This Saturday Gary & I took a day trip to Santa Cruz & Capitola beach to finish out my birthday celebrations.

I made sure to create some “beach waves” for our beach trip!

For some reason a 2 hour drive took us 3 hours of driving and a full hour of waiting for parking!  I seriously wanted to get out and scream….an hour to go one mile.

Once we parked and I calmed myself down, we headed straight for the Boardwalk and a huge corn dog!

This thing was ginormous!!

It has been at least 10 years since I have had a corn dog…I was pleasantly surprised, but I’m in no rush to have one again soon.

I know it was a Saturday, but DANG, it was busy!!  The Boardwalk was so packed that we could barely walk side by side.  So after a few pictures we ditched that and went for a nice stroll on the wharf.

Gary’s 1st time visiting the Boardwalk!

Getting a chocolate covered strawberry – it’s a tradition!

Walking back to the car we saw some awesome sand art!

We then headed to Capitola for some actual beach time!

My heart still skips a beat every time I look in his eyes!

Some nice girls offered to take our picture….framer!

After walking on the beach for an hour, we headed up the street to try Pizza My Heart for the first time.  We’ve heard great things about them, but there is no shop near the Central Valley.  Plus, I haven’t been able to eat pizza in a year unless I make the crust myself, so I was nervous.  Luckily, my stomach was fine the rest of the weekend.

We shared a slice of Hawaiian, a slice of chicken bacon and an amazing salad!

Unfortunately, Gary & I always seem to attract people who like to TALK!  While enjoying our meal, this guy at the counter started talking to us like we were longtime friends.

He was nice but I really didn’t care that he thought women who went to NASCAR races were hot.  LOL

Once we escaped, we walked through Capitola Village a bit before deciding to head home.

On the way, we picked up a single molten lava cake at Nob Hill/Raley’s and brought it across the street to enjoy with our Peet’s coffee.

I really needed this trip to the beach.  Last week was very stressful and taking a day to just get away from it all really prepared me mentally for this week {FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL}!!

Where do you go to get away from it all & relax?