California: Part Deux

Monday my Honey was working so I spent the morning wandering around downtown Mountain View window shopping and not-so-window shopping. I went to Target and Mervyn's for some things that are way more expensive back home in Canada than they are here. I brought a gift for my Honey of 3 black and white, 8x10 prints from the drive we took down the Pacific Coast highway on my last trip here and I was able to find 3 matching frames at Target for them.

We met for lunch at an Irish pub called St. Stephens Green (which appears to be one of the few--and possibly only--nightlife venues in Mountain View) for delicious roasted chicken sandwiches and thick-cut chips. I had a beer called Fat Tire. It was quite nice, very hop-y. I spent the afternoon napping and flipping through my Honey's new IKEA catalogue. I was looking forward to going back to the terrific Mexican place we went to on my last visit, but after all the rich food I'd been eating over the last 2 days I ended up skipping dinner altogether Monday night. It's probably a good thing--far too many calories consumed already this trip!

On Tuesday, my Honey and I took off to Santa Cruz for the day. We started off having lunch at an amazing Greek place which was tiny but had the best lamb Gyros I think I've ever had. The tzatziki was so garlic-y, we stank for the next two days. After that we worked it off walking around the University of California Santa Cruz campus gawking at all the big trees. Holy crap those things are huge! And they're not even the really big ones!

After wandering around UCSC for an hour or so, we headed into downtown Santa Cruz and visited the Museum of Art and History which was pretty cool. We drove a while down at the waterfront past the Surfing Museum (which we didn't visit--maybe next time) to a lookout where we saw a large rock jutting out of the ocean that was completely covered in pelicans!

The trip home was a fun, twisty-turny drive up and over the Santa Cruz Mountains at breakneck speeds with transport trucks barreling down on us, and to top it all off we got home just in time to have a wonderful meal at the Mexian place. All in all a very satisfying day.

Sadly on Wedneday I had to fly back home and go back to the realities of feeding my cat, doing my laundry and earning a living. But I did have a fabulous little vacation to hold me over for the next little while and I managed to bring back a lovely pair of earrings and this gorgeous purse to add to my collection, so I'd say it was a worthwhile trip. Oh, and it was great to see my Honey, too.

;)