Back from the beach

After going out for Mongolian BBQ last night, I got insanely sick and passed out well before 10 p.m. Which, I guess was good for today since we wanted to leave for the beach by 8 a.m. When I woke up my stomach still felt a little funky, but I took a shower and had a bland breakfast of egg whites and whole wheat toast and just like that -- all better!!

We finally left the house around 8:30 this morning and headed south to Santa Cruz!

I hadn't been to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk since I was a little kid. And man, it's changed a lot since the last time I went there with my parents. Well, not really, but it felt so small and hokey. I guess things lose their charm when you're not eight, or aren't with eight year olds. Since it was packed and not my scene we left for lunch and off to find a more grown-up beach.

See what I mean??

On the way to Capitola we made one final stop in Santa Cruz: Saturn Cafe! This is a crazy, hippie joint my dad took my family to when my sister and I were probably in middle school. He didn't have any clue this was a vegetarian diner, so it was odd the first time. Knowing what we were getting ourselves into this time, J.D. and I decided to split some appetizers in order to have more filling food at the beach in Capitola -- DUH, they have the original Pizza My Heart in Capitola!!! However, the half-sized appetizers ended up being a super filling lunch. Have no fear, dear readers, I saved a little room for some goodies at Capitola ;)

It's Santa Cruz, what'd you expect?!

After a lunch of nachos and garlic fries -- so healthy, I know -- we left for Capitola looking to get the ridiculously over-the-top garlic taste out of our mouths.

After we circled around Capitola for a good 20 minutes in search of parking, we made off with a free spot luckily and then reached the beach to see this:

All the streets were closed down for a custom car show! It was actually pretty neat and we got to see some beautifully-restored vehicles. But just 10 minutes in the 90-degree heat was too much. We had to stop for refreshments, STAT. Now let me say that Capitola is MUCH more to my liking than the boardwalk at Santa Cruz. In Capitola, the streets are dedicated to window shopping, a restaurant/bar row and a much less crowded beach -- though not today -- surrounded by breath-taking cliffs and hills along the coastline. So after a special treat, we set off to do some window shopping and more car browsing.

Mint 'n' chocolate chip is one of my FAVORITE flavors! This ice cream and yogurt shop is only a few square feet long, but the line is ALWAYS out the door. They hand-make waffle cones right in front of you and seriously, you can smell it BLOCKS away. So mouth-watering. I was a good girl and opted for a small cup instead. Partially because I was still grotesquely full from our "lunch."

Sadly, we couldn't stay at Capitola for more than about an hour since we had reservations for a 3:36 p.m. (yeah, weird time, Santa Cruz, remember??) tour at the Mystery Spot!

I can't really tell you too much about it, because then it wouldn't be a mystery! But I'll spoil the suspense with a few pictures. We didn't take too many photos because it was super difficult to walk around and I actually got fairly nauseous, which can be typical for some visitors. But I promise, these are NOT exaggerated stances, a weird gravitational force within a 10' radius causes everything to lean 17° in the cabin! Mysterious, right?!

It really was fun and worth the $6 we paid for this silly tourist trap. But now I understand the mystery behind all the bumper stickers on the road: you get a free Mystery Spot bumper sticker on the final stop of the tour! Score!! With that, we headed back home. About halfway there we decided to stop at a salad bar for some dinner.

I loaded up my plate with veggies and topped it with their seasonal strawberry balsamic vinaigrette. Then I made another trip back to the buffet line for some French onion soup and closed out the meal with a little bit of vanilla yogurt!

In all, I had a great near 12-hour day! And now we're thinking about jumping into the spa for a little bit. Enjoy your Sundays! I'm not bummed out in the least by Monday almost being here, because we leave for a week-long tour of the Midwest -- it'll be my first time in that part of the country -- to play tourists and also work the COLLEGE WORLD SERIES!

What are your summer plans??