Nottingham

I decided to keep writing in this blog about any travelling we do, including that which is a lot closer to home. This weekend we went up to Nottingham to visit Jo and Andy, but also trying to see some people that I’ve not seen in years too. Two birds with one stone and all that. I know that Nottingham is not such an exciting destination, given that I lived there for many years, but it is a destination nonetheless.

It always feels strangely like coming home when the train pulls into Nottingham station. I wonder how many times I have passed through that station over the years. Andy was attempting to shoe-horn the car into a parking space when we got outside, so we saved him the bother and off we went.

On Friday night we met an old colleague of mine, Lez, and his wife Claire in the Hard to Find Café on Mansfield Road. It’s not all that hard to find as the sign clearly states it’s position. It was good to see Lez again, after maybe 5 years or so. We were also surprised by seeing Graham, another old colleague from the same place. Max turned up too, which was also unexpected and nice. I’m afraid that I very quickly slipped into the same rate of drinking that I was used to when I used to work with these guys, something I’m not used to now. It was probably not a good idea to open bottles of cider when we got back to Jo and Andy’s house.

I felt pretty grotty for the whole of Saturday. Other than a brief foray into Arnold to sort some things out we spent most of the day in front of the TV. We were supposed to be going to the Orange Tree to see Formication, the electronica project of an old uni friend of mine, Alec. I was sort of alright until I took a couple of tablets for my headache. The tablets had the unfortunate side effect of upsetting my stomach. Although I managed to endure the bus journey into Nottingham without splashing sick about the place I wasn’t confident I could manage the pub. So we turned away from the door, me breathing deeply and doing gassy little pre-vomit burps. I’m really disappointed that I missed the gig, as I really wanted to see Alec.

Jo is getting married in the summer and Gemma is a bridesmaid, which meant they had to go into Nottingham and look at dresses on Sunday. Thankfully Andy and I managed to escape the dress shops and look at cameras and pots and pans instead. After drawing a blank on the dress front we drove out to a country village pub for lunch. Lunch was alright, but Gemma’s vegetarian Sunday lunch option -just veg and a pudding and no gravy -wouldn’t win any awards.

What now

It is strange being back in the UK after 7 months away. Both Gemma and I are currently floating about in a bit of a daze. We had hoped that whilst away we would come up with an excellent plan for what to do with the rest of our lives. We failed.

As with the year that we spent in Australia, I have come away from this trip really appreciating time. The great thing about a trip like the one we’ve just had, for me, is not necessarily the places we’ve been or things that we’ve seen, but rather the feeling that I own my own time. I haven’t had to get up in the morning and go to work. I haven’t had to do anything at all. Other than mostly very vague and changeable plans, we were able to decide what we did on an almost daily basis. That feeling can be daunting; there is a big world out there and lots of stuff to do. Mostly though, I found it liberating.

Saying all that though, we did go to some brilliant places and did see some lovely things. As ever, the natural world was the highlight. I love wildlife and I love beautiful scenery and this trip gave us the opportunity to see plenty of both. I think for both of us, having a large group of Elephants surround our car after a couple of days of wildlife spotting was probably a highlight although there were many other wonderful moments.

I know that some people would have been to more places than us in the time that we’ve been away, or done different things in the places that we have been. I’m a lazy traveller. I don’t like to rush or to try and cram too much in. I’d rather treat the time like a holiday, which it was. So we may have missed some ‘must see’ sights. So what? They’ll mostly still be there. I’ve certainly come away with a long list of places that I would love to go back to.

I’m just sad that our diary and photographs may not have gotten across how wonderful our experiences were. I’m not the best writer in the world and find it much more difficult to explain positive things than negative things, thus it may seem like I’m moaning a lot in the blog. I know that my blog posts are probably as dull as ditchwater to most readers due to their excruciating level of detail. That’s because I don’t have the best memory for place names and the like and intended my diary as a place I could keep track of that kind of thing. Having friends and family use it to keep track of what we were up to was a pleasant side effect.

Since we’ve been back we haven’t seen very many people due to Gemma falling ill with a nasty cold almost immediately, and the fact that my body is refusing to accept it is on UK time now. Still, virtually everyone we’ve spoken to has asked the question, ‘What was your favourite place?’ It’s an impossible question to answer as everywhere that we have been has been so different. Each place has had it’s highs and lows and each has an individual charm.

So, what now for Get Your Boots On? Many people have said to us things like, ‘Oh, this will get it out of your system’, ‘time to settle down now’ and ‘it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.’ I’m not sure that I agree. If anything I only want to travel more. I’m not sure whether I would want to go away for quite as long, at least not any time soon. I might be feeling that I want to put down some roots now. To find a base to which I can return. Both Gemma and I would like to travel within the UK and also within Europe so perhaps that will be next.

Surprise Surprise

Our final part of our trip was spent in San Francisco and it was a very nice place to end our trip on too. Prior to arriving in San Fran we had spent a wet and pretty miserable few days unable and un- motivated to do what we had hoped (ie winery visits) because of the weather and sheer frustration of actually getting anywhere due to the roads and traffic.

The weather improved whilst we were in San Francisco though and it was a novelty not having to use the car to get anywhere. Instead we had a lovely few days actually walking and riding the ‘cable cars’ (trams) up and down the hilly streets. Our first ride on, we had to hang on the side and it was fun clinging on as we sped down the hills.

Our hotel was really nice and centrally located on Union Square which was handy for exploring the city. I found it to be a really pretty, picturesque city with lovely buildings and it felt quite festive too, although I wasn’t sure about the puppys in the window of Macy’s department store!

We decided to check out the modern art museum one day mainly because part of it was photography. As part of the modern art there was an installation that was worth going just for that. This consisted of a large video projection of Turkish people singing Karaoke of The Smiths! Some of them were really terrible and some of them were really good and sounded exactly like Morrissey (including a girl) and some were even crying as they sang. As is usual when I leave modern art galleries I left feeling bemused and slightly confused, but with the feeling that I had at least done something cultural!

I had been feeling very excited about our surprise return home and we had been concocting all sorts of lies about what we would be doing Christmas and new year eve which I began believing myself after a while. The day came for the final leg of the journey. The flight was very full and 10 hours and no sleep later we arrived in foggy U.K. We circled round Heathrow for a while because of the fog and I couldn’t wait to get off the plane. Coming through arrivals I felt a little sad as there were lots of people waiting for passengers but not us as only my Auntie Jean and my friend Nicola who booked our ticket home knew of our return. The rest of my family wouldn’t know for another few days either as we had stops in Slough, Durham and Nottingham to make before returning to Lowestoft.

Of all the places we’ve been, Slough was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was lovely; foggy, cold, wet and the hotel room was so large and good value (not).We fell asleep in the room straight away and then couldn’t sleep all night and it was a very long night. Finally it was time to pick up our hire car and I had to get used to gears again as we drove up to Tim’s mum’s near Durham. It wasn’t a bad drive considering the problems with the fog the U.K had been having and we arrived 7 hours later.

We spent a couple of days with Tim’s mum then drove to Nottingham and stayed with Jo and Andy for the night before leaving for the big surprise on Christmas Eve. We made good time and my excitement turned to nerves for some reason. I just hoped it would all work out OK. In the end it couldn’t have been better. We parked down the road so they wouldn’t hear us pull up, snuck down the road and rung the bell. We were waiting for a while because it turned out Mum and Roger thought we were Carol singers (oh yes, they were in the festive spirit!) but when they came to the door I couldn’t have wanted a better reaction which you can see on the video below.

With the shock still reeling through Mum she drove us (rather erratically) round to my sister’s. She was expecting my mum so didn’t come to the door as I walked in. I walked in to the kitchen where Joanne had her back to me and I said “hello”.She turned round and her face was the picture of shock for what seemed ages! Then she squealed and cried. I like to think that they were happy to see me and that all the tears were tears of joy!

Next I saw my nephew Max who has grown so much. Then we met my niece Lily. She is so gorgeous. She is looking so healthy and happy now and she never seems to stop smiling. It felt so good to be back with my family again. At times it was hard to be away especially when Lily was ill and it is such a relief to see her now doing so well.

It is good being back, but also a bit strange. When we first arrived it was very weird being back and everything so familiar seemed strange at the same time. I felt a bit spun out at first but maybe that was the jet lag. Everyone keeps saying, “oh you’re back to the real world now” I’m not sure I’m quite ready for it yet!

Operation Surprise Return

It had been quite hard for us but we had managed to put Gemma’s Mum off the notion that we might be returning for Christmas. Instead when we spoke on the phone or by e-mail we constructed a fairly intricate web of lies about what we were going to be doing over the holiday period. It took a little while but eventually the family bought it. The actual plan, of course, was to turn up in Lowestoft and surprise everyone. It worked like a charm.

At San Francisco airport we were pretty early for check-in. The girl on the desk informed us that the flight was overbooked and asked whether we’d like to volunteer to be bumped in the event of no shows. After some umm-ing and ahh-ing we decided against it. We’d planned hotels and hire cars for our return so we thought we better just go. What gave us pause was the fact that volunteers who are bumped on Virgin get a free return flight (or the equivalent frequent flyer miles) anywhere on the Virgin network, plus the usual nights accommodation. That’s a pretty good offer in my book. In the end though the flight had enough no shows that the volunteers weren’t needed.

The flight was fine but tiring. I didn’t bother trying to sleep and just watched films and TV shows for the 10 hour duration, interspersed with the odd game of Tetris. Once in the UK we had to circle London for about 20 minutes because of the fog. I was grumbling because by that point I just wanted to get off the plane, but it wasn’t any real hardship compared to the poor folks caught up in the chaos of trying to leave on domestic and short haul flights during the next few days.

Because we knew we’d be of no use after the flight we’d booked a room at the Slough Travelodge, definitely the highlight of our trip. Not. Still, it was a convenient stopping off point and easy (i.e. cheap) to reach by local bus. It served it’s purpose well. We wanted to try and fight the effects of jet lag by staying up until later in the day but as soon as we sat on the bed we dropped off and were snoring. Unfortunately this had the knock on effect that we woke up at 22:00 and couldn’t get back to sleep again.

In the morning we caught a cab over to the Hertz rental office inn Slough. I was glad I’d pre-booked everything when the lady said that their Heathrow office was out of cars and sending people to Slough for them. Another side effect of the fog related chaos. Our car was a little Fiat Punto. I reminded Gemma that she had to change gears and we were off into the fog.

It took us about 7 hours to drive from Slough to Great Lumley in the North East. The fog had caused accidents and we had to contend with some fairly slow moving traffic near Nottingham. I mused that out of the places we’ve had a car on this trip the UK seems the easiest to get round. We couldn’t surprise my Mam as she is hard enough to get hold of on the phone, never-mind in person! We spent a couple of nights with my Mam and managed to see my neices and nephews and my friend Lisa, which was nice.

Rather than drive straight to Lowestoft we decided to break the journey for an evening in Nottingham. We didn’t get away from the North East until about 14:30 which meant it was dark as we arrived into Nottingham. Gemma hasn’t had much experience of driving at night and doesn’t really like it because of the headlights reflecting on her glasses. Still, we got to Jo and Andy’s house in one piece. It was nice to see Jo and Andy although I couldn’t keep my eyes open and was like a nodding dog pretty early in the evening.

Because of my messed up body clock I was up at about 06:00 and doing the washing up. We managed to get a pretty early start away from Nottingham and had a reasonably clear run traffic-wise except for getting stuck for a while behind a man who refused to do anything even approaching the speed limit. As we neared Lowestoft I think Gemma began to get a little bit nervous. To keep up the surprise we parked round the corner and snuck up to the front door. I think Gemma’s Mum and Dad may have thought that we were carol singers to begin with as they didn’t open the door for a while. Once they did come to the door though the surprise was sprung successfully, as captured by me:

San Francisco

We checked in to the Travelodge at the airport in San Francisco. The reasoning was that we may as well be near the drop off point for the rental car, and this way we would avoid having to deal with city centre traffic. In the morning we dropped the car off and went into the airport to sort out the re-validation of our tickets. What should have been a quick job ended up taking ages. The Virgin desks don’t open until 12:30, and the ticketing desk not until 13:00. That meant we had to wait around to see the ticketer. We had asked another of the desk staff, who checked and then took our tickets away, but she returned them telling us to wait.

After we had the little sticker allowing us to fly we caught the BART into San Francisco. We’d done a little bit of homework and pre-booked a hotel right next to the BART station, The Powell. It was a little more expensive than some of the other hotels we’d looked at, but was worth it. The room was really nicely and newly refurbished and the hotels location couldn’t have been better, literally in the middle of everything and right next to the cable-car turnout.

We took advantage of the 3 day MUNI public transport pass, very good value at $18, considering a single cable-car ride costs $5. The cable-car’s were cool. It was fun watching the drivers and conductors turning them manually by pushing them round on a circle in the road. Old school. The first car we took was full inside so we had to hang on the exterior platform which was cool. Every time I turned and looked at Gemma she had a massive grin on her face. At one point we went rather fast down a very steep street which was quite exhilarating. We spent a nice couple of days charging round the city on the cable-cars and sometimes on foot.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern art confirmed my suspicions that modern art is rubbish. Not all of it was crap, some was interesting. We saw a video installation of Turkish people singing karaoke Smiths songs. I quite enjoyed that.

Do you know the way to San Jose

Do we know the way to San Jose? Almost. We missed the exit ramp for the route that we had planned and so had to work it out a different way. To be fair, the way that we ended up going was a bit more sensible than the route we were going to take anyway so it all worked out OK. We were actually staying just outside of San Jose, at Fremont Days Inn. I had rather too much wine and felt a bit hungover so we had yet another day of vegging out.

When we left the Days Inn we drove into San Jose to go to the Tech Museum. The museum was very interactive as one would expect from a technology museum. It was pitched more towards children although there were some pretty cool things in there. I think Gemma liked it more, she was quite excited and crawling through tunnels and things. I enjoyed the IMAX dome cinema where we watched a film called Mystic India. The shots of Indian temples, jungles and the Himalayas were beautiful. I also really liked the 3D earth exhibit. A large sphere hangs from the ceiling and four projectors each hooked up to a computer display a spinning globe overlaid with various data. Very, very cool, I want one.

Wine Country

We paused our southward journey on highway 101 in Santa Rosa to have a quick look in a couple of shops in a large mall there. Big mistake. The traffic was awful so getting back on the freeway took an age. I’m sure the inconsiderate driving style that people have over here doesn’t help these situations. We were only back on the freeway for a very short time before we reached our goal for the day, Rohnerts Park Ramada. This was to be our home and base for the next three nights. The motel is well situated for the freeway, but otherwise in a completely unlovely location in the middle of a huge trading estate.

The plan was to use the motel as a base for exploring the wine country of the Napa and Sonoma valleys. The plan didn’t come to fruition however. The weather was awful and had a very negative effect on our moods. I’m starting to believe that we are solar powered. So instead of lazily visiting wineries and sipping their produce we mainly holed up in the motel watching TV and looking at stuff on the Internet (via a power-line router). We did manage to take a drive out to Copia in the Napa Valley. Copia is a centre for American food, wine and the arts. On entering we were a little unsure what to make of it as it was very warehouse-like and very empty. We picked up a schedule and had a quick look around. In the upstairs gallery we found an exhibition of wine photography which was pretty good. We joined a ‘lecture’ downstairs. This consisted of a taste of a wine and then a completely unrelated overview of the lecturer’s favourite Christmas children’s stories.

We tasted a sparkling wine, some cheese and some pomegranate juice before going on the orientation tour, which at 30 minutes was far too long. Copia doesn’t have that much stuff going on. We left the tour at the museum-like section which had some interesting displays, some interactive, about food and wine. Apparently my ideal meal would be mashed potato and mayonnaise.

On the way out of Napa I thought we could be clever and drive back a different way. I found a suitable road on the map and had Gemma get us on it. The road was possibly the steepest and most winding road we’ve been on in this trip. Eventually we negotiated ourselves up, down, up again and back down and out into the Sonoma valley. We just drove through rather than stopping off anywhere, because the rain had started in earnest.

North coast

From Santa Cruz we continued on highway 1 toward San Francisco. The road hugged the coast, not so hilly as further South but still with it’s own rugged charm. We stayed on highway 1 and went straight over the Golden Gate bridge. An unfortunate haze lay over the bridge and city so the obligatory photograph stop on the North side hasn’t produced much of worth. There was a detour on highway 1 which forced us through a very winding forest road. San Francisco almost seems to demarcate a line in increased forest growth between the northern and southern parts of California. We stopped for lunch at the small town of Stinson Beach.

It was pretty late in the day by the time we reached the lighthouse at Point Reyes. The lighthouse is supposedly one of the best places on the coast for whale watching but our late arrival meant we couldn’t spend too long there. Despite this it was a lovely spot and the drive there was good in it’s own right.

Back on the highway and with night falling we pulled into a motel in Bodega Bay. It was a little more pricey than we’d have liked, but we needed somewhere by that point. The lady running the place gave us a leaflet for the Italian restaurant next door which offered a free bottle of wine with two mains. We took them up on the offer but felt a little bit scruffy and out of place there. The wine was OK, although probably not worth the $24 that was crossed through on the bill.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and we had quite a bit of rain the following day. For this reason the day was mainly spent driving up highway 1. We stopped off in the pretty little town of Mendocino for lunch. We’d had Mendocino or it’s near neighbor Fort Bragg marked down as a possible stop off, but because of the rain and as it was still early we decided to press on. Instead we stayed in the town of Eureka, simply because we had a coupon for a motel there. I didn’t see much of the town, but what I did see was quite unlovely. When we went for dinner at the Denny’s on the next block a shady looking bloke that had been smoking in a doorway started to follow us. We picked up our pace and hustled into Denny’s quick-smart.

The North coast is where the big redwood trees grow, which was the reason that had drawn us up there. Along the coast are a series of national and state parks protecting areas of the forest that once covered a massive amount of the Northwest. The rain was spitting on and off as we drove up through the towering trees. We stopped for a short loop walk through the forest. The individual trees that we were looking at were not the tallest of the species, but they were pretty big all the same. The grove was very quiet, we only passed four other people on the trail. The two of us got neck ache from staring up at the giants.

Along the highway we saw elk grazing on grass at the side of the road. A little further on at the place called Elk Meadow we stopped and looked out for elk. I think they were all at the side of the road because they certainly weren’t in the meadow that was named for them. We did see a coyote there though so perhaps they ought to rename it Coyote Meadow.

Further into the national park a scenic drive cuts away from the highway. Unfortunately the road was closed, possibly because of the weather which was starting to turn for the worse. Grumbling, Gemma wheeled the car around and retraced our steps southward. We turned off the highway and took the Avenue of the Giants scenic drive going South. We abandoned the lovely forest at the southern end of the drive and rejoined the highway. The rain got worse and the sky was getting darker as night drew in so we gave up driving when we hit Ukiah, and booked into the Holiday Inn Express.

Road rage to Redwoods

Leaving Monterey we stopped at nearby Pacific Grove to see the Monarch butterflies which apparently are in abundance from November to March. We took the walk where you can see them and saw.... 2. Apparently they can look like leaves on trees, so maybe we saw more than we thought, but we had visions of them flying around us. We quickly left and ventured onwards towards Santa Cruz, stopping for a coffee in the pleasant Capitola. I wished we had stayed there when we arrived at Santa Cruz. It kind of went down hill from the moment we arrived. Looking for where we were going I accidentally cut the jeep that was behind me up (I was convinced no one was behind me) I was aware of him when he beeped and hung out of his window and shouted. I was even more aware of him when I pulled into a road and he followed stopping behind me when I pulled up to get my head together. I felt nervous as he approached the car but I had no choice but to open the door. He shouted at me and I apologised profusely which seemed to do the trick and as soon as I said sorry he calmed down. Lucky for him I’m not a psycho and I didn’t shoot him or something. I couldn’t believe that he came after me. You just don’t do that... in my book anyway. People cut me up and I grumble to myself a bit, but I wouldn’t dream of going after someone.

After that incident we found our motel. Too early for check in we went and checked out the boardwalk which had the sea side array of roller coasters and funfair rides. It was all closed though and we were practically the only ones about. It was time to check in so this accomplished we ventured out again. Again we walked down the board walk. This time there were a couple of drunk people arguing and one lying passed out on the beach. Despite the beautiful sunny day I felt like there was a heavy cloud hanging over us and the place. Tim voiced how I felt saying he felt really depressed! It was so weird. It was like Great Yarmouth in Winter but with nice weather. There was a weird atmosphere in the air. I had expected Santa Cruz to be really happening and maybe it is, but not the day we were there. To be honest I couldn’t wait to leave. We carried on into town to see if the cloud would lift. Unfortunately it didn’t so we gave up and went back and hid in our motel!

The next day we made our escape and headed towards San Francisco. We got on to the open road and I felt relieved to be on them as I had not enjoyed driving in towns thus far. We drove straight through San Fran as we will be returning later for Christmas and drove over the Golden gate bridge. We stopped when we reached the other side to look over the bay, bridge and city. It was very hazy, but still pretty. Past San Fran we noted the increase in the amount of trees around us. We drove on to Reyes Point, more beautiful rugged coastal scenery with a lighthouse at the end. After unsuccessfully whale watching across the broad waters we drove on, calling it a day at Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was filmed and where we went to a posh Italian because it was near and we’d get a free bottle of wine.

After Bodega bay the coastal scenery became more wild and rugged with massive waves crashing on the beach below us. We stopped for Lunch at Mendocino and decided to drive on to Eureka. I liked the name, I thought it sounded promising, so thought that was as good a reason as any to stop there. The drive was quite nice, if a little scary, the area becoming more like a murder setting in a horror film, driving through forests with the occasional shack hiding in it (Obviously where the psychos live)windy roads and very little traffic. We had come up to these parts of Northern California to see the Redwood trees, the tallest trees in the world. Facts about the Redwood tree, courtesy of Lonely Planet are: Redwoods now only grow in China and two areas of California and a small grove in Oregon. They can live up to 2200 years, grow to 370ft tall and achieve a diameter of 22ft at the base, with bark up to 12 inches thick.

Continuing on our way to Eureka we passed a small town where a sign informing us of a tree that we could drive through! As it was getting on we thought we might check that out on our way back down. We also said that about the shop selling Big Foot merchandise. Yes, we were in Big Foot territory too. Not only did we have a chance of seeing Big Foot, but we could also buy a wooden life size sculpture of him.

Eureka did not match it’s name. It was full of traffic and was like a lot of towns we had seen so far, like a big industrial estate. The bad weather had started to set in too which didn’t help. We used it as an over night stop before heading to the Redwood National park. Near by we drove through a small scary looking town where the only shops all appeared to only sell giant wooden sculptures of bears and Red Indian faces. Maybe these are the essential items in those parts. We noted the mist hovering above the dense forests before we had a lovely walk through a forest of Redwoods. Before going in we noted the sign telling us what to do in case of an encounter with a bear or Mountain Lion and were told to walk through the forest making plenty of noise to alert them to our presence. This wasn’t hard for me as I am as agile as an elephant, so I happily plodded through the beautiful forest of towering Redwoods made more atmospheric with the rain and mist in the trees. As with any trees especially big ones these were magnificent and beautiful. After our walk we went to find some Elk which are throughout the area and were surprised when we happened upon them on the side of the road. As it wasn’t the best place to stop we decided to go to the specific viewing area to see them. However there were none there, but we did see a Coyote, a canine animal which looks a cross between a fox and a wolf. I was really chuffed to see it and we watched it for a while, before driving off and seeing more Elk on the side of the road.

As the weather wasn’t conducive to walk on nearby beaches and as a scenic drive we had hoped to do was closed we decided to start heading back down the coast. This time we drove part of it down the 32 mile scenic alternative of the Avenue of the Giants, a road which winds through California’s largest Redwood Park which covers 53,000 acres. It was lovely driving down the road with the magnificent trees towering over us on either side.

Unfortunately we will not be coming home with a life size model of Big Foot. We decided to by pass it mainly because it was raining which made the already isolated, foreboding looking shop look even more so. We also bypassed the drive through tree deciding that we didn’t need to drive through a tree to marvel at the size of them.

Yankee Yarmouth

It took us some time to get out of Monterey. We’d gone for a look at the very pretty Pacific Grove area but true to form managed to end up going around Monterey twice trying to get on the freeway. Not far North of Monterey is the town of Santa Cruz. We arrived a little early to check in to the Knights Inn there, but as it was located near to the beach boardwalk we thought we’d have a quick walk down there.

There is something a bit sad and depressing about a seaside town in the off season. The roller coasters are not running, the doors are locked and the place resembles a ghost town. Even the once inviting bright colours of the buildings seem to mock. Santa Cruz boardwalk was very much like that. The only sounds came from the hideous cackling of an animated figure in the one arcade that was open and the arguments of a pair of drunk people on the bench at the end. It reminded me very much of Great Yarmouth in the winter. Despite having something that Great Yarmouth lacks in December, the sun, the mood was the same. A certain dissonant chord seemed to hang over the town, putting me on edge. I’m sure there was something bad in the air. On the surface Santa Cruz seems like a pretty good place to be, full of punks, surfers, skaters and hippies, but the atmosphere grated on me like fingernails being scraped on a blackboard. I hid away in the motel for much of the day, briefly venturing out again to the boardwalk to take some photographs to remind me of what had put me in such a dark mood.