Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

After our destination wedding in Los Gatos, we took a drive down to Santa Cruz yesterday to walk along the beach and on the 101-year old boardwalk. Which, by the way, was voted the worlds best seaside amusement park in the world in 2007. I'm not actually sure who voted on this but I did see a sign.

Most important for this trip was a spin on the historic Giant Dipper, first opened in 1924. We scored the first car on the old rickety wooden coaster. What it lacks in huge drops and lightening speed, it made up for in out-of-your-seat bumps and scary jerky turns. Check out stella clenching her teeth as we take one of the crazy shakey turns. I almost lost my camera on this one. This is the type of coaster where you're not sure if the train is going to stay on the tracks or not. Great fun.

We also took the sky ride which ran along the beach and provided cool views of all the rides and the boardwalk. Stella took this photo of me which I think would be perfect for a jacket photo if I were to ever compile all these amusement/carnival photos I take and put out a book or something. The day ended with a nice sunset. This was our last day in California and it was a fitting end to a really nice trip.

Ben White carnival

Here are three new ones in the on-going parking lot carnival series. These are from the carnival that has been happening for the past week or so on Ben White. My dream day would most certainly involve photography and rides. -brian