Last weekend a small crew of gals and I made our way north to Capitola. What a quaint and lovely little beach town! The reasons for the trip were... to decompress from the city, get some Gal-time, and run Wharf to Wharf. W2W starts in Santa Cruz and ends in Capitola. They call it "The Best little Road Race in California" and it sells out at 15,000 participants (which is a really large field for a race only covering 6mi).
The drive up is just beautiful and our whether has been clear and HOT here on the west-coast. There was a ton of traffic in both directions, making our journey about an hour longer coming and going. On the way back to LA on Sunday, the temperature gauge read 118 as we passed Paso Robles. (yikes!). The photos above is of Capitola's downdown beach area. 
While in Capitola we visited ... Margaritaville (mediocre margies / food), Paradise Beach Grille (amazing food at very reasonable prices), and we discovered a new little wine bar called Cava, where we listened to great tunes and enjoyed flights (sample tastes of 4 bottles, photo above) of our fav grape creations while getting to know the owners Cliff and Zach. 
Wharf to Wharf is a 6 mile event, soooo, Ali and I selected to leave the hotel in Capitola and run to the start, then run back w/the race. I suspect we covered 14 miles that day, all-told. Mel played bus driver, taking Amber & Lisa to the race-start (thanks Mel!), and then she headed back to our hotel for a little R&R by the pool. (pic above, Lisa, me, Ali, Melissa & Amber)In summary >> this weekend ROCKED. Great gal bonding. Can't wait for W2W '07 (this is one to put on the calendar). Capitola is delightful.
http://www.wharftowharf.com
http://www.cavacapitola.com
