Today we left Monterey after a nice stay at the Merritt House Hotel. We drove up to Santa Cruz and visited the Natural Bridges State Beach where we saw the natural bridge formations in the Pacific and some interesting patterns on the rocks. We then drove through Santa Cruz before going to Roaring Camp where we took a short (1.5 hour) train ride through an old-growth redwood forest. We then drove back to Vacaville and made a short stop in Pleasanton to get some excellent soft-serve ice cream at Meadowlark Dairy (sorry…didn’t take pictures there). We then got back in time to see the end of the Argentina/Cape Verde world cup match.

Natural Bridges State Beach

Interesting patterns on mudstone rocks at Natural Bridges

Roaring Camp entrance

Roaring Camp Train

Historical info about the telegraph

“Fairy ring” or “Family circle” of redwood trees – looking up

“Fairy ring” or “Family circle” of redwood trees – looking from the side

Cool statue in Pleasanton, CA