Thirteen years of smiling faces stained with pink cotton candy, tiny footprints imbedded in the sand, my now 13 year old son riding the Dipper for the 12th time today, corn dogs, funnel cakes and the forever scents of fresh baked waffle cones, suntan lotion, carousel music, bumper cars, my husband playing the baseball game AGAIN, six “santa cruz” pillows from the big crane, three cups traded from ashtrays, my daughter on the “Rock n Roll”, four rides on the Cave Train each time loving the monkees flying in the wind of the trees, screams from the Double Shot, tears from my son at age seven as he begged not to go on the Log Ride, then fifteen minutes later begging to do it again,ten blackened fingers from the rings, two accidentally in my son’s pockets which were promptly returned at the end of the day, the best cheesburgers and giant donuts that the kids love to buy and save for the microwave in the morning, long walks at night collecting whole sand dollars beneath the light of the hotel, the best Mrs. Pacman game in the world which has the only working joy stick, “Be the next jackpot winner” blaring from the ticket games, the boy who plays the MTV drums like he belongs to Metallica, his father watching him with great pride as all surround his son in awe, seven “Santa Cruz” snow globes, fifteen thousand orange tickets, nine shotgun targets all but one with the middle gone, three pink stuffed dogs, at least thirty five upset stomachs all totally worth it, and my favorite part, when all the hulabaloo dies down for the day,is walking along the Boardwalk at night. I can imagine the millions of sandy feet and cotton candied fingers that may have visited here a hundred years before me. I see the ladies in their dresses frolicking with their children, laughing and smiling the same way I have for all these years, and imagining their husbands in the arcades spending all their money just to have victory over the Milk Bottles…thirteen wonderful years with my family at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, only a fraction of the hundred years that will be celebrated soon, yet already, these memories are enough to last a million years more.