Free Summer Tours City of Santa Cruz SANTA CRUZ, Calif. —The City of Santa Cruz offers free summer tours of its recycling center, the Resource Recovery Facility, 605 Dimeo Lane,  every Friday from July 29 through Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The 90-minute tours provide opportunity to learn about the multifaceted recycling process as well as our new food scraps processing and Household Hazardous Waste Program.   Visitors will see what happens to the 30 to 50 tons of material that Santa Cruzans place into their blue recycle bins every single day. They will learn why it is important to “recycle right” and avoid “wish-cycling.” Visitors will see a…

(Photo by Kelly Berreto) We don’t have to tell the locals about Wednesday’s free twilight concerts at the Capitola bandstand, but sure, there are plenty of new people moving in all the time, not to mention tourists.  One of the coolest, free-est things you can do is bring a chair or a beach towel and stake out a spot on the lawn or on the beach on Wednesday nights, from 6-8 p.m. Some of the bands coming up for the rest of the summer include the ever popular Joint Chiefs, Live Again, the Santa Cruz Latin Collective, Billy Martini, Jive Machine and Dirty Cello. We’ve never seen a bad show there. Catch…

Trivia Night by brad kava Here’s something for families to do that’s free or low cost. El Vaquero Winery in Corralitos has trivia night at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and unlike some alcohol serving places, it’s kid and dog friendly. Sometimes there are more kids than others.  Host Michael Gaither often throws in questions that the tykes can answer. (How did we miss the name of Sponge Bob’s home town, Bikini Bottom, even aided by a 6-year-old?)It’s outdoors, there’s food catered from the pizza joint across the street (or bring your own), excellent reasonably priced wines and apple juice and a fun couple of hours for all. El Vaquero is at…

Delicious Berries by brad kava If you are heading north on Highway 1, you have to stop at Swanton’s Berry Farm for a real make America great experience. First time visitors usually end up standing at the cash register waiting for someone to collect their money for the great berry pies, coffee, jam, short bread, berry baskets and more. They wait, and wait and wait…until someone tells them, “It’s donation only.” Ooops. Happened to me. You pay what you want. And as the manager there told me, they end up making more money by asking for it than they would with a cashier. It’s like stepping back to a country…

Juggling Fun Every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. kids can get free juggling lessons at the Capitola Mall’s Cirque, Tumble, Cheer storefront. We tried it and it is a blast. The teachers are kind, friendly pros and kids of all ages can learn amazing skills free. Parker, 6, and his dad, 66, are both taking lessons and learning to make things fly with the greatest of ease. Well, not that easy, but totally fun. It’s at 1811 41st Ave, Capitola, CA 95010, right next to Lens Crafters. Also, some of the same teachers give free classes on the Esplanade in downtown Capitola,near the concert area, at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays. Send…