Our countryside home is an easy 20 minute ride from downtown Santa Cruz, less than 10 minutes to beaches, fine dining, coffee shops, etc. We own 1/2 acre but you get to enjoy the feeling of a larger space as you look out over a 3 acre field adjacent to our home.
Our craftsman style recent remodel includes a wonderful new bedroom/bathroom with jacuzzi tub, 2 person beautiful slate shower, and heated floors in the bathroom. The bedroom has a small deck to look out onto the fields, along with a very comfortable California King size bed, and high quality stereo in the bedroom. We have hi speed wifi, and if you can't bring your own computer, arrangements can be made to use ours. We have a new 52" Sony hi end HDTV with a Sony Playstation 3 for playing BluRay discs and streaming, as well as hi def cable reception. Our netflix subscription will allow you to watch movies without going to the store to rent something (I also have a decent collection of DVD movies).
The living room/dining/kitchen has high beamed ceilings with an open floor plan. There is an audiophile surround sound system in a beautiful custom cabinet with lots of cds/dvds/surround sound discs to enjoy. The living room is a great place to hang out and read, watch the tube, listen to music, and or enjoy the back deck water feature. The back deck also has a big hottub where you can sit at night and enjoy the pond/waterfall. We have 4 bikes that can be usually be made available, one of which is an electric bike which I use for commuting. We are open to considering car exchanges with appropriate verification of insurance.
We have a wonderful,loving golden retriever that often will travel with us. Since we have a few folks that love to take care of him, he can always stay with one of his aunts or uncles.
Santa Cruz itself is a very well known tourist spot. It's location between San Francisco and Monterey/Carmel makes it easy to visit the beautiful Big Sur or Monterey regions or hop up to The City (SF) for a visit. Santa Cruz itself is known for it's beaches and surfing spots, it's interesting, colorful downtown, unique shopping, dining and nightlife. UCSC (one of nine UC campuses within the California) is an amazing place to attend school, with excellent academic programs for lower and upper grads, an stunning redwood campus and miles and miles of hiking/biking trails through the different parks that dot the Santa Cruz mountains. Here is a link to help you learn more about Santa Cruz: http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/.

We live in the countryside a short drive from downtown Santa Cruz (about 20 minutes). You can reach the beach with about a 7 minute drive. The cute towns of Aptos and Capitola are about an easy 10 minute drive. We usually see lots of wildlife in our area, and it is very peaceful, with almost no traffic noise.
Santa Cruz is the quintessential beach town. Surfing was introduced to the mainland by the Hawaiians--and locals and visitors alike have been riding the waves ever since. Not far from the surf break, calliope music and laughter fills the air at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the West Coast's last remaining seaside amusement park. A few blocks from the beach is Santa Cruz's newly renovated downtown. The pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined streets are filled with vibrant shops and galleries, outdoor bistros and sidewalk musicians - all in keeping with Surf City's offbeat personality. Santa Cruz is a small town blessed with the benefits of a much larger city: fine dining, abundant and excellent music, and terrific theatre all make our small little city a most satisfying place to visit. Of course, if you feel adventurous, Monterey and Carmel are 30 minutes south of us, and Los Gatos, San Jose, Stanford (Palo Alto) and San Francisco are all within an hour and a half ride. The California coast is famous for the beautiful drive to the Big Sur region south or Mendicino north of San Francisco. All rides along the coast are highly recommended. If you are a coffee drinker, or a lover of fine wines, Santa Cruz is the place for you. Downtown, as well as many other pockets of Santa Cruz seems to have a unique coffee shop every half a block.

We have had a tenant living in a private locked off section of our home since before we started exchanging. Heather is a vet tech, very sweet and very quiet as well as very reliable in case you need help with anything locally or about our house. She is often not around at all as she visits her family in the city when she is off for a few days. All of our previous (close to 20) exchanges have gone very smoothly.

Since we both still work, longer trips need advance planning, but we are also interested in short trips in our local region along the California coast.

We love to travel and are open to new experiences. We would also love to return to Europe where we both lived when we were teens. We also thoroughly enjoyed our S.E. Asia and New Zealand experiences so would happily consider that region again.
We also travel regularly to Bend, Oregon and have exchanged 7 times there. We love short trips to the city (San Francisco), or wine country or down to San Luis Obispo
We are hoping to go to either (or both) Turkey and Amsterdam in 2013.

David is an optometrist with a beautiful office in downtown Santa Cruz, and Sharon is a chiropractor and certified clinical nutritionist. We have two grown children who occasionally travel with us. We have a hard time believing it, but we now have 3 young grandchildren as well. David is actively involved as a board member (and former president) of an organization that provides services to the visually impaired community. Sharon is now a board member of the local chapter that provides services to fellow horse riders.
David is a west coast boy, having grown up in L.A. while Sharon is originally from the east coast. We were both very fortunate that as youngsters, we had the experience of living abroad. David lived in Vienna for a year and Sharon in Germany for parts of 5 years. This helped shape our love of traveling and visiting new areas of the world.

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