After constant hounding from my dear, dear friend Lauren, a.k.a. L-Ron, a.k.a. Party Monster (taking that name back), I decided to make my first return trip back to good ol’ Santa Cruz. I would be joined by one Pascual Murderface, which made for a very nice little vacation.
The drive north only took about five hours from Burbank and we arrived on 41st Ave. around 9:30 at night. Once we got into town, we swung by Trader Joe’s to catch Benji off guard who was ecstatic to see us; he said it made his work-day much more tolerable. We hugged and played grab ass for a few minutes and then got introduced to a new SC friend: a nice little alcoholic beverage known as Simpler Times Beer, only $3.99 for a six-pack. We then took a little memorial drive through the Cruz towards downtown where L-Ron resides. After a joyous reunion with L who, other than about five minutes in October, I haven’t seen since August, we began drinking. She has a great little apartment right behind the Quizzno’s.
Our night involved meeting up with Munchie, who happened to be in town for one night only where we walked over to Ocean Ave. and visited L’s favorite hideaway, The Jury Room. There, over many two dollar PBRs, we caught up and met a lot of her local friends. Benji met up with us when he finished work and brought his lovely girlfriend Lindsay out as well. Munchie drug everyone back to her hotel room, but I decided to head home with L, which turned out to be the better decision b/c every else partied until like five AM. Shortly before passing out for the night, I was treated to a verbal lashing by L for wearing basketball shorts to sleep. I think she called me an east coast asshole that liked listening to Hatebreed. Thus ended Day One.
Day Two began with blunch at the Saturn Café, a vegetarian diner. Easily one of my favorite places to eat, not only in Santa Cruz, but anywhere. I got me an extremely delicious faux BBQ chicken sandwich. After breakfast, we sauntered around downtown for a bit, stopped into this little hippie shop, where I made probably the best impulse buy ever; a book entitled No Regrets: The Best, Worst, & Most #$%*ing Ridiculous Tattoos Ever. It has some of the worst ideas for tattoos I have ever seen. So funny though.
After that, we made our way over to Capitola to watch a surfing competition. We stopped into the Bay Bar for a quick pint where I ran into Crystal, one of the bartenders. She couldn’t believe I was there. She did a little double take and greeted me with a nice, “What the hell are you doing here?” Next, we walked to the end of the beach path to watch the long board competition. As we were walking, to my utter delight, Jenny Useldinger just happened to be in town from Maui surfing in the competition. She is a really talented surfer, and super cute to boot. We caught up a bit before she took to the waves. It was amazing to watch her surf. Lindsay and her mom were helping to tally up the scores, so we hung out with them for a bit as well. We walked around Capitola village a bit and L-Ron said she can’t wait to take her parents there when the come to town to visit next.
Next, we made our way to the tattoo shop. Apparently, the night before while were at The Jury Room, I told Pascual and Lauren the story about how when we were filming Rad Girls in Santa Cruz this past summer, a few of us decided to get pink hearts tattooed on our middle fingers to remember the trip, but when it came time to getting the work done, the artist went M.I.A. Pascual said we should do it, and L-Ron said we can’t write a check we can’t cash, so Saturday afternoon, L-Ron’s new man, Paul, hooked us up quick appointments at Kalifa’s Tattoo shop where he works. We filmed the whole thing and you can check out the video here. CLICK HERE!
For dinner we got Subway, and spent most of the rest of the night watching movies in L’s apartment. Save for a quick trip across the street to The Catalyst to see Spanky Savage from the killer hair band Dirty Penny. We stayed in all night. It was great to see Spanky; we haven’t hung out since last time they were in LA back in early February. The reunion was short and sweet, but will continue in a few weeks when Dirty Penny headlines The Whiskey in Hollywood on December 12. YOU ALL BETTER BE THERE!!!
Day three took us down to the Santa Cruz boardwalk after breakfast at the Chill Our Café, another top food spot (breakfast burritos as big as your forearm). We walked around and snapped a few photos. The best one was of the three of us standing on the train bridge, which is a famous spot from the movie The Lost Boys. We took a little driving tour of UC Santa Cruz to see where Lauren is going to school. The campus is beautiful and overlooks all over SC. I challenge you to find a more serene campus. Next we made our way back to Capitola and the Bay Bar to partake in my weekly tradition: Sunday Funday. To my surprise, Crystal was not behind the bar, but instead, my great friend James, who is like my musical equal, ran the taps. We hit it off super well back when I was filming Rad Girls because we pretty much have matching iPods (and taste in music). We spent most of the afternoon and early evening just bullshitting and putting back pints to our hearts desire.
Oh, and some dude tried to kick my ass. While James and I were discussing new bands we’ve come across for each other to check out, some dude walks right up to me and says to me, “What’s up?” I looked at him for a good fifteen seconds trying to place him, figuring it was someone I met over the summer. I ask him what’s up back, and he’s like, “You got a staring problem?” At this point I’m a little confused. I know the bar is small, but I don’t even remember looking at him once. Apparently, I was staring at the juke-box which was behind where he was playing pool. He told me to “take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Really?! You’re going to get in my face for possibly staring at you and then using the most clichéd lines to intimidate me? What a tool. James yelled at him and made him to apologize to me. It was great.
After closing our tab at the Bay Bar, James and I made plans to meet up later that night to catch up more. I dropped L and Pascual off at The Jury Room, and I went back and took a little nap knowing full well that if I went with them, I never would have made it all night. I watched a little Rocky III before picking the two of them up and bringing them back to the Batcave. Pascual managed to pass out on the couch for the rest of the night, only awakening to give us money for pizza.
After dinner, we slapped a note on Pascual and L and I headed to meet James and Benji over at Castaways for a few last-night-in-town beers. It was a nice little wrap up to a perfect weekend. The only bummer was not seeing Jenny U. the rest of the trip. We tried to meet up, but we kept missing each other.
I couldn’t have asked for a better bit of relaxation. I love going into that town; a calm seems to always roll over me. Such a great attitude and feeling hit when I am cruising down Route 152 over the mountains, hitting the home stretch into town. I can’t explain it, and you can’t know it unless you go there yourself. So take a break and make a trip, it’s totally worth it.
It never quite feels the same…
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