DAY TWENTY TWO
We were reluctant to leave San Francisco, especially since our trips to Alcatraz and Napa Valley meant that we had spent so little time in San Francisco proper. To help make up for this, we decided to take a quick detour up to the Haight Ashbury area in order to imbibe a little of that 1960s hippie ‘Summer of Love’ spirit — even if this ultimately amounted to little more than taking pictures from the car of the ‘giant fishnet stocking legs’ outside Piedmont Boutique…
It was then just a short drive down the coast to the beach resort of Santa Cruz — famous for its beachside boardwalk that has featured in loads of classic* films including The Lost Boys (1987) and Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988).
* classic in Iain’s eyes at least
After a romantic walk along the pier accompanied by the strangely-relaxing sounds of the sea-lions barking below, we took a wander along the beach boardwalk only to find that we had missed a Blue Oyster Cult gig there by one day. We had been listening to a surprising amount of Blue Oyster Cult on the trip (as they feature on the Supernatural soundtrack) so we were especially disappointed to miss them.
Of course, Santa Cruz has more to offer than nostalgia gigs from 1970s hard rock bands so we decided to head into the downtown area and explore the many independent shops including the Moon Zooom vintage clothing shop and the Sub-Rosa anarchist library.
We then picked up some food at the local Trader Joes and headed back to our AirBnB for the night — a tiki themed studio apartment — for another home cooked meal supplemented by the many bagels, apples, chocolates, and beer that the owner had left for us. So much better than staying in a hotel.
We loved all the eccentric decor — especially the hand-painted faces hanging in the hallway — all topped off by the hula dancer lamp on the kitchen table.
