Friday night after the IBM/Apple trip we got Sushi. The waitress told me to please eat the last piece that neither David nor I really wanted, which I did…

On the way back up to campus, David decided to play around with the lights a bit. He was showing me how oh-so-exciting it is to turn the car’s lights off for just a second while driving in the dark night. A few minutes later, we saw police car lights flashing behind us. We waited nervously in our zip car for the police woman to come to the window. She leaned over and informed us that one of the back lights was out. I have to say though… it would have been funny if he was pulled over being silly like that :).

Saturday we went to the beach and then watched half of the Fellowship of the Ring. Sunday we planned to go to the church but couldn’t borrow Katie’s car and didn’t feel like walking and being all sweaty. So instead we went kayaking :). The first half was great, we stopped along the way in some of the kelp beds (you can hold onto the kelp to keep from drifting). While I was sitting there taking pictures a sea otter showed up and rolled around right there in front of us. There were also a good handful of birds hanging out in the kelp.

We continued on past the a point and the waves got really choppy. They were decent waves for surfing and we were sitting on them a little ways before the breaking point. David thought this was terribly exciting, but I was a bit nervous about getting tossed out of the boat. He just wanted to sit there getting rocked around by the waves, but I started getting a bit sea sick from it all. So we started to head back. Since the waves were helping to carry us back, David refused to paddle but the up and down motion was making me naseous. By the time we got close to the pier where we had started, all I wanted to do was be on dry land. Sadly we decided to end the adventure only an hour into it, despite the three hour rental. I felt bad and would have liked to continue, but my stomach couldn’t handle it much longer.

After I felt better we ate and went back to the apartment to watch Across the Universe. It was great to have a three day weekend; I can’t believe we only have one left… but I’m excited to go to San Francisco on saturday.

Santa Cruz is one of the best places for people watching. I wish I could take pictures of the interesting people I see, it would be an interesting collection. But I feel kind of rude doing that… so you get descriptions.

Probably the most interesting I’ve seen yet was a hippy van carrying what appeared to be a family. At least, there was a child and two adults. The van itself was covered in psychedelic colors on the inside: mats, wall hangings, etc. The blonde child had dreadlocks just like his mother, how sweet!

David and I passed a guy on the street carrying a book in front of him and walking quite slowly. Apparently, according to a guy in David’s lab, he’s a well known icon around here. He does this every day, walking up and down the street very slowly with his book. He got in trouble once for walking across the street too slowly. Since then, he darts across the street and then continues his slow pace on the other side.

Headbands are a pretty popular hippy clothing article. But now that we’re in the 21st century, things have to updated and modernized. One very clever hippy realized a tie makes a great headband, its sure to become the new fashion.

I’ve seen people wearing these jackets before that are black and have a white skeleton printed in the appropriate locations. Once I saw a guy on a bike with one of these jackets, plus a mask following the same idea. I hope he could see through okay.

We walked past a couple guys who were rolling joints on the downtown strip of Santa Cruz. I heard one of the guys say “Well, if I can’t get love from a woman then I’ll get it from [a joint]”. I’m not actually sure what the word was, but I can guess.

We went in a retro style music store and there was this really big white guy with a fro. He just looked strange even though he wasn’t dressed weird or anything.

Walking down the street is always an interesting experience. About ever 20 feet there’s someone playing music at varrying levels of skill. Or just sitting there. Or walking on glass (though unfortunately I did not see this myself).