Santa Cruz Historic Districts
by Ewingjr98
Historic areas in Santa Cruz include Mission Hill, Ocean View Avenue, Beach Hill and Walnut Street. Mission Hill was not only the site of prehistoric Indian settlements in Santa Cruz, but it was also the first area settled by the Spanish Missionaries. Ocean View Avenue was opened in 1871 and included many many summer homes for those wealthy individual residing in San Jose and the Central Valley. Beach Hill overlooks the wharf and contains a variety of sea captains' cottages, bungalows and mansions.
The Walnut Street area is my favorite historic neighborhood. It features some 19 Victorian mansion along a short, two block stretch within easy walking distance of downtown. This stretch of residential street is narrow and completely overshadowed with huge trees that turn the street into a beautiful green cave. The historic houses along this street were built from 1870 to 1938.
Thomas Fogarty Winery
by karenincalifornia
If you take Skyline Drive between Half Moon Bay and Big Basin Redwoods State Park on your way to or from Santa Cruz, you will go past Thomas Fogarty Winery. It's worth a stop. The vineyards are pretty, the view of the South Bay and peninsula is astounding, and the wines are excellent. Thomas Fogarty does charge for tasting, like many of the Napa wineries, but you can choose the $6.00 tasting and still taste some excellent wines. There is no bad or cheap wine here. And $6.00 is still better than some of those Napa wineries, which are now starting to charge up to $20 for tastings.
To give you a perspective of where Thomas Fogarty is, it is high in the hills on the peninsula (still called Santa Cruz mountains for whatever reason) and has a Woodside address. To the east you can see the Stanford campus and Palo Alto. Beyond that, you'll see the Bay, and on the other side of the Bay in the distance will be Oakland.
Seafood on the Santa Cruz Pier
by atufft about Stagnaro Brothers
Stagnaro's operates an outdoor fresh seafood market, and will make a great crab on soughdough sandwich on the stop for you. This is typically what I do if the weather is comfortably warm as I'll walk my wrapped sandwich down to the place where the sea lions hang out. Inside, the restaurant has plenty of window tables and the staff are generally friendly and professional. For lunch, I recomend the crab sandwich with a cup of the clam chowder (either New England or Manhattan, depending on the mood). There's a full bar with wild drinks are really what are reasonable prices--about $4-. And, the wine list has been updated and is quite adequate. Moreover, for the kids, cranberry and hot apple cider are among the drinks listed. Needless to say, the variety of grilled and deep fried fish are quite extensive at this restaurant, and the prices won't kill you. There are also a few non-fish items, like a grilled hamburger, to satisfy children or adults who don't like fish. While eating in the restaurant is good on a cool day, a great way to go is to buy from the market outside and enjoy watching the water from the pier benches. In my world, a pile of fresh crab on authentic quality sour dough is about as good as it gets. I might squeeze a little lemon, but I don't put butter or tartar sauce on my crab. You do as you like though, and there are plenty of other fish items on the menu.
Shop Pacific Avenue
by trvlrtom
When I lived in Santa Cruz, the joke/complaint was that you could find anything from Tibetan bells and Peruvian caps downtown, but to find a pair of socks you had to leave town. Well, Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz surely does cater to visitors and has a wide variety of gift shops, botiques, book stores etc. It makes for an interesting stroll.
Worth a look is the Artisans Gallery (1368 Pacific Ave) for local artists' wares, Annie Glass (110 Cooper St) for quality custom items, and Bookshop Santa Cruz (1520 Pacific Ave) for books, cards, etc. There's plenty more here. Oh, for candy, salt water taffy etc. try Marini's, at 1308 Pacific Ave.
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Santa Cruz Beach Inn
Downtown Moss Landing, CA
fun lights for sale at a shop
Redwoods at Henry Cowell Park.
