Author - Grant
Based In - Santa Cruz, California
Today’s Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157617467473875/
On paper, Santa Cruz has everything you could possibly want from a town. Perched on miles of stunning cliffs overlooking the mighty Pacific Ocean, it has a more youthful feel than any of the coastal towns to the south thanks to the 13,000 students at the USC campus on the outskirts of town. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the main beach which seems to hold a constant beach volleyball party complete with banging music and the teeny-tiniest bikinis that are required on beaches that don’t otherwise allow naturists. The local government has even had the foresight to install those 25 cents-a-go telescopes on the very same seafront as the bevy of bouncing beauties although presumably they were designed for spotting marine wildlife rather than for shortsighted perverts like myself. If you’re a surfer then it looks like paradise but Kate wouldn’t let me ride the tubes because...well, because I’m crap at it and would undoubtedly kill myself on the treacherous rocks that helps turn this sport from past-time to X Factor here in Santa Cruz.
Appealing to my origins, there’s a boardwalk amusement park complete with 85 year old wooden roller-coaster and the perpetual smell of candy apples which is my equivalent of mom’s apple pie. Fitness freaks can join the hoards of cyclists that ride the plethora of bike paths including the 10 mile round trip path that traces the cliffs from the boardwalk to the Natural Bridges State Beach. There’s even an unofficial dedicated dog beach (unofficial because the entry sign says ‘No Dogs’ but it’s a case of strength in numbers and if any officers want to dispute that then I’ll be standing behind the guys with the two rottweilers). And this dog beach doesn’t just mean a patch of sand covered in excrement - it’s actually pretty idyllic as the dogs compete with the numerous local seals in an unofficial ‘loudest bark’ competition. The seals win, flippers down.
So given this huge number of plus points, why haven’t we got our checkbooks out to buy a home here? One word. Bums. Actually ‘travelers’ is the more accurate description as they pile all their belongings into the back of a truck/van/SUV and roam the country without any contemplation of getting a job. Wait a minute - we fall into that category. Oh god, we’re part of the problem. Hold on a minute, we must have some distinguishing features? Ah yes, we cut our toenails more regularly. And neither of us has braids. And we rarely smell of urine. And we’re barely ever wandering the streets, drunk as skunks at 7am...but that’s not by choice...damn those social norms. Of course that didn’t stop us being incredibly nosey and
gatecrashing an open house for a property that we couldn’t afford on the seafront and it was there that the lovely Lori (who thought it hilarious that in England her name means ‘truck’) told us that Santa Cruz’s highly liberal tolerance policy differs from places like Santa Barbara who gather up bums and travelers, throw them in a van and take them to the county line. Clearly SC’s policy is more ethically sound and I’m all in favour of it (hell, I’m even happy they have roller coasters to ride and year round sunshine) but I’m going to take the hypocritical stance and say ‘not in my back yard thanks very much’. I’m not sure if this makes me a snob or just pure evil but if you’re giving me the choice of living somewhere that you are routinely given the opportunity to ‘come into my van and I’ll show you my dingo’ (don’t laugh to hard, this actually happened to us) or not then I’m going to choose not. Having said all that, it looks like a top place to go to Uni. Ah to be young again.
Tomorrow we head a bit north and a lot east to Yosemite National Park for 5 days of hiking, biking, cooking (we have a cabin with a kitchen for the first time in months) and no phone service. Awesome.
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