OBB Weekly - 1-8-19

It's a new year and a lot of changes have occurred. My draft for the OBB Weekly post for December 18th was made the day before my beloved dog, Bevo, passed away. This post in a step in moving on and forward as it crushed me. A part of me will always be missing and searching for his love, heavy breathing and snoring. I have modified that posting and adapted it here for the first OBB Weekly post of the new year. At the time, we were house and cat sitting in the beachy town of Santa Cruz for friends vacationing in Mexico. From their social media posts, they look like they're having a blast. Bevo and I always enjoyed getting out of town. Learn what you can do in Santa Cruz County! Thanks to the VisitSantaCruz Twitter and Instagram accounts for love on my posts.

Not Santa Cruz but not too far off. Bevo's last trip to the beach. His favorite.

Travel

I have been coming to Santa Cruz County for ages. My dear cousin swam for the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz, friends and I have had beach days at Seabright and dinner dates on the pier took place with sightings of sea life below us. There is so much to do!

You can camp, hike, go to Roaring Camp for a private event and ride trains including meeting Thomas the Train. There are wineries, a downtown area where you can watch the Santa Cruz Warriors basketball team and visit Capitola where I send guests to see the beach house version of the colorful San Francisco Painted Ladies. Looking to learn how to surf? This is totally the spot.

What do you expect to do for a beach vacation?

View of the pier and the Beach Boardwalk from the Dream Inn.

Concierge

Now, no longer working a desk at the Argonaut Hotel as of Sunday, January 6th, I can still provide the same products I did as if I did. Hotel guests from all over the world mostly want to visit wine country, Napa and Sonoma, when they come to California. We offer tours to Yosemite, Monterey and Carmel and Muir Woods. Sadly, Santa Cruz doesn't get as much attention.

When guests want to do the coastal drive down to Los Angeles, I definitely recommend them stopping in Santa Cruz and visit the Boardwalk if they have children and Harbor Cafe to dine at a spot where locals go. Their huevos rancheros are delicious and they're always busy and dog friendly. Get their peanut butter cookies for your pup.

I had the pleasure of touring the Dream Inn located right on the beach, has the tallest tower in Santa Cruz and is walking distance to the Boardwalk and the pier. Talk about convenience!

When you travel, do you take advantage of the Concierge services if they are available?

Event Planning

If you're looking for a unique venue for a company dinner, intimate wedding and dinner reception, consider Shadow Brook Restaurant in Soquel, California. Way south of San Francisco's cable cars, take the restaurant's 6-person cable car down to the venue. You may take the stairs as well and enjoy the greenery and fountains along the way. 

Shadow Brook has many different rooms with a cabin but greenhouse like feel. Get married under large skylights or near the Soquel Creek, have a company dinner in the cellars room or have a romantic table for two on a landing on a staircase with a view of their stone fireplace. They do not have room for a typical standing reception and dancing but a first dance and father/daughter dance has been done in the space near their proposed sweetheart table.

More write-ups on my Santa Cruz County venue tours are to come! Plus, they are much more affordable than San Francisco venues if you're looking to save money. You can have a destination wedding without having to book a flight.

Have you been to a wedding in Santa Cruz county?
If so, where?

Food

If it's not a funnel cake from the Beach Boardwalk, I seem to be consuming Mexican food. Upon arrival, I stopped at El Jardin and ordered their special of the day, a pulled pork tamale with rice and beans. What I really longed for was my favorite dish already mentioned, the Huevos Rancheros from Harbor Cafe. I called in an order and Bevo and I walked down to pick it up. It was just as tasty as I remembered it.

Not hankering for a deep fried Oreo or Twinkie? Other spots worth checking out is Oswald's, my friend's favorite spot. The Crow's Nest for sunset views and a busy bar with occasional live music. Lago de Como for Italian, who has the best carbonara I've had outside of Italy since I was there in 2016. Find out what else I thought was delicious there by clicking the link. This list of 50 Foods to Try in Santa Cruz Before You Die by Spoon University is also a great resource. Sounds perfectly fattening.

Are you a funnel cake fan?
If so, how do you like it?

Motivation

Some days I don't talk about my blog to anyone or on social media. Then I look at my stats and I have a good day. I would say I am putting quite the effort to add unique content and using my own photos given my One Busy Bee schedule. I have had some successes but would love to have the attention of other bloggers without paying for the attention. How do I do it? I have received some tips from successful bloggers and it takes a lot of time. Reading this article of 9 Proven Tips to Get More Social Media Followers is a good reminder (Search Engine Journal). 

Almost a month ago, I invested some time in growing my Pinterest. I have 1,700 pins. Verbal Gold Blogger has 16,000 Pinterest followers. I have a sad 173. Verbal Gold Blogger pins graphics of her blog content. I don't have a header on my blog posts. Should I? I should also update my Advertise page. 

What tips do you have to increase your followers?

ALSO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my late Lolo. I miss our silly times like this. But definitely miss and think about you every single day. With wearing your wedding ring every day since you left to doing my first half marathon on Saturday in your memory (and in honor of other strong people like you.) I hope you're proud of me and I will try to remember just how blessed I am because of your love, faith and you praying for me multiple times per day. I love you.

Honolulu Airport - 2006

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