Wipe-out!

Exiting San Francisco went to plan and despite a grey start, the sun burst through as we made our way south along the '101' and '1'. The scenery changed yet again as we drove into 'Steinbeck Country', the author who I grew to admire greatly in my twenties, as Dave did subsequently. We took a spontaneous decision to detour to Santa Cruz which we hadn't revisited in fifteen years.....its a really nice seaside resort town and one of the few West Coast resorts to boast an amusement park and roller coaster. Having walked to the end of the pier to watch the sea lions, we left the beach front area and drove to the very scenic headland, a long-standing 'Mecca' for some of the best surfers in the world.

In fact its where surfing began in the States following a visit made by three Hawaiian princes in the 1890's. Anyway, fate played a hand once again, as we arrived at the neat lighthouse-based surfing museum just as its twenty-fifth anniversary celebration was in full swing!

Several surviving members of the Santa Cruz Surfing Club were there and parked-up were some classic cars bearing 'boards' from 'back in the day'! The centrepiece of the party was a cake prepared by a celebrity chef.....in the shape of sandunes with a protruding surf board!

Of course, they insisted we try some!! Calling into the museum, I listened to a gent who had been a co-founder of the Santa Cruz Surfing Club, who had been a prolific surfer during the 1930's and into the 50's. He pointed to himself in the displayed photographs and remarked that his board had been made of wood and weighed sixty-five pounds when 'dry'! We spent some time watching the surfers riding the waves before setting off for Monterey where we arrived mid-afternoon, to a Comfort Inn covered in flowers.

Santa Cruz inspired my musical choice today, as the following very apt track was playing at the party! (Fingers crossed for the Reds tomorrow....have a great day if you're there Ken!!)