Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and another amazing year coming up!  Stay safe, stay amazing!

Exploring the university

Santa Cruz is definitely known for being a funky beach town with laidback vibes, but there is a huge part of the city that is also pretty famous.  UCSC is up in the hills overlooking the city and is going on 50 years of being a cutting edge, liberal college.  After a month of living in Santa Cruz, it was time to go up and explore the campus and see what it was all about.

Taking the bus up there, more and more 20 year olds boarded.  It was packed.  Normal city buses at 9:30 am are fairly empty, and yet this one was packed full of students drinking out of mason jars, wearing plaid, talking about professors and sporting fancy new piercings.  The bus left down and headed up the hill, entering what seemed to be a forest with a few buildings.  The campus is scattered around the hill, sometimes offering great ocean views, but normally surrounded by tall redwoods and ravines.  Bridges, side paths and nature all around.

With the famous mascot being the banana slug, I kept an eye out and was lucky enough to spot two students taking a picture of the ground.  Which meant a banana slug.  Here's my picture of the slug in all its glory:

I had a coffee and a tour from a friend who is an oceanographer researcher and then explored a bit on my own, randomly running into another person I knew.  Santa Cruz has small town feel and this definitely showed up on campus.  Good vibes all over the place in this city!

After playing 3 out of 4 days, the arms are sore, but it has been amazing to be playing beach volleyball all the time in mid November.

Ah man, the life is golden!  It's been an epic weekend here in Santa Cruz, just living it up.  This city has so much going on all the time, and with the summer tourists gone, it's pretty darn nice to get around town and meet the locals.

It all started with First Friday in downtown Santa Cruz.  It seemed like it would be an art walk around town, and yet I saw more live music than art.  So many places had bands going, that it felt more like a festival, with people smiling, dancing and laughing all over the place.  Like a true Santa Cruz event, the down to earth shops and people can turn it up a notch and whoop it up like none other.

At the Bookshop, a bluegrass band was jamming out amongst the books, cracking jokes and using a washboard to get that special percussion sound.  Across the way at the Sockshop, a funk band was ripping it up, the store was packed, and there was beer flowing, prosciutto and cheese to be had, and lots of dancing bodies.  Not to be outdone, Jamba Juice had a disco DJ outside spinning some old classics to get the people moving around to. 

The internet company, Cruzio, celebrating a big anniversary as well, had a rocking folk band covering a variety of songs and collecting a huge crowd on the street corner.  Next to them were a couple food trucks and inside, a bar and snacks, with people lounging around the board room like it was their living room, and the place was filled throughout.  This and the Sockshop were the two that seemed to buzzing with people and great music that stood out above the rest.  Walking down to meet friends at the end, this jam band was whooping up the entrance to the light shop.  Quite the night!

The past days have been filled with beach volleyball, sunsets, pool, barbeques, meeting people and riding my new bike around town.  It's be amazing and I'm loving this city.  With weather hitting 70 each weekend day, it was perfect to be diving after volleyballs in the sand for hours.  Great crew of people and it's going to be a regular thing, with the requisite post game swim in there.  At least 5 seals were out in the water splashing around today.  Tis a thing of beauty.

But for you people in colder climates, never fear, it does get colder in the nights.  Not all sun and fun (that's just the daytime).  People talk up how year-round, you can get by with just a hoodie and some jeans.  Tonight was more of a fog-set, where the sun got swallowed up by some early evening fog.  Last night was this awesome sunset:

The life is good.  Hope you all are golden!

Santa Cruz

So I'm settling into the amazing beach town of Santa Cruz.  This place has blown me away with friendliness, sunshine, good vibes and some amazing food so far.  After just a few days here, I knew this would be a good spot to get back to my California roots and live in the US again.  It's situated on the north end of the Monterey Bay, which cuts down on the amount of wind that a lot of this coast gets, and also seems to have more sunshine.  Either way, I'm seeing lots of blue skies and having some warm days, while the East Coast has already had snow, so I am plain old loving it!

I've got a room for the month of November covered and am currently looking for a job.  Just bought the bike today, so I've got wheels, and have spent a lot of time walking and exploring all over, so I've definitely got a good feel for the city and where things are at.  Already had two job interviews and been chatting up lots of people, digging for that perfect job.  It's out there!

Here are a few pictures from the life in Santa Cruz so far:

Sunset at Twin Lakes Beach

The infamous Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Quiet beach life

Righteous people in these parts

Surfers out at Pleasure Point

NorCal Fun Continues

More good vibes around the Bay Area.  Been exploring north and south of the city, seeing some amazing small beach towns, epic views, and getting to know what's going on in NorCal.  Of course, the main attraction is seen above, the Golden Gate.  Driving through it for the first time in 15+ years was awesome and I treated it as a visitor should, with lots of pictures.  It's the way to get to Marin County in the north, full of relaxing vibes, small towns and windy roads.  Different than the big city life, and still close in to all the action, it is an amazing contrast and the perfect spot to get away and just enjoy life.  Here are a few pictures from the time up north:

Shannon and I at Point Reyes (windiest spot in the west coast)

Elephant seals whooping it up and soaking up some sun

Probably what the SF Bay looked like back in the day

You can't be right next to the big city without exploring it a bit too.  Spent another day out and about, capturing the Golden Gate from Lands End Park, enjoying the sights along Haight and taking in the view from Twin Peaks.  Always something going on all over the place, and with blue skies and sunshine, people have been out and about loving life.  Only way to do it.

Golden Gate popping through!

Up on top of Twin Peaks

Ayrika and I on Twin Peaks

Amoeba Records, chock full of music and amazinness!

A day in the Mission

I spent yesterday exploring the Mission District in San Francisco, quite the hopping place, diverse, eclectic and entertaining.  People all over, sitting at the cafes, hanging in the parks, putting up new street art and just being alive.  It's a neighborhood full of life, offering most amenities that you would want in a city, and is super close to downtown SF and all other parts of California's largest city up north.

Here are a few pictures from the day, mostly of the street art which is everywhere.  There is a definite Latino vibe to the area which is captured by the murals. 

The Mission of which the area is named after

The Women's Building

Represent the Peacock yo!

Clarion Alley, full of street art action

Appalachian sunset with the Blue Ridge mountains in the background

After a couple weeks of harvesting apples and living off the land in Virginia, it was time to hop on a bus or two and head north, popping into a couple more cities and States along the way back to the family in Boston.   It's quite nice to go with the flow, so when a few friends tell you to stop by their cities, you do it. 

The first was in Washington, D.C., to have a capital time of it. And man, was the weather good for a day of exploring. A perfect autumn day of blue skies with a slight crisp bite to the air. If only DC summer days were as good, then the city would be swarmed by even more. First up was a walk to the White House, an easy 15 minute walk from my friend Pat's apartment. Tons of security and fencing and no president in sight. Then on to the WWII memorial with a happy collection of vets having their photo taken. Next was the Lincoln Memorial for the best view in town. Always packed, always impressive, perhaps the best memorial (Jefferson is good for having less people and a great tidal basin) and it was good to rest up and enjoy the happy action of the tourists. 

Looking for Obama-rama

Vets at the WWII Memorial

The MLK Memorial was new to me and is cut from a striking piece of rock. Quotes from the great man abound and it makes you think of the few non-presidents who have such an impact on the United States (also see Benjamin Franklin on that 100 dollar bill). 

Having lunch at the Department of Energy was next with another friend and then it was on to a couple of amazing, free museums. More fun out and about with friends later on, eating Eritrean food, checking out the view from a DC rooftop and eating an amazing Popsicle at a spot owned by friends (www.pleasantpops.com). The next day was a promotion ceremony at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and checking out the ICU wing, all set up for Ebola and sparkling clean. Not your everyday DC tour. And that's why you get to know the good people.

Afternoon cloudness

View from the Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Soaking up the view from the Lincoln Memorial

Pictures from the life in rural Virginia

Part of the apple orchard I worked in

Autumn colours

Buffalo Mountain up ahead

Lots of open green out about

Typical country roads we'd drive around on

Sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains from Buffalo Mountain

Full on Appalachian panorama from the farm

Eliza climbing up high to shake down some Wolf River apples

Red fleshed crab apples perfect for making apple jelly

Ain't that a purty picture?