Growing up, I was fascinated by Santa Cruz. I can remember traveling there with my grandparents and my great aunt Margaret. I remember driving down the 17 in Noni's Oldsmobile, overheating on the way up and having to stop on the side of the road while we waited for help. I remember this particular trip for a great number of reasons, but mainly because it was the first time I peed outside. I was five or so and couldn’t have been more embarrassed, but when you‘ve got to go, you’ve got to go.
I can remember wearing my pink strawberry shortcake one piece and being terrified to go play in the ocean. Instead, I sat on the beach on a bamboo tatami mat, with a sparkly, red boingy-heart head band atop my head, eating a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone. Margaret had a blue and white polka dot dress on. We explored the shallow water and I admired a wooden bridge.
A few years later, I would be sitting on my dads couch watching the Lost Boys, covering my eyes when Star and Michael made out in the vampire cave. That same bridge I had sat under with my great aunt now had a gang of teenaged vampires dangling from it. I thought I was so cool, because even at seven, I knew that Santa Carla was really Santa Cruz.
A few years after this, I along with every other preteen girl in my school, had a crush on Edward Herrera. He was the new boy at school, but more than that he was a Barbizon model and a KTVU kid. At 11 years old, that was the coolest thing since NKOTB’s Hangin’ Tough album. He was in a Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk commercial that would air sometime between ducktales and tiny toons. I’ve searched for the commercial on youtube to no avail, but it is forever etched in my brain: “Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Gotta Be There!”
I’d come and go several times throughout the years. Field trips and day trips, college visits and so on. I was accepted at UC Santa Cruz, but I decided I didn’t want to be a Banana Slug after all after eating a bagel and hummus with Sonia, the vegan with the hairy armpits.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the South Bay over the past two years. I’m not sure who suggested a Santa Cruz trip first, but it would become one of Russell and my most special places.
We took a trip to the boardwalk in early July, when we were so brand new. We were kissing and hugging all over the beach, taking a ridiculous amount of photos on the Ferris wheel. It was just a short trip after work, we had wanted to ride the Giant Dipper. We came back not long after and had another fun-filled day. We ate French fries, drank beer and played arcade games. Russell wrote “Russell loves Rachel” in the sand and I might have cried.
Disneyland might be the dubbed happiest place on earth, but Santa Cruz certainly holds a very special place in my heart. =)
I can remember wearing my pink strawberry shortcake one piece and being terrified to go play in the ocean. Instead, I sat on the beach on a bamboo tatami mat, with a sparkly, red boingy-heart head band atop my head, eating a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone. Margaret had a blue and white polka dot dress on. We explored the shallow water and I admired a wooden bridge.
A few years later, I would be sitting on my dads couch watching the Lost Boys, covering my eyes when Star and Michael made out in the vampire cave. That same bridge I had sat under with my great aunt now had a gang of teenaged vampires dangling from it. I thought I was so cool, because even at seven, I knew that Santa Carla was really Santa Cruz.
A few years after this, I along with every other preteen girl in my school, had a crush on Edward Herrera. He was the new boy at school, but more than that he was a Barbizon model and a KTVU kid. At 11 years old, that was the coolest thing since NKOTB’s Hangin’ Tough album. He was in a Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk commercial that would air sometime between ducktales and tiny toons. I’ve searched for the commercial on youtube to no avail, but it is forever etched in my brain: “Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Gotta Be There!”
I’d come and go several times throughout the years. Field trips and day trips, college visits and so on. I was accepted at UC Santa Cruz, but I decided I didn’t want to be a Banana Slug after all after eating a bagel and hummus with Sonia, the vegan with the hairy armpits.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the South Bay over the past two years. I’m not sure who suggested a Santa Cruz trip first, but it would become one of Russell and my most special places.
We took a trip to the boardwalk in early July, when we were so brand new. We were kissing and hugging all over the beach, taking a ridiculous amount of photos on the Ferris wheel. It was just a short trip after work, we had wanted to ride the Giant Dipper. We came back not long after and had another fun-filled day. We ate French fries, drank beer and played arcade games. Russell wrote “Russell loves Rachel” in the sand and I might have cried.
Disneyland might be the dubbed happiest place on earth, but Santa Cruz certainly holds a very special place in my heart. =)
