Post-Christmas Days in Monterey and Santa Cruz

We came down from Truckee for a couple of post-Christmas days on the coast. First night we walked Old Fisherman's Wharf after dark — icicle lights strung overhead, wreaths, a giant inflatable Grinch in a Santa suit — and got a family selfie under the Seasons Greetings sign, one of the girls still working on an ice cream.

The hotel room looked east over the tile roofs downtown, and the sun came up through the fog over the hills while the streets were still empty. Back at the wharf in daylight, the snowman and the Grinch were still standing guard over the tree, and someone had put Santa hats on the fishermen's monument statues by the water.

We walked Cannery Row past the aquarium, waves breaking against the pilings under the old cannery buildings, then drove up to Santa Cruz to see the boardwalk. The sky gliders were running over a nearly empty beach, red and yellow buckets drifting past the castle-fronted arcade. Not many people willing to sit in the sand at the end of December, apparently, but the funnel cake stand was open.