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Like all seaside amusement parks the original draw was the sun, sand and surf.  In the early 1900's parks exploded on the east and west coast of the United States as well as on lakes throughout the country for a few reasons.  The first reason is that people discovered the joys of swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach.   Throw in relaxed social attitudes for wearing revealing swimwear; that has gotten more revealing as time went by, and the beach became the place to go on a hot summers day.  Dance halls, restaurants and rides soon followed and that is how you ended up with a place like Santa Cruz.



This is a big first for Travis as he had never seen the ocean before so he had to wade on in.



Here is Amanda enjoying letting the sand get between her toes.  I do have to say that a barefoot walk on a beach after a couple of days of walking amusement parks hard is just what the doctor ordered.  It felt wonderful.



The ocean, the beach, the sky and the park was just so beautiful.  All of those together completely make sense why places like Santa Cruz came to be.  It is just sad that there aren't more of them around.



On the north end of the Boardwalk sits the Neptune's Kingdom arcade and the Casino that have some amazing architecture.



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Paul B. Drabek