We arrived into Santa Cruz on Christmas day, intending to stay maybe a week or so, and we are STILL here…..
We were warned it is ‘one of those places’ ‘you’ll never leave’, but….well, it really IS.
Santa Cruz Pier
Surfey People.
The place itself is gorgeous; surf, beach, lovely little town with quirky shops, buskers everywhere, skateboarders doing their thang, the first day we walked around town a huge lorry (truck) drove past with the word ‘PEACE’ emblazoned on it’s side blasting out ‘What the world needs now is love sweet love’ from its speakers. YES! But the people we have met here have REALLY made it trickier and trickier to leave.
Slightly South of Santa Cruz is the little town of Capitola, it is TINY, friendly and beautiful:
Overlooking Capitola and it’s little pier.
By night.
The back of the bars, overlooking the ocean.
The first little gem we met was Andy, a Londoner who has ran bars in America since the 1980s. He has that CLASSIC Eastenders accent, twinkly blue eyes and a massive heart. As soon as we chatted to him about what we were doing he said, ‘come back in tomorrow, I’ll get you lunch and we’ll sort out a date’. He hadn’t even HEARD us play!!!! His bar the Britannia is almost RIGHT on the beach, his Fish and Chips are as British as can be and every time we play there we have a right old giggle:
https://www.facebook.com/britanniaarmscapitola?rf=177764612279929
The Brit.
Our other ‘regular’ is The Fog Bank, billed as Capitola’s ‘Funnest Bar’ – and it is a GEM:
Amy, the owners daughter and bar manager LOVES music (she can sing too) (and shake an egg like a trooper!) has a heart of gold and basically wants us to play in her bar AS MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. We have no problems with that. The view from the back terrace is GORGEOUS, the fish tacos are delish, and the juke box is TOTES RAD. they have music here almost every night- really good stuff too, and the blues jam on a Sunday is a delight; an awesome house band and a beautiful menagerie of people, all ages, all SORTS of tie-dye and beard, all dancing together in a smiley, sweaty frenzy. http://www.the-fogbank.com/
Aside from these two beautiful places, we have gigged in San Jose and Boulder Creek, and played a couple of AWESOME jam nights- Rich has been helping to host a Reggae Jam at the Crows Nest, a beautiful bar in Santa Cruz Harbour, and we had some fun at the Reef Bar in town as well (see slideshow below!) But it is the people we have met at our gigs that have really made it for us. We have been dirt bike riding with a man named Mitch McMurray, who has the best redneck moustache you really wouldn’t think a twenty-something year old would be sporting, but somehow he makes it work, got on a 12 foot surfboard with a man named John- literally WITH him, yanking me upright and holding onto my hand as I squawked and squealed down the waves, been out in the woods and to the Sasquatch museum (ha ha haaaaaaa… AWESOME) with Kelly and Vince, shared an open fire with Julia and Robert, had some excellent chats with John aka Whiskey Leavins http://devilsownpiss.com/ and danced, squeaked and shook the night away with some amazing characters, including one lady who, when describing our gig said ‘You guys are sooooo, symmetrical. You’re like liquid yoga’.
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!
But we are preparing for our final week in this vicinity, gigs this weekend at the Britannia and a final Fog Bank gig next Thursday and then it’s off into the real world again, to find more awesome beans to party with….. Thank you Santa Cruuuuuuuz!!!
oooh! it sounds absolutely lovely!
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