Day 273

273/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Today we explored Santa Cruz. 

We woke up and took our time this morning because we didn't have much driving to do. We met Jesse and April, Jaimie's friends who I had met the night before, at this place called Cafe Brasil for breakfast. The food was delicious and the place was lively, it was a thousand times better then the awkward Mexican food place the day before. 


After breakfast, Jaimie and I went and explored downtown Santa Cruz, which was cool. Some of my favorite things about a city are the murals, we don't get that kind of stuff in Santa Barbara, and we definitely don't get it in my hometown. I was digging this one in particular:




After hanging out downtown, we headed to the boardwalk. It was a Monday, and it's still winter, so it was shut down and it made the whole place really eerie. Jaimie and I seemed like the only people in the whole place, which was nuts. 




It was cool to see though, I definitely want to make a trip up there this summer because it looks like it'd be fun to hit all the rides and eat deep fried twinkies all day. 


After the boardwalk, we met April at UC Santa Cruz and she gave us a tour. She had finished her last paper the night before and was officially graduated, so technically it was her first time back as an alumnus, so it was cool to walk down memory lane with her. It's crazy to me how the campus is just kind of sprinkled around the forest, a lot of the time we were just hiking around redwoods. 



This is tree 9 (because people in NorCal are super creative with naming things). Back in the good ol' days, there was a rope dangling down, and you could climb up the rope, and then climb to the top of the tree. There was a sort of unspoken agreement, and the university let it be for a long time. Then recently, someone made a fuss (probably a parent), and the university cut the lower branches so you can't climb it anymore. I was pretty bummed, because it's one of the tallest trees in the forest and from the top you can see everything all around you. It seemed pretty easy to climb too, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. 





When we got out of the forest, we were hungry. I was skeptical, but we went to this vegetarian/vegan place called Saturn Cafe that apparently had good burgers (isn't that an oxymoron or something?). When we got there, April casually mentioned that this particular place will make a big ruckus for you once you graduate. So we made Jaimie go talk to the guy to see what was up, and April was already getting embarrassed. I jokingly said the person who they did that for probably worked at the Cafe, and April admitted she'd only seen it happen once. Then Jaimie came back and said the guys looked super confused when she mentioned it and told her he, "wasn't sure what their policy was on that."


But a few minutes later, this super hip looking waitress got on a table and asked for everyone's attention. She asked the restaurant how many of them had been to college. Our whole table raised their hands, along with one waiter and ONE OTHER PERSON at another table, which really surprised me. Then she asked us if we could imagine, or if we were done already if we could remember, the day that we graduate. All that hard work and dedication, the satisfaction of finally finishing. Then she announced someone here had done just that the day before, and her name was April. Then, in a moment of awkward hilarity, she led the entire place in singing "Happy Graduation to You" to the tune of Happy Birthday. We were all dying laughing and the rest of the place wasn't quite sure what to do with themselves. After the song, they brought April a shake, and the waitress made a very good point. Birthdays happen every year and all you have to do is survive, but graduating college happens once, and a lot of people never even make it to that point, so it's a much bigger deal. We couldn't agree more, and I think I'm going to start using this tactic to get free shakes/cakes/pizookies whenever I can!


We hung out in Santa Cruz for a bit after we ate, and then we headed towards San Francisco. This was the easiest drive of the whole trip by far, it didn't take long at all. Plus, we cruised CA-17, which winds through the hills. I was lettin' it rip around corners and shifting all over the place, I felt like I was in a "Fast and the Furious" movie, it was so much fun. Once we got to Jaimie's house we just relaxed. Today was by far the most laidback day of the trip, but it was really nice to take a breather after two days of exploring at a breakneck pace. 


If you want to see more pictures from the trip, be sure to check out the flickr album, it's chock-full o' goodness.