Santa Cruz

I had a horrible night’s sleep.  We watched something late on the computer in our hotel room and I got sleepy before the end and went to bed early but woke again at 3am and not sleeping again. I tried listening to my book on audible (Young Mungo) but it took a hauntingly dark turn so I turned it off.  I gave up trying to sleep around 5am and did some work before greeting the most amazing sunrise over the bay.  Sorry for depriving you of a picture of that. 

The rest of the day was eventful. From a bad blow dry locally - where  the owner ignored all my instructions and turned me into some aged homecoming queen,  but then knew all about the death of the Queen and Liz Truss.  Americans have never shown so much interest in our politics. 

We set off (via the Joinery) to Santa Cruz where V’s daughter Hannah lives. Our hotel, about which we were slightly dubious from our online booking was actually worse than we anticipated.    A falling down Hobbit House, a quaint  over-conceptualised monstrosity with a damp and gloomy interior.  And pricey!  

We dumped our stuff and fled down town.  Desperate for a cup of tea we got snarled up in a pretentious ‘tea palace’ before escaping and going to a high end coffee chain (Verve) who made really decent tea.  In the sunset hour we set off to explore more, I took  this picture is of surfers lurking in the flat calm bay,  presumably hoping for a wave.  

I didn't like Santa Cruz. It’s one of those towns that emerges.for no good reason out of the very dry surrounding countryside so it felt both urban and isolated .  One of the things I dislike about bigger America. 

After a lot of wandering about we met Hannah and Alexander in a lovely restaurant.  Part secondhand book shop, part wine bar, part restaurant, we had great fun and a delicious dinner before sloping back to our hovel for the night.