spring break vacation

We are back from a wonderful vacation--our first spring break vacation ever (this is the first time our spring breaks lined up exactly). We went to the gorgeous Santa Cruz area and stayed at Costanoa. We loved it! That area of the state (I think of it as the Central Coast) is downright magical. I'm thoroughly enchanted and would love to go back at any time.


Look how green and pretty. This is what we don't have so much in So. Cal--green, lush grass.


Hiking down to the beach.


Our cabin at Costanoa was very nice--basically like a nice hotel room. The only thing "cabin"-ish about it was that the bathrooms are in a different building (the "comfort stations" as the call them). They are unheated, but in the night you can make a fire in the little fireplace, which we much enjoyed.


There is also a porch swing on the back porch which the boys much enjoyed.


The beaches were rocky there. The boys had so much fun throwing rocks into the water.





Pretty rocks on the beach.


We ate lunch one day at burger. Purely awesome. Here is what Ken ate.


I had a chance to go around with my big kids for a couple of hours and I loved it. These are sweet great kids and it was so fun to be shown around on their turf. We walked all around their campus (UC Santa Cruz) and they showed me its loveliness. Afterwards, Ken and the boys picked us up and we all went out for sushi. It was great having so many of us together (we wished Ben could have joined us . . .)


Views down to the ocean at UCSC.


We visited the rooftop greenhouse on top of one of the science buildings. I loved this little still life.


Random on-campus merry-go-round.


Another day we visited Ano Nuevo state preserve. We took a little hike down to the water to see the elephant seals.


At this time of year you can see the "weaners"--the month old elephant seals who have recently been weaned and left to fend for themselves. There were docents telling us all kinds of interesting elephant seal facts.





We ate lunch here. I had cream of artichoke soup, a local specialty.


This olallieberry pie was my dream of pie. Super super yum.


We visited this goat farm.


The boys with their aunt Liz, who we met for lunch and goat farm.








On the last day we stopped at Big Basin State Park. Tons of redwoods there. It's a very special place.



I took gazillions of photos. See more here. I'm not normally a vacation person, but this is my kind of vacation. Relaxed and easy with lots of natural beauty.

We're home now and enjoying our last few days of spring break. Today we made granola and cookie dough and went swimming at the pool. Tomorrow we'll bake cookies and decorate eggs. Happy weekend to all!