Hello Santa Cruz

Well, we are settling back into our home. But first, the final shot of our beloved Big Island out our plane window.


As I have mentioned before, I love lists. So let me give a brief list of some of the things that make it so great to return to Santa Cruz, much as we loved Hilo.

1. The boardwalk. It is so sweet and such a well-maintained relic of an earlier time in America. And, the Giant Dipper is awesome.

2. Brown pelicans in flight. They are just my favorite thing in the sky by far. I missed them in Hilo.

3. Walking or riding down West Cliff. I just love this stretch of the ocean. Partly because it is beautiful and can be - during a storm - incredibly powerful. Partly because I see my beloved pelicans as I walk or ride. Partly because I run into friends as I go. Partly because I just feel that it is mine in a way that no other part of the ocean is.

4. Our movie theaters. What other town of 55,000 has 7 arthouse screens within 2 blocks of each other (plus another 9 screens for Hollywood fare also a few steps away)? The answer is no place on earth! (Hilo has art films on one screen on the weekends sometimes.)

5. The barking sea lions. They are the closest thing to coqui frogs! Well, they are the sound you can hear in the night even though they are more than a mile away. (Though, I admit, only when there is a fog blanket to reflect the sound, but then they do sound like they are only a few blocks away.)

6. The colors on my fireplace. This one is unique to our home. We have a leaded glass window in our door and it refracts colors into our house. It is just spectacular when the colors are on the rocks of our fireplace. I love to sit in my la-z-boy watching the ever-changing show.

7. The people of Santa Cruz. I just like being in a place that I will always run into someone I know where ever I go. I don't even have to like the person that much. I just like having a community small enough to constantly bump into people and say "hey". And, of course, it has been great to see my friends - coffee with Darien, Ian, Karen, Mindy, Mary, John, Joao, Brian; walking with Angela; running into Lynne on West Cliff; making plans to get together with Mike and Lynne, Larry and Elena; dropping by and saying hi to Claudia, Pam, Jesse, Jim, Adrian and Orin at their offices; waving to Luigi as I was riding my bike; getting yelled at by Geo for not wearing a bike helmet; Chris dropping by to welcome us back; Daphne - our mail carrier - knocking on the door to welcome us home; greeting our neighbors, and on it goes....

8. The Miramar hill. I live on Miramar (which means view of the ocean in Spanish). We don't have a view at our house. But, there is a spectacular view three blocks up. But, that last block is a doozy - very steep. Great exercise; great view.

9. My hot tub. Now, I hate cold but when I am cold, I love my hot tub. The feeling of jumping into hot water when I am chilled is probably my favorite sensual experience. (Ok, maybe rolling in warm sheets out of the dryer is equally great.) Though we have returned to spectacular warm winter weather in the daytime - it gets chilly at night. So, I have enjoyed this one a few times. (In Hilo, no chill = no hot tub experience.)

10. Downtown Santa Cruz. Just a great place to hang out.

I am now going to go on blog hiatus. (Judith - "hiatus" veut dire une interruption en français. And thanks for the comment on the last blog!) I have many things I must do now that I am back in Santa Cruz - classes to take, jobs to do, people to see - so I want the blog time for other things. If I know you read this thing, I will tell you when I begin it again. (Hey, Yemindra told me that John Shay reads it. John - is it true?)

Bye for now.