Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Jul 27, 2004

The rest of my trip to Santa Cruz, in readiness for my next trip south ;-)

Filed in Santa Cruz 2004

Gee, a bit of time went by. ;-)

Here’s the very short version.

Barb cooked great stuff on Friday night. Barb’s husband showed up on Saturday morning, after we had spent a leisurely hour or so checking out downtown Santa Cruz. My husband was never able to make it at all, as the idiot contractor did what he was asked not to do and brought down their internet connection, including the corporate website.

We went to the Woodys on the Wharf. This is not rude, though we saw countless jokes about it. It was a collection of cars which had been converted to being made out of wood, and some that started that way, including a Morris Minor. It was pretty cool. We were able to get a ringside seat at a restaurant to see the parade, which was a lot of fun.

My feet hurt a lot because I did a lot of walking.

Barb’s hubby makes fantastic steak. I have never had steak so very good before.

On Sunday morning, we set out. I get nervous, Barb gets nervous, jitter, jitter. I led them home on Highway 17. It was very neat, sort of a rite of passage. I feel like a real biker now. ;-)

There were no problems with the ride, and we stopped at the summit to take photographs. I rode home with Barb and Brian to find out what they thought and they were happy. Barb had never done 17 before and was proud of herself.

Images:

– A man walking through downtown Santa Cruz with a snake curled around his neck

– A lady carrying her little dog in a basket into the expensive optomotrist

– Snarfs, snarfs, everywhere!

– Browsing exquisite one-of-a-kind jewellery in a classy gallery: Barb is a graphic designer, so she really groks this kind of thing; even a pleb like me can see what work and beauty goes into these things.

– A tiny alleyway painted with murals, and indeed murals everywhere. A house brimming with flower boxes and of course flowers

– Great holes where buildings destroyed by the 1989 earthquake were never rebuilt; a very peculiar and disturbing mural with people in the basement in a kind of living hell…climbing up out of the doldrums, with odd perspective.