Tag Archives: Capitola

Hello from New Brighton State Beach

Posted in California, camping, cooking, travel, Walking by

We’ve been here since Sunday and it’s very nice. Our drive down went well trailering and going thru SanJose. I’m sure that being Sunday makes a difference. We found a Costco in Tracy to get gas so that saved us quite a bit on gas.

A lovely spot but I think I still like 62 and 63 better. if you’re lucky you are on the bluff side overlooking the ocean. Some of the spots weren’t even occupied but the website says everything is sold out. Go figure. Still new Brighton is a nice campground.

We did a nice beach walk yesterday

The weather is warming up and I suspect the campground will be fuller by Friday. Yesterday when I walked around half the spots were empty.

We’ve had great food so far, a Staub dinner of stuffed peppers and sauce, burgers on the Weber, and a quesadilla night. Tonight is another BBQ with some chicken for me and tofu for B. I have some potato salad I bought to have with that. We also stopped at Gayles which is a must in Capitola.

My daughter says the kitties are fine and all is good at home although it has been quite cold. Did I mention last week we lost a chicken to either a fox or coyote. We think a fox because we never heard anything. B lets them out to free range and generally they stay together and don’t go to far. But clearly one of them did. It’s always a little sad to lose one of the girls.

Today we’re taking a drive to see some Redwoods so that’ll be nice and then a beach walk later.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, books, bread, budgets, California, camping, cooking, library, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

It’s been an okay frugal week. Nothing great but just ok. Most of our big bills for the month are out and just a few more are scattered later in the month.

I had a good swim on Tuesday and the pool was very unbusy which is very unusual. I came straight home afterward. Then Thursday B and I decided to do Winco for a few camping things and at the last minute added in Costco for some camping food as well. I needed Raos to bring and Costco has the best price for the 2 pack. I also got some WW bread for sandwiches. I spent about $175 between the two stores. We also filled up the truck with Costco gas which is the cheapest around. We’re definitely looking at traveling with gas prices. Next week, going to Capitola shouldn’t be more than 2 tanks of gas and the same with Nevada Beach in June. But we’re definitely reconsidering Refugio because that is much farther away. For now, we’ll keep the reservation but still think about it. Then I went to library and got a nice selection of books. Oh, and then we had a lunch date at Celestino’s pizza, which is the best New York pizza around in my opinion.

I went to the nursery with my daughter and bought all our tomato and pepper plants and a few ornamentals for her back garden area. That was her birthday present. We were trying to get a birdbath for her but they didn’t have any affordable ones. The cheapest they had was $110. The last time we were there they had a nice one for $80. I guess we should have bought it then.

I had my labs this morning so I should get results next week. Fingers crossed. I’ve been having some pain in my right leg but I think I over-stretched it doing some yoga. It was better this morning but then the ache comes back ( kind of in the hip and upper thigh area) by afternoon. It’s always something.

After we’re back our next big expense will be having the septic pumped. We’ll call once we’re back. As far as expenses for Capitola, it’ll be a few stops at Gayles bakery and probably one grocery store shop. We generally do not eat out but I thought maybe we’d find some place for a lunch near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We’ll see. I know we’ll go walk the beach trail so that might be a good day to do that.

Oh, the tree guys came and ground out the stump so now there’s no issue with going out or coming in with Rubi. Yay! He didn’t charge us which was really nice.

Friday Things and back from Capitola!

Posted in Blood test, California, camping, cooking, travel, Uncategorized by

We had a great trip to New Brighton State Beach.

The weather was picture perfect too. Lots of sun and temperatures in the high 60’s and low 70’s.

The ride down took about 4 hours and the only real traffic was near Los Gatos going over Hwy 17.

We thought it an accident but turned out just tons of people going to Santa Cruz. All in all a nice drive down. We got there and set up in out spot.

We did both realize that we really are going to have to get a new/used trailer as this one has seen better days. But we do still love it and it has taken us lots of places. At New Brighton, there are showers and bathrooms so a tent trailer works fine.

The view from the upper cliffs in the campground.

We had lots of good food. The first night was beans, macaroni salad and hot dogs. The next night we had BBQ chicken/tofu, twice baked potatoes from Gayles and salad. We had a pizza night order but it was terrible. Do NOT go to Village Pizza in Capitola. The last night we had bean tacos with trimmings. A lodge dinner would have been fun but I hadn’t really planned it out.

Another view from the bluffs.

Tuesday we drove over to Santa Cruz and walked the lighthouse trail.

This where the surfers go in the water to catch waves.

Nope, not a surfer:)

Gayles was great and I bought a bunch of treats to bring home including a loaf of their Capitola Sourdough sandwich bread. Delicious.

Today is my last shot of this round. Velcade Round 4, shot 3. I plan on putting together a falafel dinner so my son can cook that up later. I’ll take Dex after lunch.

The weekend will be low profile as I’ll be out of it tomorrow. Sunday I’ll do my Flylady chores.

A change of plans…

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We headed down to Sacramento at 8:15 am to get to my 9:20 am doctor appt. Traffic moved along well with only a few slowdowns.  We got there around 9:15.

Walked in and the receptionist, who is always very sweet, said “oh Christina, we tried calling but your voicemail was full. ”  Dr. Laptalo is sick today.  Well, okey dokey and off we went after rescheduling. Since my labs came back great again, I wasn’t too concerned about seeing him.  My Kappa light chains went up to 14.1 and lambda went down to 11.4 and the ratio was at 1.26. So that went up too.  But still all in the normal range so I’m a happy camper.

Speaking of camping we are booked for New Brighton next week but now the rain is showing up on Wednesday too.  So I think we’re still going to go but will leave a day early.  Sunday looks ok, Monday shows rain, Tuesday sunny, Wednesday rain.  I guess we will just have to see when we get there. Especially if it’s chilly. The tent trailer does have a heater but I don’t think it’ll be that much fun just sitting in the tent trailer.

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the beach at New Brighton looking toward Capitola Wharf.

 

 

Back from New Brighton State Beach

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We had a great time. Our spot was level and out of the way. We didn’t have an ocean view but could walk to the overlook and see. Our next time here we do have a premium spot( has an ocean view). These are really hard to book. It looked RV city over on that side. Of course, there were the monster children whose parents think that camping is an excuse for their kids to run wild.

We spent time down at the beach walking and of course, B and I walked every am. Although not getting up at 6am.IMG_0670.jpgWe went to the store 2 x and the big hit was going to the Santa Cruz Farmers market. That was fun.

Plus we hit up Gayle’s for rye bread and a few sweets. If you’re ever in Capitola, do not miss Gayle’s . It is absolutely wonderful food and a great bakery.

It took us 4 hours to get home. WE had light traffic thru San Jose and Stockton and even Sacramento.