The fresnel lens, made in 1875, that shone for about 100 years at Pigeon Point Lighthouse
A second memorial o a cyclist killed by a car. This was a hit-and-run driver on 5/4/2012.
I lived in Santa Cruz in my early twenties, from 1972-1977. I was nowhere near ready to grow up and the town didn’t ask it of me. I was immature, self-absorbed, single, countercultural and quite sexually active. Indeed, as I look back on those years, it’s likely that my base of tongue cancer of thee years ago, which had the “marker” that indicated it was of the same type as develops into cervical cancer in women, was an STD that took 30+ years to develop, and thus may have been contracted in those heady days here.
So yesterday I simply rode about 35 miles from Pigeon Point into and then around the town, obserrving what had changed and what remained. The day was absurdly hot: the high here was 96 degrees (in the shade, for reggae fans), too hot for serious riding. The Loma Prieta Earthquake, which occurred 25 years ago today, fundamentally changed the nature of the downtown area, by destroying many of the old iconic buildings. Certainly there was more of what I recall: more people, more development, more cultural (and highly commercialized) hipness… and certainly I felt twinges of longing for that carefree, irresponsible stage of life. But I’m half a lifetime removed from that time, more reflective now than seeking experience, and my adventures are now of a very different nature.
Maryam (R) and her housemates Tyndall (L) and Joselyn
I stayed with a houseful of wonderful Warmshowers hosts, Maryam, a UCSC college senior living with housemates. Maryam had ridden solo up the coast to Orcas Island this summer and was now looking through Warmshowers hosting to repay the generosity she was shown. She peppered me with questions about this town’s character when I lived here, which led to far-ranging talks about cancer, suicide, planetary survival, human kindness and motivation… a delightful evening.
A shared iPhone photo of last evening’s fireworks…I forgot to bring my camera
Then that evening my arrival in town was celebrated with a fireworks display! — not. Last evening was actually the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Santa Cruz wharf and pier. We walked a few blocks to the Boardwalk and sat on the beach as the fireworks began. This was most likely the best fireworks display I have ever seen: The launch point was only a couple of hundred feet away, so all of the pretty colors (!) were right over our heads, and just kept on and on for close to an hour.