Rio del Mar Beach Bungalow

You might wonder why a weekend getaway to the Santa Cruz area would appear in a blog entitled, "This is Why Merced", but one of the very cool things about Merced's location for us Minnesota natives unfamiliar with California is its proximity to so many great places to visit. It's been said that Merced is in the middle of nowhere, but a 2-hour drive from everywhere, and that adage seems to hold true. In just over two hours on a recent Friday morning, Sean and the huskies and I made it to the coast for a 4-day beach getaway to celebrate Sean's 40th birthday. We rented The Surf House from some wonderful people who welcomed us and the dogs into their beautiful rental near a dog-friendly beach. They thought of all the details, including a well-stocked kitchen, plenty of beach towels, chairs, and umbrellas, and a comfy, clean restored house that felt like home for 4 days.
 

The view from the front window of our rental. Rio del Mar State Beach was right across the street and down a few steps.

Kodi got a little tired walking in the sand so he got a lift from Sean back up the hill to The Surf House.

Friday's weather was a little cloudy, but still quite nice. There were some fantastic sandwiches to be found right around the corner from our rental home at the Pixie Deli and we almost had the place to ourselves because it was a Friday afternoon. With our bellies full, we checked out the beach with Ili (including the SS Palo Alto), grabbed some snacks at the grocery store in Aptos, relaxed with books, and ate a delicious seafood dinner just steps from our rental at Cafe Rio, which was recommended by a colleague who used to work at UC Santa Cruz.

The old cement ship, SS Palo Alto.

Saturday was gorgeous and sunny and we started the day with strawberry/Nutella crepes at Sweet Pea's Cafe in Capitola. Then we walked down to the water to check out the surfers. Afterward we headed back to the house to pack up the huskies and supplies for a morning at the beach.

Waiting for the right wave.

Our beach set-up for the morning. Umbrella shade for the huskies.

Great waves!

The life of a California pup.

The boys, napping at the beach.

After the beach we let the huskies rest at home while we headed to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and hiked the Redwood Grove loop. These trees are not quite as big at the sequoias in Yosemite, but they were impressive nonetheless.  After the park we drove through UC Santa Cruz's beautiful campus and headed downtown for some delicious homemade ginger pear ice cream at the Penny Ice Creamery. Dinner brought us to Cafe Cruz in Soquel, where the food was good and the atmosphere was even better as we were seated outside on the patio next to the fireplace. It was so refreshing to be chilly out of doors after so many months of high temperatures in the 90s!

Giant redwood tree

On Sunday we tried Belgian waffles at The Hole in the Wall Cafe in Aptos (not so great) and enjoyed more time at the beach with my friend Anna and her family. Anna has a similar job to mine at UC Santa Cruz so we work together on UC-wide projects. She and her husband are originally from Siberia, so she's one of the only people I have met since moving to California who, when hearing I'm from Minnesota, didn't say, "Oh, I heard it's really cold there." The three year old twins had a great time searching the beach for treasures, including the carcass of a duck.

Sean helping Kodi walk on the beach, and Daniel and Nina helping each other.

Party at the beach!

We couldn't resist another great California club sandwich at Pixie's for lunch. Afterward our friends headed home for 2:00 nap time and Sean and I headed to the Santa Cruz wharf.

Sea lions resting below the wharf restaurants. Viewing platforms are provided for human gawkers.

We headed back to the beach house in plenty of time to bring the huskies to the beach to view our final sunset. The house and Rio del Mar beach are perfectly positioned to view the sunset over Capitola and each night was a different, beautiful show. The first night was cloudy and very pink. The second night was clear and bright. The final night was the most beautiful of all with shades of pink and orange and lavender off in the distance.

Pointed west and waiting for the show to begin.

Ili's dramatic sunset pose.

Best show in town!

But the show kept getting better.

Monday morning brought us back to Sweet Pea's in Capitola for those delicious crepes with a stop at Whole Foods for some seafood and other goodies to take home to the valley. The fog rolled in, so we decided it was time for us to roll out. What a fabulous visit to the coast!

Foggy view from The Surf House on Monday morning.

San Marzano Tomatoes

Given the  Mediterranean-like climate of California, it's no surprise that Italians settled in the state and, thankfully, some of them chose to live and farm in the San Joaquin Valley. There are many kind farmers at the Merced Farmers' Market, and much delicious produce. One of my favorite stands is that of Marchini Farms. Their sweet corn is always delicious; the mini bell peppers they sell on Wednesday mornings are amazing; and their San Marzano tomatoes will help me stock the freezer with summer bounty in anticipation of colder days.

I am a big fan of The Splendid Table on NPR (it doesn't hurt that Lynne Rossetto Kasper works at MPR in St. Paul) and listen to the podcast each week. Often I bookmark interesting recipes and the oven candied summer tomato recipe is a favorite. I made it often in Minnesota with tomatoes from the St. Paul Farmers' Market. Tasting those sweet summer tomatoes in the middle of winter was a special treat. I decided to try it with the San Marzanos from Marchini Farms this year.

The recipe begins with slicing the tomatoes in half.

These tomatoes were pretty big, so I cut them in half again.

They're done with some are browned on the edges.

Sort of disappointing that all those tomatoes yielded only 3 small jars of roasted tomatoes, but they will be such a treat during the dreary, rainy days of "winter" in the San Joaquin Valley.