Santa Cruz

Awesome town! I had this preconception of a kind of shallow California surfer dude town, but I actually found a surprisingly friendly, welcoming, and charming place with a strong sense of community and civic identity (as a California surfer dude town, granted), at least among the locals. I’m sure the place can get pretty crowded and insufferable on weekends, especially on summer weekends. But there was a great diversity of restaurants and independent shops collected in a few very walkable downtown blocks. Plus, it’s just minutes from the beach and a boardwalk that features a well-regarded roller coaster, at least according to my brother the ex-coaster fanatic. Sadly, the coaster was only running on weekends, so I didn’t get to ride it.

I did, however, get to camp in a nearby state park and spend the afternoon on a beautiful beach. On the east coast, at least the mid-Atlantic region where I grew up, we don’t have cliffs and trees right along the shore. It was pretty neat to hang out on a beach with a tree-lined, rocky cliff towering overhead.

A short walk along the beach revealed that someone had built an incredible shrine of sorts in the shadow of one of the higher cliffs out of driftwood, stones, and local plants. There was an elaborate “courtyard”, entryway, and “altar” that must have taken says of solid work, but no artist in sight. I took some pictures, but I’m not sure how well the scale and detail of the place comes across:

The next morning we hung out for a bit at a local coffee shop to take advantage of their free internet and overheard some aging, bearded conspiracy theorists sharing their crazy with some young California surfer dudes and two bohemian intellectuals who seemed to be Mexican. There was a lot of discussion about a car that can run on compressed air that the US government is keeping a secret. It was pretty classic.

Oh, and someone in a burrito joint recognized my Foucault T-shirt and asked where I got it! (Answer: Tres Normale)

Sorry for the long silence, but I’ve been camping with limited internet access and just generally had better stuff to do here in California besides blogging. But whenever I get around to posting next (quite possibly tomorrow), I’ll talk about Big Sur.