The Santa Cruz Family Vacation Eat-A-Thon

Fuzzy family at Twin Lakes State Beach, Santa Cruz, Ca. 

Saying that my extended family and I ate too much over our vacation last weekend in Santa Cruz would be a gross understatement. Though we had 16 mouths to feed, it never once crossed my mind that we would run out of food (and kudos to my parents, aunts and uncles for ensuring that). After securing the copious amount of food into the fridges (yes, thankfully, there were two) of our vacation house, my family went hard to work on our first nights dinner, which consisted of many boxes of Zachary’s pizzas, which my parents picked up half-baked in Berkeley as they drove over. The pizza was, as to be expected from Zachary’s, delicious, and my aunt and I made a simple salad of mixed greens, bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to go along with the meal. Overall, the dinner was simple, easy, and delicious, which was just what we needed on the first night while we were all still settling in. After dinner, the adults of the family had margaritas with a store-bought mix, Jose Cuervo silver tequila, fresh lime, and salt on the rim. Though I’m a notorious wussy when it comes to alcohol, I found myself drinking this like it was juice, and these margaritas became a little vacation tradition that we indulged in each night. After our drinks, we took a little night walk on the beach, which was well lit by the full moon, countless bonfires and even a few kids with sparklers. It was a beautiful way to end our first night in Santa Cruz.

One of two of our fridges, completely full.

Maragarita, sans salt.

The next morning I was greeted by the smell of bacon when I entered the kitchen, which happens to be one of my favorite ways to wake up, especially on a Sunday morning. But besides the bacon, our breakfast also included: eggs, cantaloupe, watermelon, smoked salmon, bagels, two types of cream cheese, grapefruits, plums, croissants, sausages, jam, toast, vanilla honey Greek yogurt, grapefruit juice and orange juice. Breakfast happens to be one of my favorite meals, and this one was a delicious and plentiful feast from which I thought I would never recover.

Cantaloupe and Watermelon from our delicious feast.

Smoked Salmon and Bagels mmmm!

But, miraculously, I found myself wanting to eat again a few hours later when lounging on the beach with my family. It was a specific craving, one that always seems to plague me when I’m near the sea: Salt and Vinegar potato chips. If I were a poet, I would write an ode to eating salt and vinegar chips by the seaside; so salty and tangy, these chips are the most delicious companions to the sea breeze. They are also highly addictive. I knew that I was sharing these chips with my entire family and that I should go easy, but I couldn’t stop and soon, they were gone. I was full and, amazingly, still hankering for more, but I focused on the beauty of the ocean and enjoyed my time in the sunshine instead.

I love you, salt and vinegar chips.

After hanging out at the beach, my mom wanted to put together a little lunch for everyone, but we were just not that hungry. But since we had brought so much lunch meat, she decided to make a lovely spread for all of us to enjoy, including a choice of salami, turkey, and mortadella for meat; pepper jack, havarti and cheddar for cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; mayo, peppercinis and pickles; ciabatta bread to put it all on; and lots of fruits and veggies to snack on. It would have been wonderful if I had been hungrier, but I still made myself half of a sandwich out of respect to my mom and all the work she had done.

After a few hours of foosballing, relaxing and talking with family, we were back at the dinner table again; this time for barbeque. We had two different types of tri-tip, corn on the cob, roasted asparagus, barbequed tomatoes and bell peppers, and one of my favorites: my mom’s pasta salad with orzo, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, feta, olives and balsamic vinegar. Like everything else we had that weekend, it was so tasty that we overcame the laws of digestion and our full bellies and ate copious amounts anyway. We continued to eat later that night when we celebrated three August birthdays with a very rich and chocolatey cake. We continued our nightly tradition of margaritas and had a quick walk on the beach before turning in for the night.

Tri-tip steak, orzo pasta salad, and lots of veggies.

Happy Birthday!

The next morning, we had another breakfast feast, which was very similar to the last one, but also included sunny-side up eggs, straw and blueberries, sliced tomatoes, Persian bread and cheese, and quiche. We went back to the beach again after eating, and, to my delight, there was another bag of salt and vinegar chips, which I hit hard. After having eaten so much, I decided to be a little bit more active on the beach and went for a walk to try to burn off some of the extra calories I had ingested this weekend.

Breakfast Feast #2

When we got home, I became even more active as I got far too competitive with games of foosball against family members. I had hoped to win against my dad, who had single-handedly creamed my brother, my cousin and I earlier that weekend. I had been playing my aunt a lot and felt confident enough in my newfound foosball skills to call for a rematch. Though I scored the first 5 goals, I must have gotten a little overconfident, as my dad came back with a score of 8. I almost caught up to him, and the score was 8 to 9 when my dad scored the final goal. Normally, I don’t tend to put too much stock in these little fun games, but for some reason, after this loss, I was devastated; I blame the corrupting influence of competitiveness. I ate away my pain later that night, when we basically had a leftover banquet and tried to eat as much of our food as we could, as we were leaving the next day and couldn’t take it all with us. It was a challenge to be sure, but we got through a fair amount of it.

Too much foosball competition!

A margarita and a full nights sleep was all that separated us from the end of our trip. The next morning, we ate a simple milk-and-cereal and eclectic leftover breakfast before packing up and leaving, and before we knew it, our lovely long eat-a-thon weekend was over. If there’s one thing I can say about my family, besides the fact that it was loads of fun to hang out with them on this trip, it’s that they know how to eat and they make the roots of my love for food apparent.