California Trip pt.2

Hello!

I'm back with the second part of my California adventure.

Let's get right in to it.

My next outing was to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

It took us about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to drive from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, but it was so fun.

Lots of mountainous nature. We don't get much of this in Hawaii, so it was a nice change.

Before we headed to the actual boardwalk, we stopped to grab some lunch at a falafel place in town.
I got the falafel burger, and even though I'm not much one for falafels, I must admit it was pretty good.

And then we arrived.
I was super excited because I absolutely adore amusement parks. (Even after a traumatic experience a couple years back. Aka hot, nauseous, and headache.)

The first thing I saw when we got out of the car was this mini roller coaster thing, and my only thought was "I must ride it."

Of all rides, two things reign, the mega drop type of rides, (which I also went on) and the roller coasters.

There was two roller coaster like rides there, the small one above, which I went on with my younger cousin, and this big one, which we all went on.

I love the way the flags look up there, and it was windy enough to get an action shot.

I took that while my other cousin and I were on this thing:

A very cool way to get from one side of the walk to the other.
Can you see the lonely chinese man.

I also got a shot of this ride from it, which I'm pretty proud of.

I can't remember if I went on it.
I don't think so.

After all the fun and heat and overly-sugary drinks, it was finally time to be heading home.
We stopped for an early dinner at The Saturn Cafe in Berkeley, which is an entirely vegetarian restaurant, with vegan options for most things.

I think I just got some kind of burger, (as you do), but I took a picture of my cousin's grilled cheese sandwich, and garlic fries. (Which were delicious. Although the garlic was a little bit dangerous.)

After we ate, we wandered around Berkeley a little more, and it is one of the cutest little hipstery places ever.

I took pictures of some flowers growing all around, because I am a bit obsessed with flowers.

Don't the pink fluff balls remind you of something from a Doctor Suess book?
I wish I'd been able to get better pictures but it was getting dark and it was a rather tall tree.

They also had this adorable little old fashioned movie theatre that I would have loved to have seen a movie in.

Last but not least we made the customary stop at starbucks before starting the long drive home.
I just got a hot chocolate, which I did take a picture of, but it did not come out well. :'D

Our car was parked next to a lovely little restaurant, and I had to take a picture of the vines crawling the wall in the ambient lighting.

Does anyone else hear Ratatouille music when they see this? No?

And so we spent three hours driving home, all with a full bladder.
I should have listened to my aunt when she told me to go to the bathroom at starbucks.

And that was all for this leg of my journey!
Come back next time when we go over the first of my two trips down to San Francisco!

Thank you~