Cruisin' In Santa Cruz My 27 year old niece, Erika, was getting married I Santa Cruz so I planned a weekend trip to attend. I wanted Dawn to go with me so she could meet some of the family she hasn’t met yet as well. I had just spent a week in San Jose with a short side trip to Santa Cruz three months earlier so I knew the area fairly well already. I hadn’t gotten to see Santa Cruz beach or the boardwalk though so I definitely wanted to see that. Dawn had earned a free ticket on Southwest and [View Full Entry]

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Wow, what started as an easy 3/4 day turned into an adventure of epic proportions, ending up with me camping in a ditch on the edge of a field, a body search for weapons and a 2km single track adventure with a fully loaded road bike…. So I left my camp surrounded with giant trees and quiet peacefullness in brilliant sunshine. An easy(ish) 50km ride brought me to Monterey where I decided to have a break, chill out and catch up with the world with internet. After that and lunch it was time for me to move on, not really having [View Full Entry]

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We left the Rainbow Gathering in New Mexico on July 6th and headed back to California until our flight out to the East Coast (Hopefully I'll have a blog about the Gathering sometime soon). Our first stop in California was back in Fresno to unpack, say bye to some of Phoenix' family and friends, and then of course repack. The first two nights back "in Babylon" our beautiful Rainbow crew - Sherie, Conor, Phoenix and I spent the night reminiscing and creating some very excellent food together. It's always a little strange to come back into society after being in the [View Full Entry]

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June 11th 2009 A new addition to the family Please say 'hi' to Betty Boy. After his purchase last Wednesday, I finally brought him home from the showroom on Saturday. In good old sensible, grown-up fashion I took him in for a full service to hopefully eliminate any mechanical problems further down the line. Fingers crossed. My new boy is called Betty. He is definitely a boy. And his name is definitely Betty. Or more precisely, Betty Boy. I like a car with a nice gender identity crisis going on. I think Betty Boy and I will be happy together. I [View Full Entry]

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The pace of life is much more to my liking here. The scenery is beyond beautiful. I stayed in San Luis for a week then moved to San Jose for a week before going into a beautiful California State Park in Bodega Bay which is about 60 miles north of San Francisco. California is obviously very fertile and produces a huge portion of the fruits and vegetables for U.S. markets. I have driven through fields of strawberries, orange groves, avocado groves, fields of cabbages, broccoli, romaine lettuce, artichokes; which I have never seen growing before and of course mile after mile [View Full Entry]

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We took the usual trip up to Santa Cruz from Los Angeles except this time it was in the beginning of Spring. Driving on highway 101 was a totally different experience from other times, although we followed almost the exact same path. Some people say that seeing the Pacific Ocean besides the road makes one feel scared, almost like it can crash in to the path at any moment. I wasn't really afraid of that though, the only thing that scared me is myself starring into where the ocean and the sky meet for too long. It's an addicting and hypnotizing [View Full Entry]

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Due to perfectly crisp and sunny spring weather in Flagstaff while Santa Cruz suffered overcast and rain for several days in a row, I extended my Arizona days a fair bit. I had intended to spend only one night in Flag (my backpack with one change of clothes confirming this original idea), which would be just enough time to collect my stuff and turn around, but by the time I eventually left it had been 10 days. By now I had secured my spot in the house as an ever welcomed guest by making a Swedish pancake breakkie for everyone, and [View Full Entry]

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Q. Why am I traveling? A. To meet the people who I love, but don't know yet. I took a 25-mile bike ride today. It was sooo good. Man, I know I say this a lot, but I can't even handle how beautiful people are in this world. The things you do and the places you go while traveling are good, but it really is the people and the connections you make that make every up and down worthwhile. P.S. I am now an official fire spinner, and also have half of my beard singed off because of this! [View Full Entry]

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Santa Cruz, haut-lieu du surf et du skateboard. O’neil, l’inventeur de la combinaison néoprène utilisée par les surfeurs, tient toujours son magasin et si l’on est chanceux on a même des chances de le croiser. Dans ce même magasin on peut voir la morsure laissée par un requin sur une planche de surf et lire le témoignage captivant du surfeur qui a faillit y rester. Si l’on est pas sûr de rencontrer O’neil, un gars qu’on est certain de croiser c’est l’allumé qui se ballade au ralenti et qui est tout de rose vêtu... Cette ville est également peu [View Full Entry]

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All parts of the US coast have their signature seafood that one would have to pay an arm and a leg for anywhere else. Lobster in Maine, Stone Crabs in Florida, Crayfish in Louisiana, King Crabs in Alaska, and Dungeness Crab in the Bay Area. I got mine at Costco, fully cooked. Here I was, sitting in my car prying apart whole cooked Dungeness while parked at Costco. It was quite good, but I was bummed to find out that the crab season had been pretty bad and that the prices were at $6-7 / lb instead of the usual $3. [View Full Entry]

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