HOLIDAY, NOVEMBER 2014 (26) - SANTA CRUZ

NOVEMBER 10 (Cont'd)

After having had a few adventures in trying and failing to find another Nature Reserve in Watsonville, where I was punished for daring to deviate from "Min's" advice ("I really don't think that I can let you do that, Dave..."), we arrived mid afternoon at our hotel of choice in Santa Cruz and, after a languid cup of coffee at a very "hippified" cafe nearby, we checked in before heading out to explore…

We'd chosen the "Pacific Blue Inn" for two reasons, really. Firstly, we'd stayed there for just one night before during our last visit to Santa Cruz in 2012 and found it to be very much our kind of place with its relaxed vibe and green credentials, and secondly because of the breakfasts which are - if you choose to have them - individually cooked to order by their chef and served at your table.

This was when we had first discovered "Popovers" and the memory had never really left us...

Happily, we had been able to book a room - the very same one in which we had previously stayed in - and, with our policy of booking two nights in each place on this trip proving to have seriously helped with our ability to unwind, we had the prospect of two excellent breakfasts ahead of us.

We decided to avoid the beach area for the time being because the grey mists did not promise the most spectacular of sunsets, but also because we had taken literally hundreds of photographs of the "out of season" amusement park and pier on our last visit and worried that we might just end up repeating ourselves.

Instead we headed into town and walked along the main street, not least because my Beloved was seeking out a stationery shop in order to get some bubble wrap in order to at least try to get some of her more fragile purchases home in one piece despite the best efforts of the baggage handlers.

Still feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the vast meal we'd eaten the previous evening, we decided upon a "lighter" option and, eventually, found ourselves inside a fresh food market and negotiating our way through an intensely complex system of ordering freshly made takeaway sandwiches to have with the bottle of wine which we'd bought in Sonoma and which was still waiting for us back in our room...

Heading back as the day faded into dusk, we became more and more aware of just how many poor and homeless people seemed to be milling about asking for spare change and rooting through the trash cans and wondered to ourselves whether this was something that we'd simply failed to notice last time around, or whether, during the "summer season" the authorities make more of an effort to "move people on", or whether the economic problems of America had worsened significantly since our last time in this place...?

We were waiting for the lights to change at a crossing, which takes an extraordinary amount of time when you're a pedestrian in the USA by the way, when a young man greeted us cheerfully and said that he wished us well and wanted to give each of us a tiny little origami crane from the large former candy bucket of them he was carrying which would give us both peace and harmony and good fortune, and all types of pseudo-religious or hippie guff like that.

Ah well, he seemed friendly enough, and we took them, believing (perhaps) that he was on some kind of religious quest to spread peace and harmony and good fortune and knowing that anyone who is prepared to put in the hours needed to fold several hundred paper cranes is probably dedicated to at least something more uplifting that slitting the throats of random tourists.

Of course he finished off with a cheery "...and of course all donations are gratefully received..." and persuaded a couple of dollars out of us for all his efforts, and then he strolled off into the evening with us wondering whether this was the only living that he could make for himself.

Still... you know when you've been panhandled...!