Rosie and The Operator are chillin…kicking back and relaxing, winding down after our road trip. We are only two hours out of San Francisco and have decided to stay in town for a few days and just travel out from here. Its nice having a lie in after being up every morning at 6.30am for the last couple of weeks. Holiday? Its been pretty long days up till now so its nice just mooching around.
We took a drive up the road to Capitola, this small seaside resort has an almost Mediterranean feel about it, with cafes and restaurants having big outdoor patios facing the sea.
The small colourful mud buildings were built over 135 years ago, they all join together and seem so tiny, there are three streets linked with tiny alleys and they have the best beachfront seaview of all. The wharf in the bottom picture looked pretty rickity…it is the original from the 1850s when the town was first established by wealthy land owners that lived in the gold mining hills, they came to the coast to escape the heat of summer and the town was established. We rolled into town pretty early and seemed to be the only ones around at 9.00am, a couple of families had spread their blankets on the sand and established their compound for the day….trying to get their kite to fly was totally futile…there was not a breath of wind. It was abit cooler and overcast today, the sun never made an appearance and it was a manageable 70F all day.
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Back in Santa Cruz we took a drive along the waterfront, they have a coastal walkway where you can stroll or cycle along the waters edge, then there is the road and then the flash houses look out over the road and walkway to the sea. Grandstands were going up on the walkway as the O’Neill Surfing Classic was being held in Santa Cruz this coming weekend, 37 of the top men’s pro surfers were competing for a $250,000 top prize and the sea…was like glass…The Operator asked one of the guys setting up if the surf came with the tide? Nah man, they just appear…OK…good luck with that one
The response was in true Californian style, everyone seems to be too chilled and laid back…the stale smell of marijuana or incense seems to permeate everyone here, young and old, no one hurries, they wander, they talk slow, think slow and are soooo, happy, yet they all walk around with huge silver thermos cups of coffee in their hands, the caffeine should jump start everyone a little surely, then again decaf seems the more popular choice. Does coffee taste that nice you would forgo the benefits of the effects of caffeine…
The irony was The Operator went for cycle ride past the competition zone about 3 hours later and the surf, was, fair pumping in….I digress, the blue whale bones above were outside the Seymour Marine Discovery Centre, the whale had beached down the coast in the 60s and was stripped of
its flesh and the bones and airlifted to the lab where it was assembled outside the institute. The coastline here seems so diverse, clean and lush….there is beach grass living alongside what looks almost like alpine style bushes, the seaweed is pretty prolific as are the wildlife…we pride ourselves for being green, but California seems to have it sorted on the clean green reality. We ordered a taxi out for dinner and the name of the company was Go Green…we mocked the taxi driver that turned up in a late 80s Mercedes…thought you would turn up in a hybrid…he said no, we run on bio diesel…you can so smell the scent of chip fat in their exhaust!
We went out to dinner last night at a restaurant called Gabriella Cafe, www.gabriellacafe.com it was a small intimate restaurant which prides itself on fresh organic locally sourced produce and ingredients, the menu changes subtly every night, depending on what is seasonally available at the local Farmers Market. The candlelit and fairy light lit dining room is cosy and welcoming, tonight the menu slant was toward game, rabbit and duck. We had a pate platter which included rabbit and duck pate, handmade quince paste, pears and nuts. It was smooth, rich and divine. Rosie had duck breast for a main with a scalloped potato and leek with green beans, I have never had better cooked moist tasty duck…and those breasts, they were huge, plus I got 4 of them! The Operator had braised Pork Shoulder with braised red cabbage…the cabbage looked burnt…but was delicious and salty, this was accompanied with baby roast potatoes. We had a cheese selection and….desert…The Operator had a Meyer Lemon Tart and Rosie had the most devastating beautiful baked pumpkin cheesecake. It was a memorable meal with great service….until we checked the credit card….they had overcharged us an extra $30 bucks..on top of what of what we had signed for…how does that work! Will give them a call tomorrow…..we tip well and they knew we were leaving town…was it an innocent mistake, will give them a benefit of the doubt.
