Today was a nostalgic day … going back to places of my youth. Just about every summer I came to Santa Cruz for a week or two from when I was a baby, through my 19th birthday, and then intermittently after that. It was a church camp, similar to the Daybreak Camp my cousin and his wife operate, which brought me here…today I was going to show Marcia some of this area. So we get in the car, drive about a dozen miles, and Marcia says, “Where is the camera?” Oops!!! I forget both cameras! So today’s pics are by our flip phones…so the quality will be poor, but it is what it is.
We did not walk the boardwalk…but we did drive it. This is the Big Dipper, one of the last of the good old wooden rollercoasters. Been on this thing many, many times. The summer of 1974 I spent 10 weeks volunteering at the camp, and had a car, and probably went down to the boardwalk a couple of times each week. On one of these occasions, with some friends and relatives, we got a “ride all the rides you want” wrist band, and we were standing in the long line to ride the coaster for probably the third time that night. Two young boys slipped in front of us. We allowed them to stay under the condition that they kept their hands in the air the entire ride…which is something we all did because it was more fun that way. Although they agreed….they didn’t make it up the first hill, let alone the bottom of that hill. I was right behind them, telling them to raise their hands. One boy started to…got about half way up, then right back to the bar again they went. Of course, at the end of the ride they ‘tried’ to say they kept them up the entire ride…
Been on this beach by the boardwalk many a times too…although our favorite beach was Seacliff State Beach further to the south. Give it another 4 weeks, and this beach this time of day will be packed. Today, hardly a soul.
We headed north along the coast on West Cliff Road, and got this shot looking back to the boardwalk. The calm before the storm…soon there really will be thousands of people along this area…
We just love the trees along the coast…wind swept…sometimes alone…
Continued to Natural Bridges State Park, where they have a free 20 minute parking area. Been out along the waterline here too, and that rock really has a hole in it, hence the name, Natural Bridge. We continued up along the coast on highway 1 another 8 miles, turned on Bonny Doon Road, which turned into Pine Flat Road at the community of Bonny Doon, and then onto Ice Cream Grade road for 3 miles of very narrow, very tree shaded, very quiet country road. Another 4 miles on the Felton-Empire Road, and soon we were back to Daybreak Camp. Took us about 3 hours in total, dogs went with us, cameras stayed at home…sorry about that.
More about the Daybreak Camp
Above is a picture I took of an aerial picture cousin Rich has in his office. The white markers are the boundaries, the white line down the middle show the original property to the left, and the newly acquired property they bought about 8 years ago to the right. The RED is what I added. The number 1 is the horse pasture we entered through locked gates, number 2 is about where we have the motorhome, and number 3 is the old, decrepit bridge. The big circle is the area where most of the Redwood Trees, especially the old growth trees, are located on the property, although young trees are scattered here and there throughout.
Rich and Marci live in this house, which includes an office and a garage under the living area. There is a upper entrance to the left from higher ground, so one does not have to climb steps to get into the residence.
I showed a picture of a cabin two blogs ago…that was an adult cabin, and the inside is the upper left picture above. The “kids” cabins are nestled along the Redwoods, and they are long and narrow. Upper right is the inside of one, bottom picture is an outside picture of one…they are all pretty much alike in size and shape.
The Redwoods are just so wonderful and peaceful. There are trails, and Rich took me on what they call the “Prayer Trail” in a Kawasaki Mule…yea, would have never made it walking.
Dispersed along the trail are benches, with names of the people they are dedicated to…along with a cross. Gives one time to stop, meditate, pray, and move on to the next bench…which is a welcome sight since the trail is a bit steep in places.
He stopped the “mule” along the trail leading up where I got this picture of the swimming pool, and if you look beyond the pool and a wee-bit to the right, you can see our motorhome in the far distance.
Of course, any good camp has to have a good kitchen. Cooking for upwards of 250-290 people for some of these camps is a huge ordeal. And here is the catch…all the staff working the camps are volunteers, including the kitchen staff. Outside of the four camps that Daybreak sponsors themselves, all the other campers have to furnish their own volunteers, including the kitchen staff, all of whom have to certified by a health department as fit to work around food. I asked Rich how he keeps the kitchen so clean with so many different folks passing through. He says that he tells them that the previous camp (he names them by name) cleaned up the kitchen for them, and they need to leave it clean for the next camp (he names them by name) who will be told that YOUR CAMP (naming them by name) left it this way for them. It seems to work!
Tomorrow we head out for Mariposa…frankly, I could stay here a number of weeks, it is so quiet…except for that bridge every time a vehicle passes over it.
Note: When they get the bridge fixed, they will have to move the RV area out to just into the new property...they plan to have full hookups, which will be nice for those who bring an RV to one of the many camps which are held here.
