Day Four on the Road to Aptos

Breakfast at our hotel (the Kimpton chain always seem to have great French brioche toast), a relatively short walk to our Bart stop and we were on our way back to the Oakland Airport where without any difficulty we picked up our rental car, a Volkswagon Jetta and were eventually on our way to Highway One heading south along the coast.




As you can see it was a bit foggy initially...












But the fog began to lift...




Finally we could see some awesome views. Mind you we had some lovely driving through through tree lined curvy roads but I was driving so no shots. the pictures above were taken quickly as you have to pay to park in California state parks so we kept pushing on.




The trees looked a bit wind blown, reminding me of another surfing place, the south coast of Australia.








Below is Pigeon Point Lighthouse and right beside it is a youth hostel with a rather spectacular view.
























Succulents...














It was time to move on. We crossed by the busy Santa Cruz waterfront. In 1975 I made my first trip to California with my friend, Hilary. we were taken to Santa Cruz and liked it so much we returned to spend a night in a very neat old hotel, to dip in the frigid water, and to walk the boardwalk. almost forty years later Sue and I were glad we had chosen a quieter spot to spend the night.



Just a bit farther, we finally stopped for a late lunch or an early dinner in lovely Capitola. It is busy as well but fortunately we nabbed a parking space.


These were our views from our restaurant. sue thought it would be nice to stay in one of those bungalows.





Just a few more miles to our destination, Aptos Beach. We had found our hotel, the Rio Sands, with the help of Trip-advisor, and we were not disappointed except with problematic wifi in our room. It and Aptos Beach were charming.








Above is a view from the pool. As soon as we checked in Sue went for a walk on the beach and I jumped in the pool! After driving all afternoon and it had been quite hot in Capitola, it felt heavenly, as did later the hot tub.


the sun was beginning to set so I threw on some clothes and quickly walked to the beach, which is truly only a hundred steps away.











It was an absolutely stunning sunset on beautiful Seacliff Beach.
(I wrote this this morning but had difficulty posting it online. I am now actually in Santa Barbara.)
-posted on my ipad using Blogpost

Location:Aptos, California