It was a big deal this summer at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk; the radio blared about its 100th year anniversary along with the enticing possibility of $1 rides when purchasing cans of Sprite on the weekdays. Since I’ve never been to Santa Cruz, Jeff, in the course of 20+ e-mails, kindly arranged a trip down to the land of excessive sunshine.
One of the first things I noticed upon arrival was the lack of a beach. Well, there may have been a beach, but the view on the road alongside the boardwalk was simply vacation houses and concrete walls, although they may have been trying to build anticipation of the tourist trap. Getting out of the car and shrugging on a backpack holding beach-appropriate gear, I came upon this at the entrance:
Still not much beach, though there’s a hint of water in the distance.
It was soon apparent however the beach and boardwalk came to fame, in its 100 years of existence, tourists have wore the place down into a permanent carnival which just happens to rest beside water. There were the rides, the rigged games, the greasy and kid-pleasing food…and even a haunted house, one of those carts on rails designed to make the rider jump at animatronics, housed inside a box of concrete.
At least there was a beach visible from the boardwalk (1). A stage was set up for a cheerleading competition that weekend, and beyond the music and sweaty teenagers a good amount of people dotted the sands, a human maze to navigate through. I didn’t bother trying to get onto the beach and fight for personal space.
Perhaps I probably shouldn’t have expected too much out of a locale so commercialized and thirsty for tourist attention, but I did manage to take a few pictures. Fortunately, Jeff had another place in mind for actual beach activities, and off we went to an undisclosed location for some fun under the chilly sun.
- sadly, devoid of any boards at this point (↩)