The next beach-town to the south in Monterey Bay is Capitola, a kitschy, hip beach community with the cutest little harbor and pier. There isn't too much "bay-front" to Capitola, but what is there is very nice to visit. A nice little shopping mall....

This is the Capitola River, believe it or not steelhead still run up this river. The colorful places to the left are hotels and restaurants.

A small wave closing out right at the point at Steamer Lane.

Just north of Santa Cruz is the Long Marine Aquarium and Lab with a small but nice aquarium, and some other exibits. On the point, they do tidal pool research as you can just barely see in this picture.