Day 2 -- Santa Cruz

A quick bowl of cereal and I was off to Santa Cruz. Traffic wasn't bad, and I soon found myself at 38th street, site of a few breaks recommended by members of the surfing forum.

The waves were quite small, but every 20 minutes or so a reasonable set would come in. Actually, most of the time I had the whole break to myself -- I guess most locals felt the waves weren't worth it. But I got some great rides. I used the wetsuit but no booties or gloves, and immediately discovered that I needed more wax (booties are less slippery than bare feet). A quick trip back to the car and I was all set.

I surfed three or four hours until my arms fell off. More of a crowd appeared as soon as I left, and here are some pictures of this break (called "Pleasure Point").

[Remember, you can click on any picture for a larger version.]




Next, I checked into the campground in Capitola, and took a well-deserved nap. Note the new anti-sun hat recommended by Caroline in the ER forum (thanks, Caroline).


After that it was time to find a cafe with wi-fi. I'm posting this from Toot's coffee shop in Capitola -- it took 20 minutes to find parking here -- oof!

Day 1 -- Drive down to Bay Area

What a great sense of freedom to take off on this trip! Left the driveway with Beach Boys music blaring, and all the checklist items checked off.


First stop was the Chalet House of Omelettes for a fuel up


I realized that the trip is the kind of thing one would like to do as a teenager, but without the main objective being finding girls. I thought of this when I saw this T-shirt on one of the other breakfasters:


A quick stop at one of Duane Flatmo's famous Eureka murals, and I hit the highway.


It took about 6 hours to get down the Bay Area, including a stop for lunch. I had to stop by the my old windsurfing haunt, the Berkeley Marina (click on any picture to enlarge).

Then it was on to visit our great friends, Berit, Tom, and Sam. Please ignore my expression in this picture.

After a great dinner, beer, wine and talking into the night, I dropped into bed and slept until 5 AM the next morning.