Surf City USA

Two cities both claim this title: Surf City USA. Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz. Thankfully one is in Southern California and the other is in the Northern part of our state.

While reading the 2009 Vistors Guide to Huntington Beach I thought it was interesting to learn that Dean Torrance of Jan & Dean who co-authored the hit song "Surf City" and whose hometown is Huntington Beach explains,

"I have often been asked if we had specific city in mind when we wrote the song. Well, at the time we considered it a tribute to the collection of beach cities between Malibu and La Jolla." He goes one to explain that since the 60's when they wrote the song many beach cities have changed immensely by allowing building to be constructed between the Pacific Coast Highway and the beach. But Huntington has protected its shoreline view and offers easy access to miles and miles of beach. He then claims, "If we were writing the song today, Huntington Beach would be a prototype 'Surf City.' It would be hard, if not impossible, to find any other beach town that would even come close to qualifying as 'Surf City.'"

The city limits of Huntington Beach contain 25 square miles of land and 8 miles of shoreline. This is their 100th anniversary. So all year long they have had special events to mark the celebration. Coming up on Saturday, September 19th they are hosting "Surfboards in the Sand" with 1000 or more surfboards. It's being called a performance art and photo opportunity. It would be fun to attend that event -- we'll see what September brings.

Mr. Fun reminded me the other day that we've been to "both" surf cities this year with a winter holiday in Santa Cruz from January 21-31, and now a summer holiday in Huntington Beach.

Okay, that's all for this Wednesday.
Rosie, aka