Feb 23

Feb 23 Santa Cruz, California

Every year we make it a point to visit my husband's side of the family in the Bay Area. It's a quick flight and the scenery is stunning. We love hanging out in beautiful Santa Cruz, set right along the northern edge of Monterey Bay.

One of the aunts loves to sail and has a couple of boats moored in the Santa Cruz harbor. She showed us her most recent acquisition -- a racing sailboat that she named Sea Biscuit. We didn't go sailing since there wasn't much wind. Walking around the marina and watching the other boats go by is nice.

Any visitor to the area will notice the emphasis on ocean habitat protection. The copy on one of the trash receptacles pictured below especially caught my attention.

These aunts that we're visiting with are also foodies, and as soon as they knew that we were coming, they immediately thought that they'd have to take us to a gastropub called West End Tap & Kitchen. We went and enjoyed a fantastic meal. I love popcorn, and this place took my favorite snack to a whole new level: duck fat popcorn!

Duck fat popcorn with lemon basil infused with fresh herbs

Locally foraged chanterelles was their appetizer special for the evening. Succulent!

Not pictures is Stuart's Parisian gnocchi. It's a vegetarian dish that he supplemented with these incredible duck meatballs.

And for my main that evening is their epic heritage pork shank. The unexpected enormity of this thing would be enough to make Fred Flintstones jealous. And to top it off, it is so tender that the meat just falls right off the bone. Mmm ...

Pork shank accompanied with some white grits with brie on a bed of braised red cabbage & apples.

By the time the server came to ask about dessert, we were certainly stuffed to the brim, so we declined. We also had to leave promptly because we had a choir concert to attend. One of the aunts is a long-time member of the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus, and it so happened that they were performing a selection of composer Morten Lauridsen's music that Saturday night that we were visiting. It was a great event, and we were glad to have been there to support our aunt!

So all of these happened only on our first day including our first time visiting our grandma in the new care facility she was moved into a couple of months ago in Aptos.

At the end of the day, we were pretty beat, but we were able to mix in family time and discover some of the great things that Santa Cruz has to offer.

Next post will be about our beautiful drive along the coast to Pescadero!