oh my achin' neck!

ok...so maybe driving all the way to santa cruz with my back and neck the way they are wasn't a great idea. but then again, it was a great idea. i needed to get outta dodge and what better place than here...well, i guess there are other places that are great but i love it here. last night after the giants/pirates game - which was great - i headed up to the castro district where my pal sheryl now lives. she used to live in los gatos - home of the el presidente - but has now moved into the city so...we walked around for a couple of hours with the idea of getting some food but in the end all we got was ice cream...great ice cream but not really food. not that it mattered, i was still full from my pancho villa green chili pork burrito a few hours earlier. i had actually ordered chicken but ended-up with pork so...pretty good stuff. durig our walk sheryl asked me why i was going to santa cruz...i have to admit i really have no great answer when asked this. but i guess just tht i'm drawn to this place for some reason. sure, i don't surf, i'm not really a beach guy...so what is it?...i came here a few times by myself years ago, and once on a roadtrip with a friend but it was never really a plan. to come here, i just ended-up here. then it became a plan. all of a sudden. i would make sure i came here if i was in san francisco or on my way back from LA or arizona. judy, tom's wife, grew-up here and i feel close to that family through my association with topanga and tom. when tom died just over two years ago i started putting tom and santa cruz together, even though he never lived here, it was jusy's hometown but tom has spent a lot of time here and when i'm here i think about tom. he was a great guy and taught me a lot about 'stuff' and as we sat sometimes at topanga eating and drinking he would help me through tough times, give sage advice and say things i can not repeat here. ever. ans so santa cruz has, perhaps, a calming affect on me...or something. i come here, i roam around, i sit near the loner surfer statue, look out at the water, watch the surfers, read the paper, drink coffee...and just do that until i'm done doing that. sometimes i'm here for a few hours, sometimes all day, and, like last night, sometimes i sleep in my car near the beach on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and wake-up to the sounds of sea lions barking. pretty good. it's a good town and i know there are a lot like it scattered along the coast but this is the one i like.
later on i'll go and get the world famous - or at least to me it's famous and i'm gonna try and make it more famous - el presidente burrito at andale in los gatos. i have just finished my breakfast which today was what they call here at the santa cruz taqueria, the 49 super sauce shrimp burrito...good lord. it was like trying to eat a burrito that was the same size as one of my forearms...
ok...
i'm gonna go walk around and try and digest this donkey i just ate.

more later...

i love you.

g. xo

the surf in santa cruz.


where i woke-up this morning.


my pal sheryl enjoying her ice cream.

after our ice cream.

the super sauce shrimp burrito. good god.



my view of the game last night.

more game shots.


pancho villa action....


the salsa bar at pancho villa.

the alley behind pancho villa.