Sad farewell to Santa Cruz

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and it was a reluctant start to the day on Friday, not just because we'd had rather a big night with Mike and Val and gumbo, but knowing that each activity would be a "last thing" as we farewelled our beloved Santa Cruz.

My last morning meeting with Marc in Aptos involved a final cruise along East Cliff Drive, with the surfers, cyclists and dog-walkers........

.......onward towards lovely Capitola......

...........driving through the main street of Capitola.............

..........and admiring the gorgeous coast.

Meeting over, it was back home to frantically finish packing as Annie's cleaners arrived to prepare our little pink cottage for Memorial Day Weekend guests.

Annie had been a magnificant host and surfing instructor. I'm going to miss her a lot. It was very hard to say goodbye both to her, and to the little pink cottage that had been "home", wonky angles and all:

Next, a flying visit to campus to finalise some printing and miscellaneous emails. Mike showed up halfway through (we'd arranged for the four of us to have lunch together) and patiently waited as Sean hooked me up to the printer (great to have an I.T. hubby!) and I went beserk with all the paperwork. We also dug up some boxes so we could mail a bunch of stuff home before the next stage of our journey.

By the time I was done, poor Mike was about to drop from starvation. We lost no time in grabbing Val (I packed the boxes in the car en route to their apartment, and Val kindly sealed them for me, while Sean addressed them - thanks Val!) and heading into town for a VERY belated lunch.

Mike made several suggestions for lunch, and we chose the place we'd yet to visit: Hoffmans. Val and I each nailed an amazing blue cheese, pear and apricot paste toasted sandwich. The boys ate substantially more. Clam chowder was involved.

Poor Mike and Val, finally sated.

Val and I rather liked the look of this Princess Torte:

Two princesses outside Hoffmans:

And then, as a fitting farewell to Santa Cruz:

(Actually, I took the above shot in Capitola, but the sentiments apply: "Wag More, Bark Less" and, more to the point, "It's Not Shopping, It's Retail Therapy").

And it was soon demonstrated to us that dogs and shopping indeed go very well together:

How much is that doggie in the window? The one on the cute leather boots?!

Yes, Val and I left the boys to their own devices for a bit while we checked out The Closet Shopper. Seriously the best secondhand clothes store I have ever seen. I got an amazing jacket and a dress all for less than AUS $30. I'd show you them if I could, but I mailed them home.

Next, we made our way to Bunny's Shoes.

Do you remember these?

The ones of Val's, that I coveted? When I'd been in to try them on a week ago, they didn't have my size, and I was heartbroken.

Cue this afternoon, and Val and I went in for a general look around (it's shoes; that's what you do). I happened to mention the shoes, and it turned out THE VERY ONES you see in the above picture were my size, but they don't sell stock out of the window until the display is changed. The display had been changed the day before, so the shoes you see in the piccie are now MINE!!! ALL MINE!

Ahahahahahhahahahahahahahhaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a sign! I wasn't meant to get the Val-Facebook-Shoes until I was actually shopping WITH Val!!

Please find in the below photo Nat, Val and big bag with SHOES!!! This really capped my day. Now I had my Val-shoes, I could leave Santa Cruz contented.

The boys had meanwhile returned and were being very patient while all the shoe-ecstasy was transpiring:

But they couldn't really complain, as they'd been doing other special shopping during the week:

The final, fitting, stop for the day was Game Alot, where Sean and I picked up our very own sets of "Spot It!" and "Pass the Pigs".

And then we headed to the post office, where it really was time to say goodbye. I don't want to dwell on this - it was a tad teary and snotty. On the up side, we bumped into Kate from the labs, so I got to say a proper goodbye to her, too.

After waiting in a long line (it was the Friday before the Memorial Day Public Holiday), we just squeaked in mailing our parcels to Australia.

Unburdened, we headed back to the car to make our run up the coast to San Francisco. We were just rearranging things in the boot, rather harrassed as a lady was waiting for our parking spot, when who turned up but Val and Mike!!!

It was such a bonus to see them one last time. More tears, more long hugs. Very, very sad to leave them both.

Finally, we were on the road out of town. One last pass of the clock tower, just after 5:30pm:

We were feeling rather sombre and subdued after farewelling our friends. We made it onto Mission Street, and then a familiar white Mitsubishi truck pulled up alongside us:

A final, extra-bonus goodbye.

Our last turn onto Mission Street:

A photo of the back of my Santa Cruz Dot, as a nostalgic tribute as we left town:

And even though we were excited about our wonderful holiday ahead, I was very sad to be leaving:

Goodbye, Santa Cruz. I hope I'll be back soon.