I woke up in Santa Cruz to a crisp but wonderfully sunny day. A delicious pancake breakfast and decision-making as to what we were going to do that day took the better part of the morning. We finally left the house to tour a bit around Santa Cruz. My sister seemed reluctant to leave and I could see why.
We spent a while walking along a cliff overlooking the Pacific and watching surfers riding long smooth swells.
Afterward, we drove to an organic market and had lunch at a taco shop. Bags packed, we said farewell to Santa Cruz...
...until the Prius died. We pushed the car to the side of the road (we were still pretty much in downtown Santa Cruz), called a tow truck and spent the afternoon in a dealership. Luckily, our previous Santa Cruz hosts were super welcoming and treated us to dinner at their house that evening. I spent the evening writing my first Macworld review.
After dinner (where I apparently I made ome awkward comments that my sister lectured me about later), we headed to Chavez Co-op, a community house nearby where my sister and friends wanted to spend the night. It's been 2 or 3 years since I last lived in a co-op, so I had to brush up on my co-oppiness, but the place was amazing.
Chavez had a very friendly community feel to it, and all the residents were super welcoming. Some of them took us to a show at a Santa Cruz house, where we heard Matt Embry, former frontman of the RX Bandits play some really awesome experimental music. When I learn how to upload mp3s, I'll stick them here because I recorded some of his stuff on my iPhone. Later that night, we returned to the house, where I talked to some really cool chicks who will be heading out to DC soon, danced in a room dance party, and sat on the floor and talked about music while listening to records with some dude. Very chill.
I fell asleep on a couch in the common room of Chavez with the smell of tea in my nostrils and the faint sound of someone playing a guitar.