Santa Cruz

As a part of my San Francisco Bay hazards projects I was advised gy my supervisor to travel to the coastal city of Santa Cruz in mid coastal California.  This town is the stereotypical California beach town that I have always imagined that I would visit!  There were volleyball matches held on the golden beaches, while surfers rode the waves and the pier on the main beach is the home to a colony of California sea lions that have migrated north from Mexico.

Its situated on the northern edge of Monterey bay, 72 miles south of San Francisco and is well known for being a centre of liberal progressive activism.

I caught the caltrainat half seven in the morning to San Jose then switched to the Santa Cruz metro shuttle which took me directly from San Jose to Santa Cruz.  The ride was about an hour long but I was able to see a lot of wild forest areas and beautiful landscapes on the way there.

I made my way to the beach as soon as I got to Santa Cruz and walked up the pier and down the main beach and across the main beach and twin lakes beach, i also visited the Santa Cruz natural history museum and then made my way to central Santa Cruz.

Its disturbing to see the huge amount of cliff erosion here!  Some of these houses are just a metre away from falling in to the sea.  It only takes 1 tsunami, earthquake, or a big storm to carve huge chunks out of these cliffs.  This will definitely be one of the themes featuring in my presentation.

The main beach at Santa Cruz.  On the right is the arcade and amusement park and on the left is the pier.

The lighthouse on twin lakes beach

Santa Cruz pier

California Sea Lions basking in the sun at the side of the pier

See what I mean about cliff erosion!

A very small museum

The head of a north American Mastodon in the Santa Cruz natural history museum.

Santa Cruz central pictures.  Above is the town clock tower.

I then went for a lecture at the University of California Santa Cruz.  The subject was "the rise of Oxygen in the earths early ocean and atmosphere".   After this I then went back to the town centre and made my way home via the shuttle.