Chillin'

July temps are hitting as high as we've ever seen them, so the only thing on this week's summer to-do list was keep cool.  Luckily, we have multiple scenic ways to do this!  And a few even included Ella!

Yuck.

With our church staff starting to take off on their summer vacations, Dave found himself in another busy week, so he stayed cool in his office a/c.  Delia and I started with an outing to Pinecrest, where we enjoyed a 30 degree drop in temp (so in the 80's!), floating with the geese, reading in the hammock, a mini hike around about a quarter of the lake, and the stop for ice cream that a trip to the lake always requires because it just tastes better up here somehow!

Then we made the most of Ella's day off by ticking things off our Santa Cruz bucket list with her.  First was a stop at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.  She hikes through it with campers each Wednesday, but our family has never seen it, so Ella took us on a little hike.  Temps at the coast were still in the 80's, which is warm for this area, but again better than our 113!  And the shade of the trees did a lot.

We did 2 trails at this state park-- the redwood loop and the river path.  The trellis above is the one the Boardwalk train we rode each summer at MH goes across.

After a yummy lunch at a local café, we put on our waterproof hiking shoes and conquered our favorite Creek Hike.  This was more adventurous than I remembered, with multiple fallen trees to traverse.  Glad we had a professional Adventurer along to guide us! ;)

Ella spends every day enjoying the river from her birds eye view up on her course.  Fun to see it from so far below!  She's looking at level one here (the easiest and lowest to the ground).  We're scheduled to take a tour with her in about a week and a half!

Current, slippery rocks, intentional step choices, obstacles to climb over and around-- this hike is moderately challenging!  Happy to report all ankles remained untwisted and, though there were a few close calls, no one went in the water. 

 We ended by the waterfall, which I climbed in for the first time since I was wearing my bathing suit anyway.  It was FREEZING, but felt SO GOOD after the hard, hot hike.

Next, a hop in the Conference Center pool.

Late afternoon we went for a little drive along the super scenic Highway 1 through Santa Cruz to check out this new spot on the coast-- Shark Fin Cove!  A hike along the windy bluffs had us actually putting sweatshirts on and getting goosebumps!

Can you see the shark fin?  This was a super cool stop, for the scenery and the cold winds!

While driving on this side of Santa Cruz we passed the funky, all pink building that is Ferrell's Donuts.  Ella said all her friends love this place, so we had to stop in and try it!  

It took almost twice as long to get home as it normally does as every person with the same info on their home weather app as us bottlenecked the freeways to leave the cool coast, but we'll take traffic over heat!  Thank you, mountain lakes, shady redwood forests, bubbling creeks, icy waterfalls, the refreshing MH pool, and windy coastal bluffs for helping us survive this heat wave!