BEST WESTERN PLUS Capitola By-the-Sea Inn & Suites, Capitola, California - United States (US)
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BEST WESTERN PLUS Capitola By-the-Sea Inn & Suites, Capitola, California - United States (US)
Centrally located in Capitola, this award winning central California hotel offers easy access to a variety of local attractions. The friendly staff at the Best Western Capitola By-The-Sea Inn Suites is ready to ensure a comfortable and relaxing stay in central California. The hotel offers easy access to Capitola Beach and Wharf, Antonelli Begonia Gardens and historic Capitola Village offering unique shops, art galleries and fine dining restaurants. The hotel offers spacious well-appointed guest rooms, each featuring a mini refrigerator, microwave, satellite television with HBO and high-speed Internet access. Guests who prefer more spacious accommodations may choose a mini-suite with fireplace or a 2-room suite with in room spa. Hotel amenities include a complimentary continental breakfast each morning, an outdoor heated swimming pool, spa, exercise facility, dry cleaning services and meeting space to accommodate up to 82 guests. The Best Western Capitola By-The-Sea Inn Suites is near great surf spots for avid surfers such as Pleasure Point, Surf Bowl and Lighthouse Point. Less than an hour?s drive away, guests can visit Carmel by the Sea, the Steinbeck Museum, Monterrey Bay and the Redwood Forest. Make a reservation today and save at this Capitola hotel!
Hotel Features
General
Room Service, Restaurant, Disabled Access, Air Conditioned, Non-Smoking Rooms, Refrigerator, Cable / Satellite TV, In Room Movies, Kitchenette, Coffee / Tea Maker, Microwave, Hair Dryer, TV, Wheel Chair Access, Shower, Cots, Ice Machine, Vending Machines, Family Room, Fireplace
Activities
Fitness Room/Gym, Swimming pool, Tennis Courts, Spa bath / Jacuzzi, Boating, Water Activities, Fishing, Surfing, Bird Watching, Kayaking, Fitness Facilities, Jacuzzi, Pool Outdoor, Outdoor heated pool
Services
Business Center, Elevator / Lift, 24 Hour Reception, Dry Cleaning, Convention Center, Banquet Facilities, Conference Room(s), Multilingual Staff, Safe-Deposit Box, Security Guard, Meeting Rooms, Laundry service, Shops, Photocopier, Desk, Direct dial phone, Facsimile, Shops in Hotel, Express Check-In/Check-Out, Self Laundry
Internet
High-speed Internet is available at this hotel. Wireless internet on site. Internet via modem/data port is available.
Parking
The hotel has free parking.
Check-in
From 3:00 PM
Check-out
Prior to 12:00 PM
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Fiesta Parade, Santa Cruz, California, 1946
This home movie footage was taken on Pacific Avenue near Walnut Avenue. The parade has a history theme, emphasizing the Spanish and Mexican periods in Santa Cruz history. There are floats, bands, horses, and an old fire truck. Near the beginning is the Santa Cruz High School band, dressed in red. Note especially the colorful drill team (from San Francisco) sponsored by the Santa Cruz Chinese Merchants. At one point, a photographer steps out to get a photo. That is almost certainly George Lee, well known Santa Cruz photographer at that time and prominent member of the Chinese community. Floats include ones by the Santa Cruz Art League and the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Subjects include Mission Santa Cruz, sawing a redwood log, a covered wagon, and a re-enactment of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Fiesta Queen Doris Foote rides one of the floats with attendants Bunte Braun, Jolene Brogdon, and Jo Ann Briggs. There were 30 floats and cars, only some of which are shown here. Original movie in the collection of the Capitola Historical Museum.
ALVERDA ORLANDO
Longtime Santa Cruz County, California, resident Alverda Orlando tells about her long and fascinating career as a librarian and her research on the history of Davenport and the Santa Cruz County “North Coast.”
1:00 Early life
1:56 Move to Davenport, school
3:13 Beginning interest in libraries
5:23 High School
7:48 Attending San Jose State
9:43 Davenport Branch Library
12:00 Geraldine Work and political convention
14:14 East Santa Cruz Library
17:08 Branciforte Library, genealogy collection
20:22 Newspaper indexing, research, computers
25:11 Beginning of interest in Davenport history
31:30 Life in Davenport
33:21 Cement Plant
40:24 John P. Davenport and whaling
46:18 Nuclear Power Plant
47:45 Community involvement and meeting Elio Orlando
51:53 Welcoming interracial families
54:12 Bertha Coope
54:30 Dust problems
57:52 The Davenport jail
1:03:08 Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument
1:08:07 Floods
1:11:14 Librarians in the family
Stanley D Stevens
Stanley D. Stevens was for nearly 30 years in charge of the map collection at the University Library, UC Santa Cruz. He is the author of numerous publications on Santa Cruz County, California, history—many of them aimed at helping other researchers. He is an authority on the life and accomplishments of F. A. Hihn (1829-1913), pioneer owner and developer of Capitola.
1:05 Growing up in Paso Robles
3:21 San Jose State, United Nations, and meeting his wife, Carli
5:15 Marriage and move to Santa Cruz
6:20 Move to Capitola
8:20 Move to Plum Street in Santa Cruz
9:00 Move to new house
10:00 Getting job at UCSC Library; interview by Don Clark
13:07 Becoming map librarian and starting the map collection
17:06 Decision to focus on maps of Santa Cruz County
18:11 Why maps are important to historians
19:15 How he became interested in F. A. Hihn; collection of Donald Younger
22:54 1889 County Map donated by Hal Hyde
24:40 Noel Patterson and Hihn family donations
26:32 Transcription and indexing of Hihn Company letters
27:33 Hihn and the development of Capitola
30:50 First wharf in Capitola
31.44 Hihn and transportation
34:09 Locomotive in Smithsonian
35:23 Hotel Capitola and Hihn’s other hotels
37:50 Hihn and the Pioneers society
39:30 Hihn and the Paso Robles Inn
42:10 Loma Prieta Earthquake
44:50 Acquiring files from Noel Patterson
48:45 Researchers Anonymous
51:19 Santa Cruz County History Journal
55:25 Projects that benefit other researchers
57:05 Santa Cruz County Place Names book
1:02:14 McPherson Publications Fund
1:08:23 Photographers of Santa Cruz County
1:14:42 Meeting Eleanor Roosevelt
1:20:00 Biography of F. A. Hihn
8 best fossil sites in California. Hunting, finding, observing.
A review of most important localities (our best list) where to observe fossils in the State of California. Here are the videos with more information about specific places mentioned in our review:
Buena Vista Natural History museum: shark teeth and marine mammals from Bakersfield
New Brighton beach and its whale bones. Coast of skeletons near Santa Cruz.
Mount Diablo and Wind Caves of the Rock City
Finding Fossilized Crabs in Carmel Valley
A rare whale fossil has been pulled from a Southern California backyard. The 16- to 17-million-year-
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus014823
A rare whale fossil has been pulled from a Southern California backyard.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County says the 16- to 17-million-year-old baleen whale fossil is one of about 20 baleen whale fossils known to exist.
The fossil, lodged in 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) rock, was hoisted from a ravine by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department search-and-rescue volunteers. Using pulleys and a steel trolley, crews pulled the fossil up a steep backyard slope and into a truck bound for the museum.
The fossil was discovered by 53-year-old Gary Johnson when he was a teen exploring the creek behind his family's home. Johnson called Thomas after a whale fossil was recovered in January at a nearby school.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
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Diane Porter Cooley
An interview with Diane Porter Cooley of Watsonville, California, descendant of the Porter family who came to Santa Cruz County during the Gold Rush. She tells about her family history, its role in the development of the area, and her memories of Capitola.
1:00 Growing up
5:00 Going to school, family history
10:55 College
19:19 Family background
22:32 Porter children come west; Gold Rush
28:38 Porters in Soquel, 1850s
29:40 John T. Porter meets Hiram Scott
32:29 John T. Porter comes to Soquel; store; tannery
34:00 John T. becomes sheriff, meets Francis Cumming
38:11 Agnes Cumming marries Scott
39:24 George K. Porter moves to San Fernando Valley
40:36 Civil War
44:11 Pajaro
44:45 Invests in Soquel sugar factory
46:10 Fannie Porter, Chinatown, and multiculturalism
51:01 Railroads, quarries, logging
54:28 The Sesnon family
55:54 Sesnon house and earthquake
57:14 Fun in Capitola; the Shadowbrook
1:07:55 Nisene Marks State Park
1:10:40 Porter Memorial Library in Soquel
Worth Brown
Worth Brown tells about the history of Capitola's Brown Ranch in central California, including growing flowers, operating the Moo Cow dairy, and hybridizing and propagating tuberous begonias. The Brown Ranch was started by James A. Brown in the very early 1900s, In later years the name was changed to Golden State Bulb Growers. The company closed just before this video was made in 2019. However, some of the family members still operate the Brown Ranch Market Place shopping center in Capitola where part of the original ranch was located.
1:00 James A. Brown
2:50 Beginnings in Capitola: berries
4:58 Flowers
7:00 Beginnings of dairy
8:50 Moo Cow products
11:02 Sons take over business
12:23 End of dairy
13:33 Begonia Festival
15:35 Relationship among begonia growers
17:32 Hybridizing and propagating begonias
22:55 Mall and shopping center
25:47 How he got the name “Worth”
26:51 The elder Worth Brown
28:37 Going to school
30:35 Joining the family business
32:00 Production in Marina and Moss Landing
34:20 Name changes
38:01 Callas
40:13 Ending the business
Ted Maddock
Ted Maddock shares his memories of the California towns of Soquel and Capitola. He discusses his family history in the area and his career as an artist and sign maker. Recorded April 28, 2015.
1:00 Born Santa Cruz
1:25 Joshua Parrish (came from Ohio)
1:56 Ancestors:
Anna Jean Parrish
Ed Wyman
John Maddock (grandfather)
Ed Wesley Maddock
2:52 Growing up in Soquel
3:07 first home Center Street
3:36 Wyman house
4:04 Cunnison Brothers Garage employed his father
4:30 Moved to Santa Cruz
4:46 Schools:
Soquel Grammar School
Hall School
Watsonville High
5:30 Frank Hill
6:05 Changes in Soquel
6:40 Teen years worked in agriculture
8:04 Capitola Airport
9:27 Russell Rice, wife Esther
10:28 Martin B-10 bomber landed in Capitola
11:50 Hobbyist model planes
13:25 Maddock’s Bakery
13:39 Harold Maddock
14:30 original location
15:07 Bakery sold, retained name
15:30 Mirrors (calendar) souvenirs of bakery
16:06 Soquel Pioneers (Laura Maddock (grandmother) a founder of Pioneers
16:45 1947 graduated Watsonville High
17:15 attended Hartnell College, l;earned signmaking
18:10 first job as signpainter
18:39 attended San Jose State hoping to become an art teacher or graphic artist
19:15 returned to signpainting full time
19:40 Pioneers Picnic Fliers collection
20:50 advent of digital signmaking
22:50 his first computer
25:12 World War II memories
25:55 Ice making
26:24 Watsonville airport construction
28:04 Blimps at Old Airport (Salinas Road)
28:50 Rationing
29:52 School schedules adjusted so students could work the harvest
30:30 High School Sports
31:10 Earthquake
31:36 Lodge Sisters
32:15 Julia Lodge (Martina Castro granddaughter)
35:22 Cedora Duff
36:36 Dick Nutter, his 2nd wife part of Pringle family, Lloyd Pringle, Anthony family of Santa Cruz
37:28 Lloyd Pringle Postmaster, James Farley visited PO as a candidate running aginst Roosevelt
38:44 Music of 1940s, collects jazz music
39:50 Capitola Dancehall (Saba) hosts Harry James
40:40 Lionel Hampton plays in Watsonville
41:46 Louis Armstrong in San Francisco
42:14 Kuumbwa Jazz Center
SantaCruz
Video of Santa Cruz, California (Santa Cruz County) featuring downtown Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the Santa Cruz Farmers Market, UCSC, Shakepeare Santa Cruz, the Natural History Museum, the Santa Cruz Wharf, the Santa Cruz Harbor, Seymour Marine Discovery Center, the Surfing Museum, West Cliff Drive, surfing at Cowell Beach and Steamer Lane, and more.
California Walking Tour - California State Capitol Museum at Christmas season -
This is the walking tour video inside California State Capitol Museum in Sacramento.
-California State Capitol Museum site-
The California State Capitol is home to the government of the U.S. state of California. The building houses the bicameral state legislature and the office of the governor. Located in Sacramento, the Neoclassical structure was completed between 1861 and 1874 at the west end of Capitol Park, which is framed by L Street to the north, N Street to the south, 10th Street to the west, and 15th Street to the east.
Top Tourist Attractions in Santa Cruz: Travel Guide California
Top Tourist Attractions and beautiful places in Santa Cruz: Travel Guide California
Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz Wharf, Mystery Spot, Wilder Ranch State Park, Roaring Camp Railroads, Seymour Marine Discovery Center, UCSC Arboretum, Museum of Art & History, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center, Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
California fossils and where to see them.
Interested in bones and shark teeth? We will tell you were you can find them within a day drive from San Francisco.
1. Red Rock State Park
2. Shark teeth in Buena Vista museum of Natural History, Bakersfield
3. Whale bones at Capitola and Brighton Beach (Santa Cruz area)
4. Crabs of Carmel Valley
5. Scotts Valley
6. Coalinga
7. Mount Diablo:
8. Roseville area
9. Drakes Beach
Note. An early version of this video ( was published on our other channel (KOI). We move the content from that channel to BearSF to enable monetization. Thanks for understanding.
Bear SF channel offers weekend recipes for outdoor fun around San Francisco, California. The viewers can join us in exploring trails, beaches, parks, museums and other attractions or events in the Bay Area. We hope this channel will become a source for the ideas helping to answer the question of how to spend your next weekend.
Three Princes Day Celebration - Santa Cruz, California
On August 19th, 2015 citizens of California gathered at Cowell's Beach in Santa Cruz to celebrate Three Princes Day and the 130th anniversary of the first recorded exhibition of surfing on the US Continent, during the summer of 1885. These original surfers were three princes of the Hawaiian king who had arrived at boarding school in San Mateo and discovered ride-able surf in California while visiting a relative in Santa Cruz. To commemorate the event, a handful of some of the world's best surfers rode a collection of various ancient Hawaiian surfboard replicas (all carved from solid wood planks by local shaper Bob Pearson) and gave an exhibition of their own. Video by Chris Thompson. Soundtrack by The Gun and Doll Show.
Trips to Santa Cruz, 1937 and 1938
A Mattos family trip to Santa Cruz along Highway 17 in 1937 transitions into another visit to Santa Cruz in '38. Note roadsigns for Aptos, San Jose, and Santa Cruz. In Santa Cruz, speedboats, the Giant Dipper, the pier, a stage show, and other attractions entertain the crowd on Easter, celebrated with an annual egg hunt in the sand. Take a ride on the Giant Dipper - just as thrilling as it is today! On the ride back to San Jose, the familiar turns of the highway are still there today - and not much wider - but don't you wish the traffic was always this light?
Music is Nashville Nightingale by The Charleston 7
Thanks to donor Edith Walters for this fantastic film. The Pioneers Film Archive is the only dedicated film archive of Santa Clara County films, from newsreels to home movies. We're always looking for more films to share and preserve, and if you donate your historic California home movies to us, we'll gladly give you a digital copy of them FREE! Email us at SCCPioneers@gmail.com for details or to let us know where we might find some more historic footage. Our films are exhibited in museum, documentaries, television programs, and of course online. We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and are dedicated to preserving the history of the Golden State.
Thanks for watching!
CaliforniaPioneers.com
©California Pioneers of Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz Portland Cement 2 Steams Out of Capitola Near New Brighton State Beach
Santa Cruz Portland Cement 2 The Chiggen steams around a curve above seaside Capitola, CA and New Brighton State Beach on July 14, 2014. This was an unplanned run down the former Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and now Santa Cruz County owned Santa Cruz Branch to MP 10 in order to load the 1909 HK Porter 0-4-0 onto a trailer. The truck driver determined the load would not clear obstructions between Felton and Watsonville.
Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific's former Santa Fe CF7 2600 and several cars trail the SCPC 2, along with a hirail backhoe that will assist in the loading.
This was the first time a steam locomotive had traversed these rails since the late 1950s; the first time ever for The Chiggen; the first time Big Trees SCBG 2600 traversed this segment of the line since its mid 1980s delivery in ATSF yellow bonnet colors or in service; and and the first train of any kind since December of 2012. A truly historic day on many fronts!
The train is on a high cliff above Monterey Bay leaving Capitola and is about to enter a eucalyptus forest as it charges uphill into Tannery Gulch on its way to Aptos. People were running out their front doors and smashing noses to windows all along the line when they heard the whistle, proving a steam engine is a delight for everybody. A motorcade of vehicles had also started to form by this point as local commuters ran across the train while on their way home.
Discover more about this great little locomotive's history, restoration, and future at
A Tour of Santa Cruz, California
Here is a look at the famous Boardwalk, Waterfront Pier, beaches and downtown area of Santa Cruz, California. Visiting Santa Cruz? Check this video out.
Santa Cruz Portland Cement 2 Steams Through Capitola on Santa Cruz Branch
Santa Cruz Portland Cement 2 The Chiggen steams around the curve above seaside Capitola, CA on July 14, 2014. This was an unplanned run down the former Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and now Santa Cruz County owned Santa Cruz Branch to MP 10 in order to load the 1909 HK Porter 0-4-0 onto a trailer. The truck driver determined the load would not clear obstructions between Felton and Watsonville.
Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific's former Santa Fe CF7 2600 and several cars trail the SCPC 2, along with a hirail backhoe that will assist in the loading.
This was the first time a steam locomotive had traversed these rails since the late 1950s; the first time ever for The Chiggen; the first time Big Trees SCBG 2600 traversed this segment of the line since its mid 1980s delivery in ATSF yellow bonnet colors or in service; and and the first train of any kind since December of 2012. A truly historic day on many fronts!
Note the excitement of the family from across the street running over to see the train. I was around the same age as the little boy when I first started watching trains roll by this very spot. Never in my wildest dreams then or just previous to this scene 30 some odd years later did I think I would be watching a steam engine chugging down these rails. People were running out their front doors and smashing noses to windows all along the line when they heard the whistle, proving a steam engine is a delight for everybody.
Discover more about this great little locomotive's history, restoration, and future at
The Bonnet House
On 35 tropical acres along Fort Lauderdale beach, Bonnet House is one of the few complete homes and studios of two American Artists open to the public.
Fossil Bones of Ice Age Bison Discovered in Southern CA
SAN DIEGO--Fossil bones of an Ice Age bison was unearthed by construction crews at the new Interstate 15 and State Route 76 interchange near Bonsall, CA in northern San Diego County. The fossils were discovered on April 10 by paleontologist Brad Riney of the San Diego Natural History Museum.
The precise age of the fossils has not been determine, but preliminary evidence suggests its approximate age is 100,000 to 200,000 years old. The bisons stood up to eight feet tall at the shoulders and weighed as much as two tons.