Ah, the good old summertime. All across the nation and up and down the central coast, fans of the sand are hitting the beach in record numbers to escape the smoke and Miami heat. As for myself, my favorite childhood memory (besides my actual birth) was getting up at the crack of dawn and heading out to Long Island to enjoy a sandwich dominated beach orgy of waves, sand crabs and the occasional jellyfish. Ahh, memories. In honor of the this sun-screened filled tradition, I thought we would take an offseason look at some of the hot spots along the coast.

We start out at wintertime at the Main Beach along the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, where yours truly will be making an appearance Friday night to see Mr. Eddie “Wanna Be A Rock n Roll Star” Money performing at the bandshell. He’s bringing free tickets to paradise. We then move up to West Cliff Drive to check out of cloud-filled day at Cowell’s Beach, before hitting a big wave day at my favorite photo locale in Santa Cruz, Its Beach. Why it’s named Its I don’t know. I’ve got a theory but remember this is a PG rated site.

When then jet 12 miles north up the coast along Highway 1 to the lovely vista of Scotts Creek State Beach. When I drive this route I never tire of this spot-it’s as visually pleasing as anything I’ve seen on my brief time on the planet. It’s also a place where I used to collect abalone shells that I would find washed up into the sand after a winter storm. Next it’s to the carved out cliffs at Ano Nuevo, where the largest population of northern elephant seals gathers to feed, read, and breed, and not necessarily in that order. For a final shot we had north to Montara on the Pacific Coast Highway and take in the sights of the coastline along Devil’s Slide, where they are currently building a tunnel so when the road slides there is an alternate route. In the words of the legendary Jerry Garcia, the friend of the Devil’s Slide is a friend of mine.

There are many beaches that didn’t make today’s cut. We could start at Natural Bridges, then head to Four Mile, Laguna Creek, Shark’s Tooth, Davenport and the windiest of them all, Waddell Creek. That’s not even mentioning Bean Hollow, Pescadero and Pigeon Point. We’ll save those for round two.

I was going to write about the smoking problem in Egypt but we’ll save that for another day. I thought we’d end with a little humor. Since I couldn’t find any jokes I liked about beaches I thought we’d go with love and sports.

A husband and wife were both golfers. The wife was feeling a little neglected and wanted to know how much he loved her. “If I were to die tomorrow,” she said, “and you remarried, would you give you new wife my jewelry?” “What a terrible thing to ask,” exclaimed the husband. “Of course not.” “And would you give her any of my clothes?” “No honey, I wouldn’t. I can’t believe you’re even asking me that.” What about my golf clubs?” “No. She’s left-handed.”

That’s our show for today. Enjoy the beach and we’ll catch you under the umbrella. Aloha.