One of my favorite walks is along West Cliff Drive toward Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz, California. I must have traipsed out to Lighthouse Point a hundred times. Each time, there is fascination with the natural beauty, architecture, history, colorful local characters, and surfing. After I graduated from the University of Kansas, I had the ill-conceived notion that I could move to Santa Cruz and make a living carving interesting figures in wood and selling them through galleries. I was young and stupid, but I had enthusiasm. I suppose I might have been one of those colorful local characters. I lived near West Cliff Drive in a cramped two-room apartment. My apartment house had been a former 1880s house of ill-repute, built during Santa Cruz's wilder days. Unfortunately, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed my former home. It was not one of the multimillion dollar homes along West Cliff. I failed as a woodcarver and returned to Lawrence but try to return to my old stomping grounds whenever I get the chance.
West Cliff Drive is literally a cliffside drive overlooking Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Though the road curves, as you lean against the guardrails looking over the water, you are usually facing east. Therefore, it is a bit disconcerting to be in California and watch the sunrise over the Pacific, but that is the way the bay's shore curves. There are various slippery stairs along the way to take you down to the water. If there are waves you will find surfers paddling out to catch one. Surfing was introduced to Santa Cruz in 1885 by three Hawaiian princes who attended Matthew's Military School in nearby San Mateo. They commissioned a local timber mill to make three long traditional Royal Hawaiian surfboards out of redwood. They immediately started a craze which is still going strong. There is a surfing museum in the historic point lighthouse where one can learn more. It is a beautiful spot to view the heavens and the earth, the ocean and the waves, and catch a little surf too.
Take a walk with Birkenstock.
