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!
