Santa Cruz Weekend

Another Cali getaway for Captain! Ok, this trip was more about his little sister than him, but we did take the whole family down the coast to the fun beach town of Santa Cruz. We actually spent the night up in the hills, which afforded amazing views of the ocean off in the distance. We stayed in the dog-friendly Chaminade resort, although I'm cheating a bit by saying that, because Captain spent the night with some of our friends who live in Santa Cruz (so we could avoid the pricey $75/night dog fee!) But never fear, we still took our "first baby" to a dog-friendly beach, and he joined us for brunch on the patio the next morning too. So, overall, we managed to keep BOTH nuggets happy on our first weekend away as a family of four!


Captain at brunch:

Our daughter was far more interested in Captain than the view:

I don't think Captain has a clue how transfixed she is by him... she absolutely loves watching him! Heart melted. :-)

Before dropping Captain with our friends for the night, we checked out a few beaches in the area. If I'm being 100% honest, aside from the views and the warm weather, I was not impressed. The dogs at the off-leash beach we went to, which was near a lighthouse, were not well behaved, and the owners were nowhere close to their dogs. NOT your typical Bay-Area experience (compared to say, Chrissy Field or Fort Funston, where you pretty much only run into very attentive, friendly owners and their happy, friendly dogs). In any case, Captain stayed close to our sides and enjoyed a few "back & forth" runs between Mommy (and baby) and Daddy.

Pretty views of the beach...

When we were at the hotel Sunday morning before our friends brought Captain back, walking around, I said to my husband I wished we had just spent the extra money and had Captain stay with us, because it just didn't feel like our family without him. It is just simply not the same without Captain :( Inevitably, "the dog" takes a bit of a backseat when you have a baby (and I put that in quotes because I never would have referred to Captain that way before having a child, and still rarely do)-  but I'm pretty proud to say we still place Captain's needs very high on our list. Besides that, he's just plain still my baby ;-)

So, the hotel was great for dogs, with trails around the resort and dog-friendly rooms, though the dog fee is higher than what we've experienced in most other places. You are also not allowed to have dogs in the pool area. In terms of Santa Cruz itself, I've heard the beach boardwalk is also not dog-friendly although we did not go there. Downtown Santa Cruz seemed pretty dog-friendly, with plenty of spots with outdoor seating, and tons of surf shops with people stopping to admire and pet your dog...well, when he's as ridiculously good-looking as Captain, that is ;-) Overall, this trip was more for the humans than for Captain (see our travel page for more on other spots, including some places we've enjoyed more for dog-friendly travel), but it was a nice quick getaway.

Happy trails & tails!