new year

New Year’s Walk at King Tide

January 2, 2018 by Seb Frey

4K Video of Low Tide Walk from New Brighton to Capitola

On January 1, 2018, Santa Cruz county rang in the new year, and Mother Nature provided an incredible way to greet it: with a King Tide. A King
Tide is simply the very highest tide, and the flip side is a very low tide. When the tide is very low, it’s possible to walk from New Brighton Beach to Capitola Beach, right along the base of the cliff, without having to get wet.

My wife and I decided to take the kids for the walk, because this kind of super-low tide doesn’t happen every day. The weather was fine, just a tad under 60 degrees, with scattered high clouds. We started off from New Brighton Beach around 1 PM, with the lowest tide to come at 4:18 PM.

It took us a little more than an hour to make the walk to Capitola Village, exploring the rocks and tide pools exposed by the receding waters. We checked out countless sea anemones and hermit crabs, but were unable to find any starfish. Some folks said they had seen a small red octopus, but it vanished into the rocks.

We made it to Capitola shortly after 2 PM, and headed down for a late lunch at Paradise Beach Grill. By 3:30 we were again on the sand, walking back. On our way home, we ran into a lot of people we knew, so it took closer to two hours for the return trip. Which was fine, because the sunlight was sublime and it was great to be able to spend so much time with Mother Nature and so many members of our community.

We are so thankful that in less than a five minute drive from our house we can get to the beach for an experience as spectacular as the one we enjoyed as a family on New Year’s Day. Before we left, our youngest boy Evan was complaining about another trip to the beach, but he was amazed by all the “discoveries” we made, frolicking in the tide pools. Another priceless family memory, courtesy of our beautiful Monterey Bay. Happy New Year everyone!

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A New Year in Aptos

January 1, 2017 by Seb Frey

Good morning, and welcome to a new year in Aptos! Many people are all too happy to bid good riddance to 2016. It was certainly a contentious year with seemingly more downs than ups. In Aptos, though, it feels easier somehow to just let it roll off you, like water off a duck’s back.

Late yesterday afternoon, my family headed down to Seacliff State Beach around 4:30 PM. It was a beautiful late afternoon winter day in Aptos. Nary a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid-50’s, and a calm, gentle surf breaking on the sand. There were people on the beach – but not many. It gave you a sense of community, of being with people, but with plenty of space for you to soak up the glory of it all in harmonious contemplation.

Last #sunset #2016 #aptos #goodbye #happynewyear
A photo posted by Sebastian Frey (@sebfrey) on Dec 31, 2016 at 6:14pm PST

We sat there on a huge driftwood log, and just watched as the sun sank slowly into the west. We listened to the waves crash on the shore, hearing the seagulls caw as they drifted through the air. We marveled at how much the SS Palo Alto had changed in the past year from last winter’s storms. We listened to a young girl shrieking as she played in the sand nearby with her parents.

And in that moment, all was well. Perfect, actually. We live in such an amazing place. I’ve only lived here a few decades, but I’m pretty sure it was an amazing place 1,000 years ago and will probably be an amazing place 1,000 years in the future. Time marches on, and the Earth will abide. As a friend of mine is fond of saying, we’re here for a good time, not a long time.

That’s why New Year’s is my favorite holiday. A year is something real, something indisputable. You can quibble about when it begins, when it ends, what every day in between means – but in the end, it doesn’t matter. A year is the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution around the sun – and that’s something we all experience, no matter how old or young, rich or poor, black or white, American or Russian or Chinese or Syrian. We only have so many years in our lives – some will have more than others, but time waits for no man. It’s something that ultimately makes us all very equal.

I look at each new new year as a marker, a waypoint. A time to reassess, and think about what I want to do with the time I have remaining, however long that is. I am not making any new resolutions this year – rather, I am just resolved to keep doing what I’ve been doing, only better and with more focus and commitment.

Whatever the new year means to you, I want to wish you and everyone on our big blue marble a warm, prosperous, and peaceful new year. Let’s hope for the best and then all work hard to make it happen. Our children deserve nothing less.

Aptos Last Day of 2016 Sunset Video

A New Year, a New Kitten in Aptos

January 5, 2016 by Seb Frey

Happy New Year everyone! As I’ve mentioned before, I really love a new year. Already, I feel like the year is off to a good start – I know the freakish weather on the east coast and in Europe is a concern, but finally, we have rain in California. The local economy feels much improved from a year ago, so who cares what the Chinese stock market did today?

Our family started the year off in a big way, by welcoming a new addition, right on January 1st: a beautiful two-ish month old tabby cat, tentatively named Sparky. Our kids have wanted a pet for…well for years now, probably. They’re head over heels in love with him! We got him thanks to Melissa, a friend of ours who works with Heading Home Animal Rescue (you can also find them on Facebook). If you’re looking for a new dog or cat to join the household, check there first!

Despite an auspicious beginning for some of us, there’s no shortage of reasons to be pessimistic about the future, given the state of things today. But the world’s always going to have horrific events like what’s recently happened in Paris, San Bernadino, and pretty much all of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya. Bad things are going to happen. I grew up terrified of a nuclear winter; now we’re terrified of climate change, and who knows what our kids will have to worry about.

But thankfully, most of this feels a world away. Here in Aptos, the economy is doing well, the rain is pattering on my roof, and California’s crime rate is at a 47 year low. Our kids are healthy and happy – the new kitten is an additional joy in our lives. We are truly blessed, and we are looking forward to a beautiful 2016 with our friends, family, and our community at large.

We hope all of you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2016!

Starting 2015 On the Right Foot in Aptos

December 31, 2014 by Seb Frey

Happy New Year 2015 — Planning to make 2015 a very Happy New Year

I’ve been working on Aptos Community News for over a year now, in part because I want to help make Aptos an even better place tomorrow than it is today. And in that spirit, I plan on starting 2015 on the right foot in Aptos. I’m going to improve our community starting with me, which is the only thing I am 100% in control of.

The good news is, I won’t be alone in this. Thousands of folks in the community are looking back on 2014, and looking forward to 2015 and thinking about what they can do better in the new year. I have a very long list of ways that I can personally improve, but as I get older, one thing that becomes increasingly important is maintaining my health.

And that’s why my eyes opened wider when I saw that the good folks at Fleet Feet Sports in Aptos are organizing Tons of Fun 2015, which is a community-based health and weight loss challenge. When striving towards any goal, it’s often more effective not to go it alone, and to at least have some kind of accountability partner…and maybe meet some like-minded, health-conscious Aptosians to boot.

I spoke with Tina Coillot who is one of the owners of Fleet Feet Sports, and put up a recording of our conversation on the Real Santa Cruz Podcasat. You can listen to the interview here:

Interview with Tina Coillot of Fleet Feet Sports

Download audio file…

It’s refreshing to talk to someone who truly has a passion for what they do – and I think you can really get a sense of that from my interview with Tina. I get the feeling that she really enjoys being part of our community and making the folks who live here healthier – and happier.

The interview is around 40 minutes long, so you might want to just subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Stitcher and listen to it in your car, on your morning walk, at the gym, or whatever.

In the interview, we also talked about their “Couch to 5K” program – which I hadn’t heard about before we started talking. It sounds like just the ticket for me – someone who has never, ever ran (since high school anyway, and then only barely). I would love to be able to run a whole five thousand meters – so this is something I’m going to sign up for as well. In for a penny, in for a pound!

Happy New Year, Aptos! I love you. See you in 2015!