Santa Cruz and Highway 1

Yesterday Ngoc and I took a drive down to Santa Cruz. We found our way into downtown, wandered around a bit, then went to find our way to the boardwalk. That took us a couple tries, but we finally did (all this was with no map mind you, just my sense of direction based on the Sun's position in the sky). We paid $10 to park, and walked into the boardwalk. Its pretty much just the way it was when we were last there; for Ngoc about 10 years ago, and probably similar for me. We walked all the way up, and Ngoc wanted to go find out what was on this wharf we saw sticking out a ways up the beach. We strolled on through the teeming mass of boardwalk-goers and up to the wharf, we went out on the wharf and got as far as a seafood restaurant, and went in and had some food. I had a "Fisherman's Plate", which consisted of a wealth of deep-fried seafood (scallops, calamari and such), and a carrot. Just one carrot though, they obviously didn't want to over do the vegetables there. Ngoc had a bread bowl of clam chowder, which tasted more like celery chowder than clam chowder. Maybe that's where all my vegetables went. We got gelato afterwards, which was a bit more melty than the gelato I'm used to, but it was good. Mine had coffee grounds in it. Yum.
We strolled back to the boardwalk, watching and looking at the people going on the silly rides. My favorite rides to watch were the ones that are just a big tall pillar with chairs attached. The chairs go up and down, and the people scream. You wait in line for 20 minutes or so for a 30-45 second ride; where all you do is go up and down. Odd form of entertainment that.
After soaking in all the boardwalk atmosphere, we headed home, and decided to find our way home via Highway 1 instead of 17. We got some pretty breathtaking views of the ocean, and at that time of day (about 8 PM or so), the fog was rolling in (or had rolled in, depending on how thick you consider it). It was beautiful; the slow rolling coastal cliffs and the highway winding its way along them, with the pure raw Pacific ocean crashing into the cliff bases, and the smells of fresh salt sea water. Neither of us were exactly sure where we were going, but I reasoned that north was good. I knew if all else fails, we'd end up in San Francisco. Turns out, as we pulled in to a place called Half Moon Bay, we'd both been there before (on separate occasions) and I knew how to get home (take route 92 east). We headed east on 92, only to find ourselves in thicker fog as we snaked along through the California coastal mountains. Suddenly, the fog vanished, and we found ourselves at 280, and took it south back into civilization. California is a beautiful state, as long as you get away from the stink-holes like San Jose. Its amazing that a place like Half Moon Bay exists so close to a place like San Jose. Now if only we could do something about this god-awful hot weather.