Today Jeff’s company threw a great party for all the employees and their families at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. They had BBQ chicken and burgers and all the accompaniments, sodas, beer and wine, entertainment and free rides all day.  We really enjoyed meeting some of his co-workers and spending time together as a family, doing something new and different. We have been to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk several times, but have never ridden the rides.   We all went on many of the rides together and then split up to enjoy different things too, like the arcade games. It made me excited to go and explore Europe together as a family and discover new joys together.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day. And to top it off, when we got home, my mama had made us her special sauce and dinner was magically ready!!  How nice is that?

Kath’s favorite ride at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (photo taken in March 2012, during a stormy spring break).

For the past couple of days my oldest son has been helping me clean out the closet he shares with his brother (currently living in NY) and the garage where I stored things I had in a much larger house that no longer fit in this smaller one. I’ve lived here for 10 years; it is time for that stuff to go! We’ve made runs to Goodwill and Urban Ore, put usable items on the sidewalk a couple of days early for people to pick over, and finally the things too ruined or worn out to be usable were hauled away by a recycling company yesterday.

I also needed to make some room in the garage to store an antique secretary of my sister’s that my parents moved here from Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

This process of cleaning out, acquiring, and donating–while pretty exhausting–also rekindled my desire to write a memoir, a genre I’m a bit leery of, though I enjoy reading the good ones that feel honest and have something to teach me. Whenever I’ve written pieces that resemble memoir, I’ve chosen the personal essay. (What’s the diff?: see Vivian Gornick’s great book The Situation and the Story.) I feel like the essay keeps me honest. It’s shorter, no need to extend beyond the truth while also creating, I hope, something of value both in language and style as well as story. But what that also tells me is that I’ve always chosen the snapshot over the album. With my sister’s death, maybe it’s time for the bigger picture?

On December 31st I made a resolution to take a photograph every day (Resolution 2012 a set on flickr). I believe in resolutions that add something rather than take something away (weight, alcohol, etc.). I apply what a priest told me about Lent when I made the enormous mistake of converting to Catholicism about 25 years ago: which was to require myself to do something that was difficult but that would fill an emptiness in my life. While I am most definitely not a Catholic anymore, I find that to be valuable advice. I took a picture of my local taco truck and was feeling optimistic about the New Year. The next morning my mother called to tell me that sister had died.

For many reasons, I found it difficult to write in the following months. Taking photographs kept me sane. Find a focus; frame it; click; upload. No need to interpret (maybe later with a caption). But lately I’ve been writing again. Yesterday I spent some time looking at books I’ve used in teaching an advanced writing class: Bill Roorbach’s Writing Life Stories, which I find more useful for teaching than doing, and Tristine Rainer’s Your Life as Story. Roorbach’s book has a lot of exercises, which–like the students he pokes fun at–I just don’t want to do. Maybe I’ve done them too many times with my students? Maybe I just don’t like exercises? In any case, Rainer’s outline appealed to me. I can sketch in events, memories, ideas for most of the sections except Desire. How telling is that? I’m pretty sure I know what I desire; I think I’m afraid to say it. So I’ll start the memoir if for no other reason that to put the Desire into words.

The photograph below is one I took as I left my parents’ house on New Year’s day. I drove past the beach that my family has loved going to for the past 30 years. And there I saw Kath jetting out into the cosmos, taking a little piece of me (my right kidney) with her.

memento mori

Image captured July 12, 2012.

Said friend and I hiking around Point Lobos

Million dollar home. Beach view. Straight from a fairy tale

Friday. Day 1.

• Drive through Garlic County, where they produce the most garlic for the US. They even have garlic flavored ice cream.
• Arrive in Carmel drive around Carmel Beach coast and check out some million-dollar homes that belong to celebrities
• Visit the infamous Carmel Candy Cottage featured in the Wall Street Journal
• Had dinner at Corkscrew a rustic, local fare restauraunt in Carmel Valley Village. I had a Mediterranean oven-baked pizza with fresh tomatoes, eggplant, onions, spinach and feta cheese. Like many eateries in the area, they have a garden out back that provides them with the freshest produce possible

Carmel Beach

China Cove, Point Lobos State Park

Jellies!!!

Saturday Day 2

• Had a breakfast of Swedish pancakes and fresh Tuscan melon from the local farmers market
• Took the dog to the most dog-friendly beach (Carmel Beach) I have ever seen in the morning. Kicked off the shoes and tried to walk through the water on the beach. Although it was freezing, you got used to the icy waves after a while. Only the tourists there actually think people go swimming in the Pacific Ocean.
• We went on a hike in Point Lobos, the northern most part of Big Sur. We saw Bird Island and China Cove.
• Had a well-deserved lunch in Carmel Village at Basil–another organic, seasonal restaurant. They gave us bread and pesto to start and then we split gnocchi with colorful squash, zucchini, olives, and sage. I then had a soup, sandwich combo of apple-pea soup (so good!) and a fresh veggie sandwich, complete with sprouts.
• Next stop was the infamous Monterrey Aquarium, where I saw jellyfish, otters, and seahorses
• Bought some touristy things at Cannery Row and saw like five weddings taking place at Lover’s Point on the ocean. They got lucky, there was no fog at all this entire weekend.
• Took a quick cruise on the Pebble Beach 17-mi drive. I was with a local so we skipped having to pay the tourist fee.
• Went to the Earthbound Organic headquartered food stand to buy some fresh, organic produce to grill. How much more California can you get?
• Grilled a fabulous array of vegetables, and even pineapple for dinner! We had fresh chard from the garden sauteed.

Some of the jellies can glow in the dark!

This is a sea dragon. Not to be confused with a sea horse. But did you know that sea horses are the only animal where the male gets pregnant?

Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Very little boardwalk actually present though.

Day 3

• Breakfast at the Goose, local coffee shop in Carmel Valley Village
• Drove the scenic route to Santa Cruz Board Walk, where we rode the 6th oldest roller coaster in the US, The Giant Dipper, ate garlic fries, icees, and roasted pecans at over prices prices, walked along the beach and then still found room for tacos from a local stand

The Great Dipper! Huge adrenaline rush after that thing. Lots of bumps, so lots of empty stomach feeling to go around

Source: Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Media Credit: Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Posted:  Wednesday June 13, 2012 @ 11:57 pm PST

Berlin featuring Terri Nunn will be performing at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on June 22, 2012.

Berlin Featuring Terri Nunn

It’s easy to be whisked when you live in a place where you can drive a few hours in any direction and be in a completely different, vacation-like setting pretty quickly.  This past weekend we did just that and enjoyed a mini getaway to Santa Cruz, home of FRIED Oreos, all the carnie food you can eat, The Big Dipper (and other rides that take you back to being twelve again), and beach and boardwalk for miles and miles.

All of this Santa Cruz delight plus the sunny beach, a charming small town with B&B’s and yummy food and lots of very cool boutiques make this the perfect fix for wanderlusters.

Sometimes you just need to get away – for a little recharge time.

-M

Santa Cruz Boardwalk from the Wharf.

Outside the Boardwalk Arcade.

Hubby and I took a drive down to Santa Cruz for our anniversary this past weekend. There we enjoyed a mini spa, a bit of shopping and strolling, and lots and lots of eating. Oh gosh I’m still full!

The Santa Cruz boardwalk is synonymous with California summer fun, but I can’t remember the last time I went. After dinner, we walled along the outside perimeter and down the wharf. The Boardwalk was closed, but an all-night Girls Scout function inside made the place alive. Security was at high though, and we watched (and photograpped) several teens being verbally reprimended for sneaking in… so, we just stayed outside the fence ;)

Oh, and Hubby snapped this awesome pic of a gull looking quite guilty, his cheeks stuffed with a seastar he can’t swallow. hehe… Of course, unlike SOME people I know ( you know who you are ) we saw NO DOLPHINS! grrrr

There’s a time and a place for junk food. There are moments when a corn dog and cotton candy are almost required eating. Like on a visit to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for instance. Or eating leftover cake and ice cream for breakfast the day after your birthday. We make it a point to hit the Boardwalk at least once during the summer to get our fill of Skee Ball, Roller Coasters and Salt Water Taffy. I’m all for healthful, balanced eating, but sometimes you just gotta go off the grid!

1. Big Dipper.

2. Seaswings are trippy.

3. Chainsaw Charles’s new cobra tattoo.

4-6. Work, slave, rob, steal, save, get a credit card. Call dreamland.

Me and my 8 1/2-year old “Little Brother” Noah King on Big Brother Day 2001, at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Memories,

-LaRoushe