Catalina and I arrived in Santa Cruz excited to see Cadence, but also happy for a night of shelter…and a shower. Additionally, it was convenient that there was somewhere in the Bay Area I could leave my car unattended. Not one to pass judgement, but based on opinions from everyone I know who lives in the area, this is a serious consideration. After an educational evening about Gumby (Cadence read us the highlights from the Wikipedia article), all nice and clean we had a great sleep.
I didn’t’ expect so many houses that either seemed from Richmond or from Cape May or both. Lots of victorian mansions, lots of wrap around porches, lots of artfully painted trim, the works. For the first time in California, I felt right at home (visually and architecturally at least).
We had two suggestions of activities from Eli and neither of them disappointed. After starting out at the elixir bar, our spirits were set for the rest of the day…or sitting in hammocks is just fun, idk. While Cadence worked on uploading her photoshoot from the previous weekends show, we were general nuisances — eventually getting yelled at for using the hammock bars to hang from 👀 (we were the only ones in there besides the lone employee so don’t judge us too much).
^^ Not pictured is my hammock being wound up, left to twist me in circles until we finally relieved the shop keeper of our presence. Our elixirs only giving us a taste of enlightenment, we headed to Land of the Medicine Buddha for the real deal.
Only 20 minutes outside Santa Cruz, yet nestled deep in a redwood forest, you instantly felt teleported into a different realm. The air got colder and damper, the light dimmer, and the rich smell of the forest was impossible to ignore. Time seemed to slow as we marveled from the car leading up to the entrance. (We took Cadences car for excursions, mine being too full. It was pretty sweet to be a passenger for a change 😄)
At 108 acres, the place is huge. You first walk up to a giant prayer wheel. The inside is filled with over a billion, yes a billion, mantras hand inscribed. As you spin the wheel, the mantra you chant, or intention you set, is magnified by the mantras filling the prayer wheel. This brings benefits to the entire area, not just the individual spinning the wheel. For this reason, it’s suggested to carefully set positive intentions, as they are amplified and echoed across the space.
I thought someone leaving a can of pineapple juice was pretty funny. Maybe there is some deeper meaning behind it, but seemed super out of place. After spending time at the prayer wheel, we walked the trail that took us to the Stupa which was beautiful, but hard to fully appreciate as surrounded by a fence, and not open at the time. There’s too many pictures to include in this post, but check the Google Photos album for videos of the wheel spinning and the different areas.
After a couple hours wandering around, it was time to hit the road. We wanted to catch the sunset from the pier near the hostel, so we headed back into town. I’m so glad we did, because it was a stunning sunset and all around a great time walking down the pier. Looking back, we were all buzzing from the days activities. This translated into being super silly as we laughed and joked our way down the pier. We got a ton of good pictures along the way. (another plug for checking the full album if you like looking at us and/or sunsets)
There were a bunch of seals under the pier and they were making the funniest sounds. Imagine the most stereotypical seal noise being belted and echoed around. There were several groups of us standing near the edge laughing and watching them jump around. After dinner and walking around for a bit, a perfect day concluded as we headed to SFO to drop Catalina off at the airport.
We stopped for ice cream tacos on the way…making us too close for (my) comfort getting to the airport on time. I was driving Cadences car, watching the ETA slowly climb as we sat in traffic. I was stressed we pushed it too much with the ice cream and Catalina was going to miss her flight. Thankfully we made it on time — she was last on the plane but made it!
At this point it was almost midnight, and we had only reserved one night at the hostel. Cadences 2001 CRV fully converts into a bed: all the seats lay completely flat. So we did the most logical thing and drove back into the redwood forest near the Medicine Buddha and slept in the car (after a pit stop by the hostel to dip into my car for blankets and sleeping supplies). There weren’t any signs against parking, and any houses were way up a hill, so seemed fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Another really solid sleep — 7 uninterrupted hours the forest provided us. The thick canopy was super cozy and blocked the early morning sun from waking us. Cadence drove me back to my car, we said our goodbyes, and then I hit the road back to Max’s in Carlsbad.
Oh, that is, after one unexpected rush. My wallet was missing right when I went to leave (I stopped for gas). Cadence said it wasn’t in her car. I retraced my steps from the morning, not at the coffee shop. Going back to the street parking near the hostel…it was right where Cadence parked to drop me at my car. It must have fallen out of the car door or something when I opened it. I could not believe my luck.
For a ton more pictures and videos, check the Google Photos album
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