Escape to Santa Cruz

This weekend we visited Santa Cruz.  It was like coming home - suddenly I didn't look like the odd kid on the playground, but blended perfectly in the crowd.  The weather was magical, be it a little ominous in light of the snow blizzard that's engulfing the East Coast.  Temperatures in the low 80 confuse the heck out of my biological clock but I admit I enjoyed it.

Santa Cruz is an amazing place!  It is the land of the fifty year-old skateboarders.  There are beach bums, regular bums, and just people who look like bums but aren't.  Nearly everyone has tattoos and their hair is a bit too long, and they wear weird clothes.  Tie dye is very popular here.  So are VW vans in bright colors.  I saw an actual open top military Jeep pass by full of teenagers who were listening to Sublime as loud as they could.  The rich drive their vintage cars on Highway 1, and the not-so-rich ride bicycles and carry all of their earthly possessions on their backs.

There were a billion dollar view villas overlooking the Pacific, piercing parlors and record stores, liquor stores and cafes, souvenir shops, cotton candy and deep-fried everything on the Boardwalk, calliope music and arcades, yuppies and hippies, yoga moms, youths looking like gangsters, people smoking cigarettes and other stuff at street corners, beach goers and surfer dudes, and sunshine - lots and lots of sunshine!

And honestly, as crazy and unusual all of this seemed, I feel it's still more natural and organic than the wastelands of Suburbia.  In Santa Cruz there's a real sense of culture, of community.

We arrived at high noon so I resorted to taking photos countre jour.  I was shooting while pushing a stroller, so don't judge my composition technique too hard!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Brighton by the Sea

In 2010, our last year in London, John and I decided that we must visit as many places in England and Europe as we could before we moved back to the States.  Our budget didn't allow much, but we made it work and we did travel, and looking back now I even envy my old self a bit.

We spent a long weekend in Brighton and we had a great time.  Brighton is one of those super party-oriented English towns and at night drunk and yelling people practically flooded the scene.  It was crazy in an awesome kind of way, though we didn't join the celebrations but just observed them from the safety of our hotel windows, convinced that they were a huge part of the tourist appeal of Brighton, along with its pebbled beaches, the Pier, and the Royal Pavillion.  

Here are some images from that trip.  I am particularly fond of the memories of the sunset the first night - there was this rainbow cloud in the sky, a magical air and light phenomenon.  Enjoy!

Cruisin'

John took me to a very romantic place this past weekend - the San Francisco Bay - where we got on a catamaran and sailed over to the sunset.  Literally!  It was a tremendous experience, seeing how the color of the water changed with the fading light, feeling the strong gusts of fresh wind, tasting the salt on our lips, being blinded by the big orange ball of gold as we neared the Golden Gate bridge.  

The highlights, in no particular order:

- The seaman who had worked in a factory before, where a machine "bit" him and mangled his left hand so badly that the doctors had to cut off his big toe and saw it onto his hand to save it.  He was a wonderful sailor.

- The Captain of the Adventure Cat catamaran, who put us at ease before the trip by saying that he's done this "once or twice".

- The sea lion pile at Pier 39.  Gorgeous, gorgeous fat fluffy creatures!

- The buffet at the boat - brie and grapes and artichoke salad, yum!

- The view of the city from the water.  It looked so small, so insignificant from over there...

- Alcatraz.  Creepy!

- The moment when we passed under the Golden Gate. Wowzers!

- Windsurfers practically flying left and right past our boat.  Crazy people!

- Pelicans flying low over the waves in a single line, and high up towards the land in large, symmetric flocks.

- The Chinese container ships, bringing the last batch of goods from East.  Big, giant, scary ships.

- The feeling when I stood on the mesh covering the space between the hulls.  Adrenaline overload!

- Being splashed with cold ocean water head to toe.  Awesome.

Here are the photos.  Enjoy!

P.S. Blogger once again butchers the quality of the images, and the collage making software crops them differently than the originals...but you get the picture :)

  

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams

A few days back, at sunset, my Brother-in-law and I climbed up the cliffs that overlook our house.  Sometimes young people go there and build bonfires we can see burning at night.  The view was splendid, and somehow pacifying, probably because we were so high up, and everything down there looked very small.  I brought my 300mm lens and I even captured my parents and Johnny waving at us!

I admit I'm craving to photograph something more urban lately, yet I'm still not tired of being in the country. 10 more days and I'm back in suburban California... Gosh, how time flies when you're having fun!