The day after our 14-year-old got out of school, she overheard us talking about summertime blues.

“That’s not a thing,” she said. “How can you have the blues in the summer? School’s out and you can do whatever you want.”

A week later, she had a change of heart.  She missed her friends, her theater group, her water polo team and a schedule filled with activities.

That inspired one of the themes of this issue: how to find the most unusual and interesting things to do in Santa Cruz for the summer. And, man, did we find them.

There are people doing yoga with goats and bringing their kids. They are also bringing kids to goat and animal-themed birthday parties.  More than a thousand kids this summer are hitting the beach together and training for the best summer job ever, lifeguarding.

There are expert ‘fantastic’ bubble blowers traveling the world putting on shows for kids, some of whom began blowing soap bubbles right here on Pacific Avenue. We caught one of them at the Live Oak Library. You can see them scheduled for free on our summer calendar.

We see amazing maker’s classes with openings at Cabrillo, some that focus on learning tech for girls and another that teaches kids to create comic books with a professional artist. There are sports and art classes, even a circus camp for aspiring aerialists.

For the family, there’s a chilling new ride at Great America, a new waterpark at Gilroy Gardens, Boardwalk cheap entry nights with free music and movies there, as well as in outdoor movie nights in Soquel and Aptos parks.

There are amazing free day and nightly events at the local state parks, including daytime nature hikes and nighttime ones that teach about the stars and nocturnal animals.

Tourists come from all over the country to appreciate the things we have in our backyard. You can see them listed in our print calendar and online, where we have events separated by the day at www.growingupsc.com.

If you can’t fill your schedule with great local events, you really aren’t trying hard enough.

Please share your ideas and suggestions on our Growing Up in Santa Cruz Facebook page and with [email protected]