A kid… at an amusement park… part 1…

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The last day of my most recent adventure, and I am at the Santa Cruz boardwalk with my cousin Clark, and his mom, my other cousin, Mallorie.

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Clark is at the interesting age of three… when they can ride a dragon roller coaster…

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And not be too scared.

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But they still enjoy the little-kids rides too.

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I miss having a three-year-old around my house.

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The bouncy car ride looked fun.

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But I don’t really fit in a lot of rides.

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But it was still a fun day for me, too.

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A grouchy cat, a minion in tie dye, a hungry shark, some flowers, and some psychedelic cavemen… sort of…

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We have reached the last day of my latest adventure to the Bay Area. I was still in Santa Cruz, visiting my cousins,

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While I waited for everybody to get ready to go out to breakfast, I took a few pictures of one of their cats.

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Niles and Frasier are very sweet…

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But you would never know it from looking at them.

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Since I wasn’t leaving to come back to San Diego until after lunch, my cousin Mallorie and I decided to take little Clark to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. No, that isn’t a psychedelic caveman, that is a regular, plastic caveman.

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Ha! A minion in tie dye.

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And a hungry shark… although, a shark eating a surfboard… in an area where people surf… and they have real Great White Sharks… seems a little odd.

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Some flowers.

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I like flowers.

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See, now those are some psychedelic cavemen.

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I knew these photos would turn out this way, because I took them from a moving train, in the dark, without a flash.

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But I wanted to do this, because it ties in with those pictures I took of San Francisco, lit up in the dark, and how I tried to use the tripod I got to eliminate exactly this kind of problem.

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Plus, these just look cool.

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And now, a bunch of pictures of my adorable little cousins, with no words, because we need to get on to other stuff…

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Sorry… but it had to be done…

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Two happy, little cousins, a dog, and a sunset… with no words to distract you…

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Patchy the dog, and my two little cousins…

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Okay, time to say goodbye to Patchy the dog, and get back to my two little cousins.

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Well there they are, Clark and Campbell, with their mom and dad. We missed seeing them at Christmas, because one of the little ones was sick.

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I hope you like kids as much as I do, because I have a lot of photos… ha! Clark loved his new fox.

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But the best present I brought to Santa Cruz, was the electric, light-up spinny thing.

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Tie dye never goes out of style, especially in Northern California. And that ties in well with my sixties-themed adventure in San Francisco, right?

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Campbell liked Clark’s new toy too.

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Yeah he did.

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Spinny lights!

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Awwwww…

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Two cute kids… and a cute dog…

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So I pulled into Santa Cruz… on my way from the Bay Area back to San Diego… and found my two little cousins at the park. That is Campbell.

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And there is Clark. Unfortunately, I got there right before nap time. They were having some work done on their house, so the kids took naps at a neighbor’s house. I went back to their place to wait… and I met this guy…

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That’s Patchy… the dog…

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He belongs to one of the contractors, and was tied to a truck in front of the house… in the shade… with water.

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We sort of hit it off.

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Okay, not the best picture of me ever.

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But it was awesome.

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This is what selfies are supposed to be like.

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Oh yeah. But I was sort of hiding my lips from that big old tongue.

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The California coast, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz… part 2… and, technically, the final chapter of the shortest series I ever did… but this one ends with cute kids… so… yeah…

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I know, that could be New England, but it isn’t. It is Northern California, between the Bay Area and Santa Cruz.

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It was only a three-hour drive from my mom’s house in the hills North of Berkeley to Santa Cruz. I don’t know why I don’t take the coast route more often. The other way is boring, and not much faster.

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And look what I have been giving up to fight the traffic, driving all the way along the San Francisco Bay, and through a bunch of small cities and towns making up the South Eastern Bay Area.

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A fishing boat, and the ever-present looming fag bank, getting ready to move in and smother Northern California.

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Now granted, it isn’t like I drive from the Bay Area to Santa Cruz all the time. It is only when I go to the Bay Area from San Diego to see my mom, and I decide to stop by and see my cousins. It is out of the way, but as you will see, it is worth it.

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It was especially worth it when I went there to help out, when the newest little cousin was colicky and not sleeping much at all. You could go back and look at earlier posts if you are interested.

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But the real point I am trying to make, is that if you have to drive far out of your way, you might as well enjoy the drive, and also, hope that you have people who love you waiting at the other end…

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Like these little guys… who you will learn all about tomorrow.

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The California coast, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz… part 1…

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Horses, munching by the Pacific Ocean. I must be losing my touch. I stood by the fence, and did that tongue-clicking/tisk tisk sound, but none of them came over to see me. This is unheard of. Dogs, babies, and horses love me.

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I always love it when I do a bunch of travel posts, and get new followers from other blogs that focus on travel or photography or whatever. We all know that, before too long, I will be back to doing weird Photoshop stuff with Trump, and my other silly stuff, and they will be wondering what they have gotten themselves into.

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So, after leaving the Bay Area, I was traveling down the coast on Highway One, also known as the Cabrillo… (Pronounced ka-brie-yo, and named after a Spanish explore who charted the area)… Highway. Yes, this is the same highway you have seen pictures of before, when I stopped in Santa Cruz to visit my cousins. But this is the part on the other, Northern side of Santa Cruz. Less tall cliffs and giant Elephant Seals.

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I might have traveled that other part again, the next afternoon after leaving Santa Cruz, but unfortunately, Highway One is closed… for perhaps the next year… between Santa Cruz and Southern California due to a huge landslide. And this won’t be my only forced detour on this last part of the trip.

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This is Northern California. This isn’t the warm waters and palm trees of the other end of the State. This is water so cold it will kill you in less than an hour, with Great White Sharks, sharp rocks, dangerous currents and fog banks. In fact, if you want to read about my most interesting near-death-experience, it took place on a ship right off the coast not far from here. It is funny, I mean, considering I almost died. Go to the search bar… no, the one on my blog, not on the reader topic wall thing, and type in: ‘What a way to go’… go on, we will wait for you. Read the post.

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But all that aside, the coast of California is something that everyone should see once in their life, from one end to the other.

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If you look closely, you can see seals on those rocks… hiding from the Great White Sharks.

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You can see the highway way over there.

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And, as nice as the Pacific Ocean is, the view to the East wasn’t too shabby either. Okay, one more post of the coast, and then, Santa Cruz, and my cute little cousins and an adorable dog.

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Bye bye, Bay Area… part 2…

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And so we say goodbye to the city by the bay, as seen from Treasure Island… no, not the one with the pirates…

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I hope you enjoyed this part of my adventure, the cute dogs, the sunsets, the weird sixties stuff, the dive-bar hopping.

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No, that isn’t the same picture as the one in the other post. I guess I took two with my phone, and there is never any sense wasting a picture of me!

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Okay, I may have taken that photo of the newest, tallest, unfinished building in the city, while driving over the Oakland Bay Bridge. Don’t take pictures while driving.

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You may recall, from the previous post, that I took the coast route between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. I haven’t done that since I was a teenager or a twenty-something. What is that? I’m glad you asked. That is an old, cement, coastal defense bunker. The wind and rain have eroded the dirt away from around it. It is also heavily covered with graffiti.

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I would deny that I took that photo while driving… except for the blurry post and guard rail… and the cars coming up behind me in the rear view mirror.

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I don’t know what that is… but it looks like the world’s biggest golf ball on the world’s biggest tee.

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Half Moon Bay, and some boats.

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I like boats.

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