Last weekend we decided to take advantage of having a few days off from work and head south to Santa Cruz, California. We found this adorable bed and breakfast, and when we arrived there were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and many varieties of tea waiting for us. We arrived just in time for dinner, and decided to walk over to the pier and check out the restaurants there. We ate at Firefish Grill, and both of our dishes were great. They have nice views of the water too. The breakfast in the morning included freshly baked popovers and homemade jams. They were delicious! We drove over to Natural Bridge State Park to see the lonely natural bridge standing in the ocean and took a walk along the oceanside trail on West Cliff Drive.

Our next stop was Pinnacles National Park, America’s newest addition to it’s national parks. We were surprised that is was not very crowded, since all of the national parks were free on this day. The weather was beautiful and we hiked a really cool trail that went into a cave (yes, you need a flashlight!). The park reminded me of prehistoric times, and I felt like dinosaurs could be waiting for us at every turn.