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Old Posted Feb 21, 2020, 4:48 AM
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Road Trip! Part 1: Avila Beach, Capitola, Santa Cruz, CA

My partner and I both took the day off on February 14th to give ourselves a 4-day weekend (being that Monday was the Presidents Day Holiday), to go up to San Francisco, specifically to see an exhibit at the Asian Art Museum called "Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment." We go to San Francisco at least once or twice a year, sometimes even 3 times a year. Hehe we joke that we consider it a suburb of Los Angeles. . When we go, we just drive up there, and spend a night in San Luis Obispo to break up the long drive. We like San Luis Obispo, it's a great town, but frankly, we're kind of sick of it. So we decided to do something a little different this time... we decided to make stops in different places.

So, here we go!

Road trip, north up the 101 from Los Angeles! Day 1, Feb. 14, 2020...

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Avila Beach, CA.

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Time for breakfast.

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I ordered something called the Beach Scramble. It was pretty tasty. It had a sambal hollandaise sauce. Mmm, mmm!

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The couple getting into this car was very LOUD.

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On the road again...

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You know how the Philippines has the Chocolate Hills? Well apparently, California's central coast has the matcha hills.

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Capitola, CA.

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Time for lunch.

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I had a salad with grilled chicken. It was DELICIOUS.

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My partner had a salad with salmon. He said it was very tasty. It sure did look tasty.

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Take another little Pizza My Heart now baby...

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Just like some jurisdictions in SoCal: No smoking at the bus stops.

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The restaurant we had lunch at.

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Santa Cruz, CA.

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We needed a pick-me-up.

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Dinnertime...

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I had the Greek salad.

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...Stay tuned for "Road Trip! Part 2."
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Last edited by sopas ej; Feb 25, 2020 at 4:29 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2020, 3:37 PM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is offline
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Never been to Avila Beach, but I’ve visited both Capitola and Santa Cruz. Coastal CA is my happy place. I’m always happiest when I’m there, whether it be southern, central, or northern California.
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  #3  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2020, 6:30 PM
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The central coast is magical... I absolutely love it! I've been to Avila before, which is fantastic, but not Capitola. Capitola looks really lovely. Did you swing by Morro Bay by chance? Definitely a fan of Morro.
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Old Posted Feb 21, 2020, 6:49 PM
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I always thought of Santa Cruz like a little SoCal beach town in NorCal. The boardwalk and south facing soft sandy beaches... It's the last decent beach as you go up the coast, before it all turns to damp grey sand and overcast skies.
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Old Posted Feb 21, 2020, 7:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner View Post
I always thought of Santa Cruz like a little SoCal beach town in NorCal. The boardwalk and south facing soft sandy beaches... It's the last decent beach as you go up the coast, before it all turns to damp grey sand and overcast skies.
Any California beach can have overcast skies, especially in the morning. But Stinson Beach, NORTH of San Francisco, is not "damp gray sand" nor necessarily foggier than Santa Cruz:


https://www.californiabeaches.com/beach/stinson-beach/

I too prefer Santa Cruz for the town itself and what it offers beyond laying on the sand, but the sand and weather are not that different.
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Old Posted Feb 22, 2020, 6:10 AM
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Nothing like coastal California, nice job showcasing the beauty of these towns.
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Old Posted Feb 22, 2020, 3:50 PM
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Beautiful!
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Old Posted Feb 22, 2020, 7:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
Any California beach can have overcast skies, especially in the morning. But Stinson Beach, NORTH of San Francisco, is not "damp gray sand" nor necessarily foggier than Santa Cruz:


https://www.californiabeaches.com/beach/stinson-beach/

I too prefer Santa Cruz for the town itself and what it offers beyond laying on the sand, but the sand and weather are not that different.
It's certainly better than the razor sharp volcanic black sand beaches farther north, but I don't know man, that's still looking pretty gray and damp to me. But then, I'm a bit of a beach snob

I love dipping my feet in the icy cold waters of the Pacific, and drying off completely by walking through the hot, dry, soft sand. It feels incredible. And I can just kick off the dry sand and put on my socks, no towel needed. I've never been able to do that in NorCal or PNW beaches. Most of the time you can't even walk through the sand, you walk on top of it.
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Old Posted Feb 23, 2020, 10:02 PM
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Great trip! Thanks for the journey.

I love it as well, one of my largest projects is in Pismo Beach and I just picked up a project in Avila Beach last week.

Avila used to be a little more funky. It was completely torn apart for oil remediation and rebuilt I think in the late 90s and 2000's. Now its a great little destination, not really a working town, its too small.

Santa Cruz has a great downtown and beach area, it was our go to growing up in northern California.

Capitola is magic as well and is a little more upscale and less bohemian than Santa Cruz.
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Old Posted Feb 24, 2020, 8:01 PM
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Nice pictures! This is the "other" coastal California that people rarely see! I have never heard of the first two places.

Avila Beach definitely looks like a Southern California beach town. It looks like something that would be farther down the coast, like near Ventura.

I like that little colorful mini-neighborhood in Capitola.

Was Capitola supposed to be the state capital or something? Why have a name that so obviously implies something bigger?

You didn't mentioned when you switched to Santa Cruz, but I think I know when those pictures started.
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Old Posted Feb 24, 2020, 9:03 PM
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Avila Beach actually is in Southern California, the other two are not. I have to admit, I've also never heard of Avila Beach. Looking on the map, it looks like the 101 bypasses it entirely, so that's probably why, although I suspect the locals don't mind that one bit . What a perfect little hidden away beach town.
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Old Posted Feb 24, 2020, 11:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner View Post
Avila Beach actually is in Southern California, the other two are not. I have to admit, I've also never heard of Avila Beach. Looking on the map, it looks like the 101 bypasses it entirely, so that's probably why, although I suspect the locals don't mind that one bit . What a perfect little hidden away beach town.
Kind of. It’s adjacent to San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach and just barely off the 101.
If you want off the beaten path hit highway 1. Morro Bay, Cayucos, and Cambria.
Even more so is Los Osos which is at the south end of Morro Bay and isn’t off any highway.
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Old Posted Feb 25, 2020, 3:19 AM
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Oh yeah, I've taken the PCH up the coast many times. Whenever I head up to the bay I try to take the coastal route if I have the time. Takes twice as long but worth every minute. When I travel, wherever I'm going, for me driving is half the fun. Besides, the 5 through the central valley is BORING and SMELLY (Cali people know exactly what I'm referring to ).
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Old Posted Feb 25, 2020, 3:13 PM
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Thanks for the comments!


Quote:
Originally Posted by LAsam View Post
The central coast is magical... I absolutely love it! I've been to Avila before, which is fantastic, but not Capitola. Capitola looks really lovely. Did you swing by Morro Bay by chance? Definitely a fan of Morro.
We didn't go to Morro Bay on this particular road trip, but we've been to Morro a number of times. It really is nice.


Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner View Post
I always thought of Santa Cruz like a little SoCal beach town in NorCal. The boardwalk and south facing soft sandy beaches... It's the last decent beach as you go up the coast, before it all turns to damp grey sand and overcast skies.
It's funny, because this our first trip where we actually stopped in Capitola; we had driven through it in the past, but never stopped... but anyway, when we did drive through it, we felt that it somehow seemed like it belonged in SoCal. And yeah, Santa Cruz somehow does have a SoCal vibe about it, mixed in with redwoods. At least the beach part of Santa Cruz feels like SoCal.
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Old Posted Feb 25, 2020, 4:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Was Capitola supposed to be the state capital or something? Why have a name that so obviously implies something bigger?
According to Wikipedia, it's unclear where the name Capitola came from.

Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
You didn't mentioned when you switched to Santa Cruz, but I think I know when those pictures started.
I did, but I guess it's kind of vague because of the font and text size. I will bold it.
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Old Posted Mar 12, 2020, 5:48 AM
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Nice Capitola coverage! Avila Beach is very familiar to me, I lived nearby in San Luis Obispo in ye olden days.
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