggest blessing of our whole trip. We started and ended our days on the trail because it was a perfect place for both Maggie and Sydney to stretch their legs without the constraints of a leash or a hovering hand.
One day we took the trail all the way to town, but that was a horrible move on our part because we decided last minute (as in, already halfway there) to go and didn’t bring any snacks for Maggie. By the time we reached town, a couple miles later, she was screaming as if she were starving and we felt like the worst parents in the world. Thankfully we found a bagel shop and her happy food dance ensured. Lesson learned: Always, always, always bring snacks…..and diapers.
But the evening strolls were my absolute favorite. We’d often have dinner simmering and the sunset would pull us all outside with our eyes attached to the ever-changing clouds. With the exception of a few foggy nights, and the night that we were accidentally still on a hiking trail in the State Reserve, the trail is where we’d be watching the sunset. Maggie was usually chasing Sydney wanting to put her leash on and Sydney was usually sniffing some weeds trying to get away from Maggie. Barry and I’d spent our trail walks talking about this and that, clinking our wine mugs in cheers, watching Mags and Syd.
We mostly had the trail to ourselves, but by the end of our trip we’d met a few locals that knew both Maggie and Syd by name. They’d fill us on in on some of the local haps and we’d tell them about the rain we’d left behind in Seattle. Sometimes we’d take a side trail to the top of the bluff or down to a sandy beach, but we’d always keep our eye on the setting sun as if it were a ticking clock reminding us it’d soon be dark.
The mad-dash to get back to the cabin before it was dark out, even though Maggie would often bring our head-lamp, was usually not necessary. For the colors right outside our front door were often far more dramatic than the ones we’d seen on the trail.
I guess all those Sun Salutations that Maggie and Sydney did on that first day really did something, because we were showered with sun and sunsets that were astounding. At one point I was talking with my dad on the phone and telling him that we had to go buy sunscreen because we weren’t expecting such nice weather. He said he felt so sorry for me because I had to buy sunscreen in October….I have a feeling he was being sarcastic.
But really, to start and end our days on the edge of the ocean was spectacular, there is something mightily refreshing about sea air, the crash of waves and the safety of a trail that contains both your dog and child.