My love blog to West Cliff (and Angela)

When I retired a couple of years ago, I made a list of 50 things I wanted to do in retirement. Number 15 was to bike to West Cliff daily to enjoy our magnificent coastline while getting some exercise. I envisioned riding up and down the coast, stopping to watch my beloved pelicans or the surfers or the breaking waves whenever the mood struck. Lots of people walk up and down, but that just seemed like too much work. I am a bit on the lazy side, but realized I needed to do something in retirement to stay fit. The bike-on-West Cliff idea was bare minimum, I knew, but it was, at least, something.

Well, it didn’t really happen as I envisioned because I met a remarkable woman, Angela, who coaxed me to give the walk on West Cliff a whirl. Her speed is just shy of the road runner, but she glides as if this is a normal speed. She walked as I jogged alongside her. With more encouragement on Angela’s part, I continued doing it until I got to my present condition: I can almost keep up with her by walking, throwing in a skip here and there. However, she does takes pity on me and slows down a bit, though she pretends that is not the case. (And, I think she hopes I will continue to improve to her road runner speed...not likely!)

Nonetheless, now I am totally hooked. Sometimes I walk with Angela at maximum speed; sometimes I walk by myself at a rapid – but slower – speed while listening to Leslie’s iPod (inevitably Wagner); sometimes I walk with Leslie at a relatively slower pace. (She rides her bike for exercise so she enjoys a more leisurely stroll.) But, always, I have this feeling of peace and, on many days, almost perfection.

I am pretty sure that if I continue this I will be healthier, happier and, most likely, live longer. All because of Angela's coaxing! May you have someone like Angela in your life.

So, let’s take a stroll with Angela, shall we??

We meet at her daughter’s school, Gateway, after she drops her off.
(Note the Obama sticker – Angela and I met working on the Obama campaign.)

This is located right by our iconic surfer’s statue.
From this point to Natural Bridges, it is about 2 miles, so our round trip will be about 4 miles.

I ride over on my bike to meet her.

We head off past the Lighthouse, catching a view of the surfers of the day. November has been a great month – most of the days, the surf has been up; the weather has been warm; everybody has been so damn happy along West Cliff.

We run into Angela’s friends every time we walk. She seems to know everyone! Always, she has some plan she needs to confirm or a reminder to deliver to whoever it is we have randomly bumped into. “Don’t forget the hospice benefit on Thursday!” or “You'll be at the State Parks fundraiser Saturday, right?” or “See you at the Board meeting tomorrow”.

Occasionally, I will run into someone I know – for instance, that is Janet on the right. She is in Leslie’s chorus.

Sometimes, it is a Leslie-bike day and she swings by.

I love looking at the beautiful, peaceful small beaches along the way.

And, of course, the crashing surf.

With the exception of some warm weekends, the path is not too full.
Somehow bikes, dogs, baby strollers, walkers, runners and the occasional rollerblader all fit.

Here is a picture of my favorite dog/person couple who walks everyday. That is Peter and Arrow. Arrow is a great dog – just walks along minding its own business. But, if you say hi to him, he immediately jumps with joy. Peter doesn't jump, but he is very nice, too. Arrow is so lucky to have Peter and, I am quite sure, visa versa.

This dog used to love the walk on West Cliff, but now is too arthritic for the effort.
So, her mom takes her in the wagon now.

Along the way, you will see the inevitable hippie with a guitar on one of the cliffs.

This is the parking lot in which the stoner /drumming families lived for years out of their beat-up vehicles. They are painting the curb to change it to 20-minute parking, preventing the group from planting there. I don’t know where they all went...So, it worked. I feel mixed about it.

Love to see all the birds along the way. Particularly the pelicans. I can’t get enough of pelicans!

When we reach the end at Natural Bridges, there is the ceremonial touching of the sign before the return trip.

Sometimes, we start at this end. If so, this is the spot I warm up.

After our stroll, I sometimes bike back up West Cliff and down Swift so that I can stop by my old job to say hi to whomever is working that day. I don’t miss the job; do miss the people.

Here are Orin and Adrian hard at work. Kinda...

And, then, back home...

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.