Santa Cruz

I'm not quite sure why it's taken more than five weeks to get to this. Priority. Distraction. Sloth. Forgetfulness.

The workshop ended on Friday with a field trip to a couple of spots on the Richmond shoreline. I picked up a rental car at the airport and took on the Friday afternoon traffic over the hill from Silicon Valley to Santa Cruz. I checked out the beach, of course, somehow lost my sunglasses, and then went looking for dinner. Downtown was packed - plenty of food options, but no parking. And probably long waits to get in, too. So I found a sandwich at a neighborhood deli (The Buttery) and a bag of chips and a beer at the local grocery store and took it all back to the hotel.

Parking downtown was easier the next morning and I had a good cup of coffee at Verve before heading back to the beach. It was beautiful, clear, and just barely above freezing.

I know a little about soccer parents, and I know a lot about chess and ultimate parents, but I hadn't really thought much about surfer parents, but there they were, in their SUVs on the cliff edge, bundling up their kids as they climbed out of the ocean. There was some sort of junior surfing tournament going on.

From there, it was just one beach after another all day long, until I finally got back into San Francisco just before dinner. A walk down to Shark Fin Cove, a visit to the Pigeon Point lighthouse, mingling with the upper crust at the Ritz-Carlton south of Half Moon Bay, lunch above the riprap at Miramar Beach, and a tour from a colleague of the beaches in Pacifica.