The weekend and week so far/Santa Cruz/ El Rio - Eagle Bust/ Nude Beach

1. Saturday, Mark, Ho, Jim and I made it to Santa Cruz 2:30 PM. An earlier car accident on Hwy 17 compounded by the holiday traffic, made the 27 mile trip from San Jose an almost 2 hour ride.

2. Mark had his lap top, so he got on to 511, figured that it was going to be longer than we thought. So we got off at Winchester, then drove though the streets of Los Gatos, till we finally made it back to the freeway a bit more south west, avoiding most of the backup.

3. The traffic really screwed up our plans to visit a few wineries before hand. We only really had time for one visit. Don't remember what the name of it was, but it was a nice facility, perched over a creek, overlooking the redwoods.

4. We then headed south for Capitola for lunch. Ate a nice assortment of appetizers, Clams, Oysters, quesadillas, a bottle of wine, at a casual feed place on the beach.

5. After, it was off to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. I was lucky to find parking quickly.

6. The Boardwalk was packed. We of course made it to the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster immediately! Fun!

7. We did about 4 rides. It was getting late, and the fog was starting to roll in.

9. Our last ride was the log ride that plunges into the water, drenching everyone. Well mostly everyone. My friends hopped into the ride quickly forcing me to be the one up front.

10. Let's just say, with the weight of 4 men, our plunging was hard. And I was drenched with water!

11. To end the evening, we did the Haunted House ride. Lame ride, but it brings back memories of being on this when a kid. Plus it was warm. I was getting cold from in wet clothes!

12. The fog came in quickly. I was getting colder. We were tired, so it was time to go. And a much quicker ride back home too! Mark mentioned he had never seen so many obese women in one place in one time. Scary thing is that they were wearing skimpy stuff (and always eating some boardwalk fried treat). Ho mentioned take the women away, and it looked like the San Quentin Prison bus dropped the male prisoners for the day. LOL! There certainly were lots of tattoos, and hard looking men! LOL

13. I stayed in that night. Feeling cold, cranked the furnace on, and snuggled under the sheets

14. Sunday was the usual. Food shop, gym, and Eagle. Eagle? No not really. It was the Eagle in Exile hosted by the Sisters, at the El Rio. Although a first try at this, it was pretty good! Packed! There was only one beer line, which they need to change for the next event. And there was some live music. Mark and I later went to 440 for a bit.


Very good live music at the El Rio

15. Monday was a day off. I had already decided to nix going to the fireworks. So I planned my day accordingly. Gym, Laundry, then off to the beach. San Gregorio Beach. The nude beach.

16. I decided to ride south on HWY 1 to San Gregorio later in the afternoon. It was overcast, but warm, and little wind. Driving south I forgot how developed the Half Moon Bay area has become. Lots of hotels, seaside restaurants. Lots of surfers were on the road changing out of their gear. ie. Lots of naked buns to be seen.

17. About 30 minutes later I arrived at the dirt road driveway leading, past the pond, to the parking lot of the beach. Still overcast, the weather was balmy. Quite a few cars in the lot too!

18. Got my duffel bag filled with soda, chips and my towels, I headed down the cliff trail to the beach.

19. Once down, you turn right (north) to the gay beach. If you turn left you are at the straight beach.

20. Already fairly crowded I did not have to go far north to find a fort or condo. Usually the beach is heavily scattered with make shift forts build out of drift wood, and logs. This serves as a temporary home for the beach goer, to protect from the wind, and give one a bit of privacy (wink). Some forts can be as high as 6-7 ft tall, and wide enough to accommodate 6 or more people.

21. There was very little wind, and even though overcast, with an occasional sun filtering through, it was warm and balmy. I did lay naked, got a bit burnt. It is such a great free feeling walking the beach naked :)

22. Today one of the owners is coming to do a quick visit. So off to eat, and off to work to take care of a few loose ends. Wow! Short work week! It's already Wednesday! Yay

These bad cell phone photos don't do the beach justice. Even though overcast, and gloomy looking, the weather was warm. There were also some interesting, scary, and hot visitors enjoying the day as I was.


( More San Gregorio Beach under here )

The day so far..... hectic....I'm beat! And the Paramedics were here again! WOOF!

1. Running around this morning, before one of the owners, or actually the owner of the management company that I work for, came by to do a quick walk though. A sort of pre- inspection before the so called big inspection from the owners.

2. Nice guy, but strictly business

3. Up at 6 am, and to the office early, I get an email from my GM to do a short list of TO DO's, and whatever, to make the property look better.

4. Things were looking pretty good a few weeks ago (with of course more to do). The last week's rain (or was it the week before?) did not help.

5. I ended up painting and touching up, 4 floors of elevator doors (mostly dinged and scratched after last weeks move in and move out. Apparently there was a mis-marked can. Close in color but not the exact one to match the framing, molding. Which became apparent when dried. So had to start all over. I usually do this in my office work clothes, and usually pretty careful. But I got paint on my dress shirt and pants. But got it out with Goof Off, Zout, and washing later)

6. Then did some cleaning, vacuuming, touching up this and that. Again. It is never ending.
Plus some of the parents let their kid run around putting their greasy fingers all over our clean windows. So off to clean the large windows for the 3rd time in a week!

7. The visit went pretty well. And of course the conclusion is always a two page to do list (legal size). The property could be perfect, or seem to look perfect, but there is always something to do (our Pacifica property got a very long list of things to do!)

8. Just after they left at 2pm, a few minutes later the police arrive, wanting access to an apartment on my floor.

9. Apparently the daughter of our elderly tenant had not been able to get a hold of him since Monday night. So she called the police. Maintenance let them in to his apt. He was on the bathroom floor naked, mumbling. He could of used the stall shower in the other room, instead of trying to climb into the tub! I saw him on Monday afternoon, before my leaving for the beach. His furnace had gone out, so I lit the pilot light for him.

10. The paramedics arrived, hooking him up to sucrose bags, trying to help him back to somewhat a cognitive state.

11. OK. Some of the paramedics were the same as last time's visit to the other resident. But this time there were 3 new ones, and 3 new policemen. Woof! Big and brawny. Guess it helps to be big and strong, to carry people down flights of stairs in a gurney. :)

12. This man, is around 85 yrs old. And has not been doing well for about a year. Losing so much weight! He apparently has been very secretive about his health. Even his daughter, who lives in Oregon, does not know much, according to some friends that arrived to see what was going on.

13. The paramedics were reading some of his stats: Diabetic, high blood pressure, and Lymphoma.
So that's his health problem!

14. He was a successful business man, with good retirement income. He could afford someone to assist him, or he could move to a nice assisted living community. He is a very proud man. And a man in denial. After he was released from the hospital a few months ago from Pneumonia, I told him a few times he needs to have a life alert thing around his neck. Or maybe move to a nice assisted living complex.

15. He just keeps saying no. Maybe today's incident might give him better insight as to what he should do. Getting old can be the shits sometime.

16. So after the visits, the emergency, I had lunch at about 3:30 PM.

17. Closed the office at about 6:30 PM, but too tired for gym. I think I'll try to get up at 6 am tomorrow and hit the gym before work.