Today we went to Santa Cruz. By we I mean my dad, brother, sister and I, mostly to celebrate my brother's birthday. By Santa Cruz I really mean the Boardwalk, as the rest of Santa Cruz is not remarklable enough to actually drive there to see. It was a nice, sunny day, sure to have lots of people, and there were.

We first stopped at 99 Ranch to get some food to eat on the road. I suppose that 99 Ranch is quite popular in Southern California and spreading to this area. It's sort of an Oriental Super Market as the main store, but with other stores for restaurants and shops, like an indoor strip mall. I kept saying that I wasn't hungry so I didn't eat anything. I was also wasn't thirsty. Kind of annoying when dad keeps asking me if I'm hungry or thirsty.

We parked a bit farther out than I went there last time with Dave. Of course that was a weekday so there weren't that many people there. This time when we got to the Boardwalk it was filled with people. Going from point A to point B required twisting and turning through the crowd of people walking, talking, and eating.

The beach was nice and somewhat crowded. Funny thing is that I didn't dress for the beach, so I had my dress shoes and pants. I didn't stay on the beach long, although my dad and sister set up their blankets there, so my brother and I kept walking back and forth across the beach. We'd go play for an hour then come back to check on them. At the end of the day though, I had no sand in my shoes (I must have had some, but I didn't notice any when I upended my shoes).

Chris and I went to the main arcade. After ten minutes of looking for a game to play he finally settled on Dungeons and Dragons. Very much like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the X-Men, and several other games where you have a sideways view with a bit of an angle for depth of field. The only real problem with this setup is that it's hard to line up the bad guy so you can hit them. Anyway we played for half an hour, to the point where I was just starting to get the hang of using the special equipment and powers.

Later I went by myself to another arcade. Old games. Classic Games. Gorf, Galaxian, Ms PacMan, Bezerk, Pole Position, Donkey Kong, and some other games that I've played mostly on various computers. I tried Pole Position II which I was ok at, but the pedal didn't work well. Everything but the oldest games take two tokens to start, one to continue.

Later still Chris and I played minature golf at Neptune's (something). An ok 18 hole course, mostly par 2 with some par 3. Lots of people though, so we had to wait five minutes per hole as the groups in front of us took their turns. After nine holes I was only at 5 over par and 2 back from Chris, but in the back 9 I really had some bad holes and ended up 14 over par to Chris' 4 over par.

By then we had been there some four or five hours, so we headed home. We stopped in Oakland's China Town to eat there. A nice restaurant and good food. Not enough rice for my tastes. Looked like most of the restaurant was reserved for a party and people started arriving as we were finishing. So when it comes time to tip (I'm paying) dad wants me to keep it at less than 10% This is a spot that Steph frequents so she didn't like that, and neither did I. Surprising that he apparently agrees with my mom's inclination, though he never says anything when I argue with mom about tipping. Anyway, he left first so I added some more money to bring the tip up to something reasonable.

So that was pretty much the day for me. I think having dad there changed plans significantly. We didn't stay as long and I wanted to eat dinner at the pier restaurant that Dave and I ate at when we were in Santa Cruz. Still, it was fun and Chris had fun too.