June 2002
1 Saturday
For my early morning walk this morning, I went down Rengsdorf road to the freeway overbidge to take some photos of the freeway.

Looking south along highway 101 from the Rengsdorf overbridge

All the time Sally and I have been walking around these streets it has been noticable that we are usually the only people on foot.  Is this because its not safe walking the streets or is it that Californians prefer cars to go to the corner 'Seven Eleven'?  Only once have I seen somebody walking for fitness and he had a dog with him. (protection or doggie exercise?)  Back to Russells for breakfast and morning coffee.   Being the weekend, Russell & Novey didn't get up until about 10:30, (10:30!  where did we go wrong?) there normal bedtime being 1-2am.  After a careful study of Russell's detailed road map, Sally and I decided to drive to Santa Cruz in the afternoon, we really wanted to include Monterey, but Russell suggested that a full day would probably be required for that, particularly at the weekend. So after a sandwich for lunch we set off.  Negotiated the interchanges ok and got onto the winding hill section on highway 17 where we encounted crawling traffic due to an accident further on up the hill. We eventually arrived at Santa Cruz and exited from the freeway into the city streets where we almost aimlessly managed to drive to a quiet street with parking meters and parked in a 2 hour meter for a quarter, actually a good deal. Not quite knowing where we were in relation to the beach, we headed off on foot to where we thought the town center ought to be and eventually came to the main street and bingo, the Information Center. They were very friendly in there and we came away with a detailed map of the town, several brochures and a biking map in case we were going to cycle around.  Actually a bicycle would have been a very good way to see places like Santa Cruz, but however.....

Looking along Main St, Santa Cruz

We strolled along the main street looking at the shops and sidewalk entertainers (buskers), some begging, and a topless girl sitting on the sidewalk playing a small harp. Near the end of the street we bought a huge orange drink thingy which we shared sitting beside the municipal gardens outside the US post office building

A cool orange 'thingy' in downtown Santa Cruz

and then walked back down the other side of the main street back to the car to check on the parking time.   Still time left on the meter so set off to the beach which we found without trouble with the aid of our new map.  Took some photos and walked out onto the pier where Sally bought two book mark souvenirs.

The beach and Fun Park at Santa Cruz

At this stage we thought we had better return to the car in case the US federal marshalls were towing our car from an expired meter. Found the exit from the town onto the freeway after two false turns and then it was a straight forward drive back to Russells place. After passing this first real test at driving a significant distance on the US roads I found I was much more confident about the driving I was about to undertake in the days ahead.