Sunday, March 28, 2010

Seacliff State Beach & Capitola

On Friday I had to take Z to a jazz festival in Santa Cruz. While he was performing with his bandmates, I snuck away and visited Seacliff State Beach and Capitola, both just moments away from Santa Cruz.

The main feature at Seacliff, aside from its lovely beach of course, is the long pier which protrudes into Monterey Bay. At the far end of the pier is the scuttled Palo Alto, a World War I era supply ship. The ship was purchased by an amusement company and then sank off the pier; oddly enough an arcade, dining room, dance hall and even a swimming pool were built on the ship. The company went out of business years ago, and since then, the ship has unfortunately been in a rather deteriorating state.



















Then I headed over to colorful Capitola, which is just a few miles north of the state beach. It was packed with young people on spring break...out enjoying the warm sunshine, beautiful beach, quaint stores, and eclectic restaurants...






























Next time you find yourself in Santa Cruz, be sure to drive the short distance south and visit these charming spots.

4 comments:

Tina said...

its a shame when things are left to detioriate, but i bet it was fascinating to look around though anyway.

i loved the colourful buildings too!

Tina from
Mummy Diaries
Gossip Avenue
Travel Shack
Game FreakZ

eLIZabeth Floyd said...

Hi Linnea,

This area of the CA coast is charming! I love the little beach cottages! So many pastel colors!

Keith W said...

Great photos! You had awesome weather! I remember fishing from the cement ship when we were kids... We caught lots of tiny fish... Don't know what they were though...

Photo Cache said...

I try to go to capitola once a year. It's such a get away locale without really going that far away.