Tired gurdymonkey

[gurdymonkey]

Drove down to Santa Cruz last night, picked up Dad at the campus, then went down to the wharf and had dinner at Carniglia's on vittoriosa 's recommendation. It's no Avanti, but we still had a lovely meal with a view of the water and the incoming wall of mist, supervised by a seagull who sat outside the window trying to use his Jedi mind skills to disintegrate the glass between us. I had a Caesar salad with a downright zingy, peppery dressing, tilapia with their "Mediterranean" sauce - a mixture of olives, capers, onion and so forth, served with parmesan garlic mashed potatoes (I could happily have had way more garlic and cheese and not minded,  but they were still pretty good), and mixed veg of the carrotzucchiniyellowsquash variety. Dad had sole in butter, which was blander than mine, but it's a very mild fish and it was nicely cooked. We each tried a "Dark & Stormy: (ginger beer with rum), and split their excellent dense, semi-sweet flourless chocolate cake for dessert.

As I'd committed to the demo at the youth fair in San Jose, I stayed in the dorm room with Dad. Did not sleep terribly well as it was a strange bed and he snores. Got up early, had breakfast burritos and coffee at a little joint in a Safeway shopping center and took him back up the hill.
Thinking the drizzle might conceivably yield a couple of interesting photos, I detoured past Lighthouse State Beach. It was cold, the surf did not appear to be doing much of anything, but there were a bunch of folks sitting on boards below the cliff.

Went to the fair, hurdygurdied on pavement in medieval shoes for longer than I probably should have, threw myself on a rootbeer float at one point, then came home too tired to even think of taking the bike out. It was nice to hang out with some of the local SCA crew, but I'm beat.

Dad is going to turn up some time tomorrow, so I'm taking it easy this evening.

Comments

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, it is FAR more important to just be OUT on the water than it is to catch waves...

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I figured. The water looked pretty calm at that hour. And there were more folks changing into wet suits in the parking lot when I pulled out.

It actually makes sense to me: I'd rather walk on the beach in a downpour (and have, to my mother's consternation) than sit in a motel room waiting for the rain to stop.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

Those pictures were very nice. I especially liked the one with the lighthouse.

(Oh, I wish I lived near the sea! I mean, we have a really big river here, but it's just not the same!)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

These are the ones I shot in the same area last year:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157621856237251/

I mostly grew up within a couple hours of the Jersey shore and went to the beach pretty regularly. The beaches on this coast are much more rugged, but there's something about the smell of the ocean and the feel of the air that's very special.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I envy you the time with your father, I really do.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

He and I have always been close and he still enjoys traveling, whereas my Mom doesn't. He's been coming out for The Dickens Project since UC Santa Cruz started holding it in the 1980's, plus he has academic friends at Berkeley, Sac State and UCLA, so he sometimes makes it out during his spring break to see them and me.