Spent a lovely day in Santa Cruz with one of my sisters. We started, as usual, parking up by the lighthouse on West Cliff Drive and then walking to the wharf at the Boardwalk and dining at Stagnaros. I enjoyed a lovely plate of fried calamari while my sister dined on shrimp louie. And there was wine to be had, of course. That done, we moseyed on over to Marinis for salt water taffy and then walked back to the car. For those of you not familiar with the area, it’s about a mile one way, so I think we earned our meal… It was early so we decided to drive downtown and wander around. I remember bringing Mandy here when she was a baby and it was called Pacific Garden Mall and was a most fascinating place to wander about. Much has changed since the Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Mall and broke so many hearts, but it has come back with much of the beauty and heart that is the Santa Cruz that I love. We started at the south end of Pacific Avenue, finding a place to park, and we walked north. We were actually looking for some place to have some dessert, but we had fun looking in the stores, window shopping for the most part. And then we found it… I vaguely remember seeing it before when I wandered through, but had never stopped until today and it was my sister who pointed it out to me when she saw the word dessert on a sign by the entrance. Chocolate, the Restaurant. Why I have not tried this place before, I cannot answer. Today, though, I did try it, only for dessert, but I know that Chocolate, the Restaurant and I will meet again. In honor of this inaugural occasion, I thought this song would be appropriate.
All Things Elda 