Strawberry Picking + Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

After day 1 of Raging Waters, day 2 of cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge, we continued our adventures with Serena and Katherine on day 3 with strawberry picking and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

We invited my mother in law to join us for day 3’s activities, as I knew that being a gardener at heart she’d really appreciate the strawberry fields. We started out with lunch at one of Bridgette’s all time favorites–Sweet Tomatoes in San Jose, before we drove an hour over the hill to Watsonville’s Gizdich Ranch.

The girls really, really enjoyed the strawberry picking, and we were even able to pick some apples, blackberries, and raspberries too. Serena and Katherine sort of had a ‘contest’ between themselves to see whose bucket would end up with the best looking strawberries, while Bridgette enjoyed picking the strawberries and burying them straight inside her stomach!

After our successful berry picking hour, we headed to the famous Gizdich Ranch Pie Shop where we indulged in a strawberry shortcake, olallieberry pie, and apple pie a la mode. Yum!

Our next stop was the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, about 20 miles away from Gizdich Ranch. Being that it was the Fourth of July, traffic was a bit horrendous, and when we got there, we found ourselves amongst about a million other people there as well. There wasn’t much patriotic pride going on there, just people in bikinis and flip flops eager to soak in the sunshine on a very beautiful day.

The girls had a blast with all of the rides and greasy theme park food. Bridgette surprised me by asking to go into the Haunted Mansion! Just last month when we were at Disneyland, she had completely refused to even consider the Haunted Mansion there. Kids sure do change quickly! I tried to convince her to go with Alan, but she insisted on going with me, and challenged me by asking ‘Mommy, you’re not scared, are you?’

Luckily, the Haunted Mansion there proved to be more silly than scary, so we made it out just fine.

We ended the night with a delicious seafood meal by the wharf, and despite the fact that we didn’t make it back to Foster City in time for their fireworks, we were able to see a little bit of amateur firework by the Santa Cruz locals on the beach.

Happy Fourth of July!

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