Trip to Santa Cruz with Pilgrimage to Mavericks Surf Site

Summer means a trip to the beach, but we live in sight of the beach so we went to Santa Cruz, to the beach. On the way we stopped to see the pugilists of the Pacific, the elephant seal males. This guy was taking a moment off from sparing to molt and soak up the heat of the sand, his own idea of summer fun.

The beach bathers near Cambria are here to shed their fur coat before hauling back off to sea for another swim of a few thousand miles before they return. Before motors there was long distance by muscle and it's still going on.

Our grandson, Sam enjoyed the rides on the boardwalk while I shot candid photos of the people and Carole watched Sam. 

Here, Sam tried his prowess as a pitcher against a timer. He was faster than the middle aged male before him. Sam says the timer was slow based on the radar gun he pitched against earlier. 

Our golf game improved on this two story indoor miniature golf course with pirate theme. My favorite special effect was the canons that go off at the end. After losing to Sam at bowling a few days earlier, I redeemed my competitive edge.

The waves at Mavericks are legendary, in the winter. This is from the beach and the 50 to 70 foot waves break much further out in the prime season. Sam met Jim Clark, the guy who got it all going. He owns the van and the surf shop. Great for the pilgrim looking for the wave (site).

The concrete wave provides a dry alternative in the barrel.

The Winchester House needs to return to the ever-building past as the silence is deafening and such an irritation to the spirits that informed Mrs. Winchester she could never stop with the home improvement.

 Always time for a summer beauty, a common buckeye!

Leaving the Winchester House I tried to avoid a police tie-up I could see an intersection ahead. So being smart I turned left and came head on with a chase scene and the guy being chased right in front of me. He turned left, the cop followed into a dead end street. He sped back out of the dead end and the cop stayed at the end of the street???? No shots were heard. More cop cars sped around corners real fast and they all beat out of the neighborhood going south, I think. Later we compared notes, it was  a middle aged white guy with black hair, or Latino guy with tatoos, or an old white guy with white hair. We all agreed it was a red Jeep that was sun faded. We made up stories about what the driver did to result in the chase. Since I'm writing I'll share mine. He held up a jewelry shop to get diamonds for his girlfriend and the silent alarm went off...  We felt safe enough as voyeurs that  this was fun. Could have been scary instead of fun had it gone just a little different. Film at 11.

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