My family and I had recently visited Santa Cruz. It was prior to the second shut down of most businesses; the little bit of normalization felt so nice. We drove up with the thought of hanging out for the night, but ended up staying two nights. This was the first day that the Boardwalk opened up to the public so you can imagine how fast the Hotels and Motels booked up and can guess how much their rates were for per night. Calling around numerous Motels and Hotels, it seemed impossible to get a room. We got lucky and landed a room at the Aqua Breeze Inn. Aqua Breeze Inn is actually right across the street from the Boardwalk’s parking lot, which was pretty convenient. This Hotel is fairly simple and small and didn’t have a pool, but we snagged it because we were all out of options and it was somewhere to sleep for the night.

On the way up to Santa Cruz, we stopped off at Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed dinner there at the Tracy location. We have been craving a good steak and with the restaurants open to the public again, it was a long overdue visit. Texas Roadhouse is also a great choice of restaurants if you have children; it’s fairly loud and busy going so kids are less heard when it comes to them bickering and shouting.

The following morning we decided to stay another night. The kids needed a good getaway from the immense lock down and since we were already in town, what was another night. Once again we faced looking for another Hotel that would have vacancy. This time around, we really wanted somewhere with a pool for the kiddos. We got lucky and found that Hotel Solares had an available room that could accommodate our family. While killing time before checking into our room, we spent the afternoon down at the Boardwalk and the Pier. Even though the Boardwalk’s rides weren’t up and running, we visited the arcade, the candy shop, had lunch on the Pier and stopped into shop around the few shops that were open to the public. After a good time spent walking around, we went down to the beach and had fun playing in the ocean and in the sand.

Once we all got our beach fix in, we were able to check into our Hotel room. We were all due for a good shower after playing in the sand so it was a good thing that the check in time was available to us. Once we were all showered and ready to go again, we made our way down to Pacific Avenue to eat dinner. Not very many stores were open here on Pacific Avenue, but luckily where we wanted to eat was open, Pizza My Heart!!! It was so uncomfortable and strange walking around the streets with all of us, among the rest of the others, wearing face masks. It’s still just so unbelievable that we are where we are today, meaning the Covid-19. Let’s just say, it’s quite the adjustment! After ordering our pizza, salads, and drinks, we were able to sit indoors and take our masks off to eat. MMM…mmm, was the pizza delicious!! Because there just wasn’t much else open on Pacific Avenue, and truth be told, we were all kind of tired from hanging out at the beach, we headed back to the Hotel after dinner. Once we got back, the kiddos went for a swim before we settled in for the night.

 The next morning, we took our time packing and getting ready to head on back home. We decided to just get snacks for the road and eat brunch once we made it to our home town. Once we made it back into town, we stopped off at Perko’s and enjoyed another yummy meal. Even though there was some things that we had to dramatically get adjusted to, the trip was much overdue and as a family, we had a great time with each other. I’m hoping that we can all get back out soon and make another family trip. Although the world has taken a different direction, I would like to think that we can continue our fun filled and memorable getaways!!

As always, stay Pretty To The T!!!!