California Dreamin'

Cheers from Santa Cruz!

so i am staying with hot mel (i love her!) in her house one block from the coast. we walked there for five minutes before we had to leave and meet someone and in that five minutes i saw loads of kelp, a sea otter, a bazillion cormorants, sea gulls, pelicans, and some other birds i could not identify. i was so excited about it and i was apologizing to mel bc it's probably old hat for her, but she assured me that she is still just as excited about it... and we didn't even walk on the sand - this was from the cliff. so i am looking forward to walking on some sand soon. (the picture is off some california sea lions (the big blobs) and some cormorants hanging out on a rock and being LOUD!)

santa cruz downtown is interesting... we walked the main drag and there are 3 huge bookshops and about seven coffee shops, four surf shops, and then four other places that sell shoes... crazy that all these shops are doing well in a eight block section.

i really dont know what we are going to do for the next few days... but i dont really care. just trying to make sure i have all my stuff straight before i head down under.