Pictures Of Santa Cruz

Tim and his Cheoy Lee sailboat. We first met in 1981.

Pete from England. Known him since the 1990s. 

Joe’s grandkids (I won at intergalactic Lego but I think they cheated and claimed victory):

Santa Cruz is mostly white with a sprinkling of Mexicans and Asians. 

The ocean is 58 degrees cold at the moment. 

Sunshine appears through the gray fog of the marine inversion but it only shines for a few hours after noon. Natural Bridges State Park on the far west side of the city. 

Dogs are not welcome of course.  I can take Rusty on most state beaches in Florida and the rest of the country but not in almost all of California. 

We have stopped moochdocking and are sleeping on the west side of town in an area known for its residentially challenged vehicle dwellers. 

We drove up the coast to have a picnic. The day was socked in with fog as we approached Davenport ten

miles north of Santa Cruz on California Highway One. 

The cold sea air rolls in and meets hot dry air over the land and the day turns sunless and gray under the inversion. It never rains in summer but it feels like it will. Bring a sweater. 

Big agriculture on the cliffs above the ocean. Brussels sprouts, strawberries and cabbage for sale around the country. 

A Chinese arch has sprouted in Santa Cruz recently. More lives that matter I suppose. California has been cruel to Asians over its history. 

Rusty likes the cool air and heavily dog populated streets of Santa Cruz. He is always sniffing the shrubbery where dogs have been.  

Santa Cruz is famous for its boardwalk which has a wooden roller coaster,  the last of its kind on a beach. 

Locals hate the boardwalk but I used to come down here by myself and played Pac Man in the arcades and rode the rides at night. My friends thought I was an idiot mixing with tourists but I had fun.  

The paradox in Santa Cruz is that the weather inland in the mountains is hot and dry compared to the cool damp coastal climate. Up in Scotts Valley where we stayed with a friend we also found a Mexican lady selling tamales from her Lexus. It was like being back in Mexico and they were delicious. 

I lived in the harbor for most of the 1980s taking my boat up and down the coast on my vacations. 

It’s a river estuary widened into a harbor and winter storms plug the harbor mouth with sand. They have a dredge to keep the entrance clear in winter to allow the fishing fleet to work. In summer you have to dodge the dredge pipes floating in the harbor mouth. 

The Moore 24 designed in Santa Cruz for downwind coastal racing. Webb Chiles caused a sailing stir by sailing round the world in one a few years ago:

I sailed a catamaran like this one below from here to Key West whereupon we settled down there. Key West always felt like home to me where I felt like an outsider here. 

Seabright Beach. Leashed dogs allowed. Yay! Except Rusty doesn’t enjoy it. Sigh. He is getting opinionated and cranky in old age, just like me. 

In the 1980s I worked as a janitor at the Nickelodeon cinema which has been closed since Covid. I was also a projectionist at a theater in nearby Capitola, and that theater has now been torn down. I got to see a lot of free movies before VCRs came on the scene. 

The railroad tracks into the Santa Cruz mountains have been revived as a tourist attraction in the village of Felton. You ride up from the Beach Boardwalk. I want to do it one day. 

We had lunch with Rosemary and Hula. Rosemary and I used to work together at KSCO radio before I moved to Key West. 

We had Nepalese dumplings for lunch on a shady terrace with Rusty sleeping at our feet. 

Santa Cruz is also known for its Victorian houses, beautiful and monstrous expensive. 

There is occasional modern apartment complex thrown in with a redwood tree in the backdrop here. 

The weirdest bay window I’ve ever seen: 

Rusty the explorer. We’ve started giving him glucosamine as he is getting a bit gray.  It seems to have perked him up. 

The foggy night closes in over our street parking spot: 

Happy Fourth of July everyone (Canadians have already had theirs). I’m off to Italy on Wednesday to see my sisters for two weeks. Then we shall get back into van travel and I can’t wait to explore Utah and Colorado for a few weeks.