Mary and I spent a delightful weekend in Santa Cruz,CA exploring the area. In a small area you can experience an incredible coast, beautiful beaches, a great pier, a CA mission, lighthouses, and more. Here is what you will see.
We stayed at the Dream Inn which was walking distance to the pier and boardwalk. We also splurged on a view room so we could photograph the pier at sunrise and sunset.
Unfortunately, the boardwalk rides were closed, but we did stroll through the colorful carnival atmosphere.
Bean Hollow beach is about a 30 minute drive north and has a multi-mile trail along the rocky coast.
The Santa Cruz mission is not very impressive, but being CA mission aficionados, we had to pay it a visit (see our blog on the Santa Cruz Mission).
Pigeon Point Lightstation is one of the most photogenic in CA. It is 30 minutes north of Santa Cruz, don’t miss it (see our blog on photographing this lighthouse)
There are also two lighthouses in town – the Mark Abbott at the north end of the Santa Cruz bay and the Walton at the south end of the bay. You can easily see and photograph both of them in a couple of hours (see our blog on how).
The highlight of the weekend for me was a sunset shoot at the Natural Bridges State Beach (see our blog on how to do it).
Even though there is a lot to see and photograph, you really can do the whole area in a long weekend. There were also many great places to eat and drink along the shore.
To see more of our photographs (and buy them), please go to www.pamphotography.com.
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I agree – love the gondola!