Daughter and I flew from Anaheim to San Jose (had to scratch the original plan to drive up the coastal highway due to the wildfires that were raging) and then drove from San Jose to Santa Cruz, recreating a part of my daily life years back when I did my final clinical internship for grad school in Santa Clara County. I lived in Redwood Estates, had a post box in Los Gatos, worked in San Jose (and all over the county, doing intensive in-home family counseling and then child sexual abuse intervention), and shopped in Santa Cruz. It was a wonderful year and a half in my 20s!
Of course many things have changed. Development has taken out trees and forest, there are more stores and gas stations and places to live. But downtown Santa Cruz is close to what it was when I was there, and we had lunch in a wonderful little place there.
We left Santa Cruz mid-afternoon and drove down the coastal highway to Monterey, where we stayed for a couple of nights. This was the view across from our hotel:
The layered color at sunset was absolutely stunning. We also enjoyed Cannery Row and the Christmas decorations.
Stay tuned for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the highlights of the trip!
I’ll bet it was nice to revisit places from your youth. I’m sure your daughter enjoyed being a part of your past.
ReplyDeleteIt was! I had driven through Monterey but never spent time there so what was very nice was seeing some old stomping grounds and then visiting new places too. I am woefully behind in posting. We just got back from a spring break trip to Southern California - LA, Long Beach, La Jolla, San Diego - so I’m trying hard to catch up. :)
ReplyDelete