Life in Santa Cruz (Companion update to my FB album :)

Hello from sunny Santa Cruz! 

Though this isn't technically a place we have 'traveled' per se, it still feels like a new adventure, being as how we just picked up and moved to a seemingly random spot in the US. The truth is-- as many of you probably have heard bits and pieces of for the past 16 months or so-- the Cheap Campers have been planning to move for quite some time. Oregon will always have a place in my heart, especially all the friends and family that still live there, but it was time for me to move on to greener pastures. Luckily I found a man willing to do just that with me and I feel so lucky to have shared this life change with Phil. His confidence, expertise, and just plain ol' man-ness has been greatly appreciated by me.
 Our first 'new life plan' idea was hatched in February 2009 at the Deschutes Brewery--- move to Vancouver BC. One year later, after endless conversations and countless pros and cons lists, we had eschewed Vancouver BC, as well as Japan, New York City, Provence, Toronto, Colorado, Seattle, Bolinas and all of the east coast. It was decided, Santa Cruz... where I camped many times as a kid with my mom and spent hours on the shopping on the boardwalk and boogeyboarding in the warm ocean waves...would be our new home.

New Home

Santa Cruz, one of the most expensive places in the country, where we don't know anyone and don't have any employment prospects, has treated us pretty well so far. We arrived with our moving van and Phil's tiny Sunfire at the doorstep of our new home just under two weeks ago. We lined up our room and signed an agreement all from France, without having really seen the place or met the housemate. A risk, yes, but what a place! Complete with the best swimming hole on the river and nestled in the secluded, quiet California redwoods, this property is beautiful.
The home itself is a meager 900 square feet, however, and is technically the guest house of the main house on the property. Our guest house housemate, Priscilla, is a flamboyant 61-year-old Buddhist with one discrepancy--she has an admitted 'hoarding' problem. We are working with her on it and so far sorting out our roommate agreements and learning to live in harmony as three unemployed adults with two beloved dogs has taken up the majority of our time and energy. She brings us free food and we help her clean up and organize the property and... we are working out the rest of the kinks. On a somewhat different note, I cannot express my gratitude at having access to the simple joys that I missed soooo much in Europe---free laundry, hot showers, good toiletries, reliable free internet, a variety of clothes and cooking our own food. I appreciate these things so infinitely more now.

Post Europe Mentality

My mindframe post-Europe is much more "roll with the punches." At the same time, both Phil and I feel a great deal more settled down internally as well. We both felt like we needed to push ourselves to the limit with adventuring. Which, after visiting 7 countries in 60 days with no real plan, we realllly did. I feel a lot more ready to calm down and start preparing for a real, adult life as a couple, with kids and and house and everything. We still have the adventure spirit that brought us so close together as a couple and birthed the Cheap Camper blog, but I we are officially ready to retire our "weekend warrior" status for good.

Exploring Santa Cruz County

We are technically in a little, teensy unincorporated mountain town call Brookdale, which, as far as I can tell, contains only a lodge and a post office along with its 2000 citizens. About 7 minutes up a winding, scary mountain road is Boulder Creek, where all the 'action' is, along with about 4000 citizens. There are a couple general stores, a pet store, a library and gas station and about 8 realty stores. I guess mountain property sales must still be pretty good! The people here are all definitively quirky. As we were shopping for dinner tonight, Phil commented that we are now the "weird people you see at those village grocery stores where you get your last minute camping supplies." LOL! But we really have not yet descended into the white bearded, permanently grimy, cowboy hat-wearing locals that we see everywhere, not to worry.
The other direction on the scary, winding mountain road heads toward Santa Cruz, and the little towns get progressively more civilized as you get closer to the main freeways. We are about 20 minutes from the boardwalk and an hour and a half in each direction from any big cities. Santa Cruz itself is really quite obsessed with itself. I've seen more than a dozen citizens wearing Santa Cruz logo-ed shirts. There are plenty of crazy, weird looking, bummy people to give the town its distinct progressive, hippy-dippy feel, but I tell ya, the cops have that place under control.  I already got a ticket for talking on my cell phone while driving in downtown SC. There are also several city ordinances that prevent Barley from enjoying the touristy areas. :P We mainly keep to our local mountainy redwood areas for now but usually an errand or something takes us downtown at least every other day.

The Boardwalk! The Ocean!

Tomorrow we plan to attend the season opening celebration of the SC boardwalk--woohoo! A Flock of Seagulls will be playing free show---you know you want to be there!  I'm SO looking forward to tanning on the beach and using our new (used) boogeyboards. Also, there are TONS of surfers! They go to the prime spots every single day! Hoards of them. It's really quite inspiring to see people so dedicated, actually. Not that I have any desire to learn how to surf, but I'm sure Phil will drag me to some lessons here this summer.... sighh!

That's it for now... I will write more once we get settled down here and start Cheap Camping again. I really want to visit Yosemite and both of us want to get back up to Bolinas Beach one of these days. Phil wants to show me Hidden Villa, which is the organic farm he used to work at, and I want to take him to Benicia, where my mom used to live.  Thanks for your eyes and all your guys' support and patience (and help!) during our move :D Come visit us!