Summer 2018 Road Trip - Day 6

July 4th - Independence Day!

Got our day started early. After breakfast at Linda's Seabreeze Cafe we drove straight to the Boardwalk. Riley loves roller coasters and fast rides. He's such a thrill seeker, has been ever since he was a little boy. Good thing Jacob goes on rides with him and makes sure he's safe.
I love the look on his little face!

Maybe one day I'll feel brave and ride on the Sky Glider ... but until then I'll admire them from down below.

As you can imagine, the Boardwalk was super crowded on this 4th of July. The day started out cloudy and chilly but by 3:00 pm the sun broke through the clouds and it began to warm up. Jacob and Riley got on several more rides then it was time to leave.

For lunch we stopped at Gayle's Bakery and Rosticceria in Capitola, which is a short twelve minutes away from the Boardwalk. They have a large array of foods. There's a Grab & Go case filled with a variety of soups, dips, sandwiches, complete dinners, salads, etc or you can choose to eat in and enjoy a sandwich, soup or a hot entree which we got but bummed that I didn't take a picture of it to share on here. It was so very good!
I loved the fact that they had the place decorated very patriotic, as it should be! We all should show our patriotism ESPECIALLY on Independence Day!

Their tables caught my eye because of the mosaic of broken plate pieces on them. I thought it was a pretty unique, creative and an interesting touch to the restaurant's decor.

After lunch we went for a stroll at Capitola Village. Stopped by at Surf n Shack to buy several bumper stickers. Cool stuff in there.

And then made our way to get ice cream at Souza's.

The vibe in Capitola is slow paced ... definitely less adolescents, some young families but a lot more of the 30-40 year range couples.

After we left Capitola we went back to our hotel to freshen up and rest for a bit. You would think that Santa Cruz would have the fireworks show at the beach but it's not. The fireworks show is held at Skypark in Scotts Valley which is only eleven minutes away from Santa Cruz.

We brought our own snacks since Riley already had enough junk food. Jacob introduced him to adding peanut butter on his banana with a few chocolate chips. He loved it!

We lucked out on where we parked. We backed up the rental and opened the van's back door and sat inside during the fireworks show while Riley watched from a few feet away.

We were surprised the fireworks show was pretty good. The grand finale was awesome!

I'm thankful to be living in such a great country. I thank God and our forefathers especially Benjamin Franklin who was part of the five member committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independence,  in which the 13 American colonies declared their freedom from British rule.

E PLURIBUS UNUM

"E Pluribus Unum" is a Latin phrase that is best translated as, "Out of many, one." These words, as they relate to the United States, have particularly great symbolism when taking into account the fact that the motto was proposed on July 4, 1776 as the theme of the seal for the United States.