Located almost half way to Santa Cruz south of San Francisco on Highway 1, Pescadero Marsh is a key rest stop along Pacific Flyway for thousands of migratory birds every year. The marsh is fed by two creeks, one of which flows 26miles all year long from a spring in Castle Rock State Park (1800 ft), and another which drains the Santa Cruz Mountains.
From the parking lot on the west side of Highway 1 take the trail north along the side of the highway to the beach. At the beach, make a u-turn left and walk under the bridge to the marsh trails. Go on a weekday if you can.
We got up early today for a little road trip down to Santa Cruz. After breakfast at the 3-Zero Cafe in Half Moon Bay (where, because I spent too much time consuming the news after Proposition 8 passed, I am always a little bit sad in the back of my mind because I know the vile Yes-on-8 people ate dinner there), we stopped in Pescadero to visit Harley Farms, a goat dairy with some petting opportunities.
The gardens are lovely too.
You can buy cheese, honey, olive oil,
or fresh eggs. Guy bought a dozen. We'll have chickens in the suburbs. Yes, yes, yes. I know people have chickens in the City too, but we do not have room in the current garden.
You can have dinner at Harley Farms. They serve it once a month, it costs $150, and reservations fill up a year in advance. They start taking reservations for 2012 this November. Alternatively, you can rent the dining room for ~$3k. Guy suggested that we do it for our 10th anniversary, since we eloped.
Looks like a fun place to dine.
In Santa Cruz, we visited the Arboretum. The garden has taken some big hits in the current economic climate, as gardens tend to do when things aren't going well.
If you live in the Bay Area, or if you ever come visit, won't you please make it a point to come here? Buy a plant or two, or put a few dollars in the iron ranger. Public gardens need your support now more than ever.
UCSC Arboretum has one of the largest public collections of Protaceae outside of South Africa and/or Australia. If you grow proteas, leucospermums, leucadendrons, or grevillea in your garden, or if you admire these beautiful, fascinating plants in other gardens, you have UC Santa Cruz to thank for that. They pioneered efforts to bring these plants in to our horticulture. Today, they had healthy 1-g pots of Banksia marginata, B. spinulosa, B. menziesii, B. baxteri, B. baueri, B. attenuata, and B. lemanniana for sale for $10 each!! I know I hardly ever see Banksia for sale anywhere, and I'll bet you don't either. Think about it.
I couldn't help doing some weeding around this little Mimetes cullatus.
There were a few Protea blooming today. Come Nov-Mar for the big show.
We did a quick drive through the UCSC campus. Lots of new construction since I was a student here, oh, back in the 1980s and 1990s...ahem. The campus' beauty and ardent conservation ethic makes any construction here incredibly problematic. Well, I think it all looked good.
This is Parrington House, my freshman dorm at Cowell College back in 1987.
The Cowell dining hall... oh, the memories!
Note: UCSC is made up of several small colleges to give students that small college feeling along with the benefits of a large research university. I was a Cowell student. There were 8 colleges when in my time, and I don't know how many there are now.
UCSC is a great place to walk. You won't find a lovelier redwood forest anywhere south of Humboldt County. Parking is easy on the weekend. Print out a map to bring with you.
Kresge 327 was one of my favorite classrooms. I had my first quarter of organic chemistry in there, and it changed my life.
Porter College...if these walls could talk. Do not climb the totem pole. That will get you expelled.
The Porter Wave, also called The Flying IUD, like anyone knows what an IUD is anymore.
As a garden-lover, the Porter koi pond is one of my favorite water features.
