Tuesday, March 2. We woke up to heavy rain this morning which escalated to a downpour. I settled in to write some blog posts while Phil had a telephone interview. With the rain pelting the windows and hammering the roof, we began to feel a little stir crazy. I got the assignment of finding a place to go for lunch. After surfing the Internet for a while, I came across the Saturn Cafe. It had great reviews and the website was a treat for the eye.
By the time we drove to Santa Cruz, the rain had let up to a drizzle. The Saturn Cafe is at 145 Laurel on the south end of the downtown shopping district. It's part of a row of stores with parking in the back, but its circular exterior sets it apart from the average minimall. The interior design is truly kooky, quirky and one of a kind. Many of the globe ceiling lights have pink rings around them like, well, Saturn, and lots of the furnishings, like the fifties era refrigerator near the entrance reflect the pink flamingo color scheme. The booths around the outer ring of the dining room have plexiglass tops over shallow display areas with kitschy knick knacks from bygone eras. Our table had butterflies and flowers and doves in assorted day glo colors.
The menu features vegan and vegetarian comfort food. I had corn dogs and Phil had a Tuno Melt -- both of them soy based imitations of the kind of thing you'd expect in any diner. We also had thin fries which wer delightfully crisp. Our waiter was happy to explain to us about the origin of Tuno and how the Saturn had a special recipe for its tuno salad to make it even more fishy tasting.
Phil had a phone interview, so while he talked in the car, I went for a little stroll up Beach Hill to get a view of the ocean and check out some of the glorious old Victorian homes along Main Street. The most glorious of all is Golden Gate Villa, an imposing multi-gabled beauty with an equally ornate carriage house behind it. It's so large I assumed it must have been built as a boarding house for vacationers, but it was actually a private residence for many years and now appears to be up for sale for a mere $8,500,000. What a time to have forgotten my camera.
By the time I got back to the car, Phil had finished his interview, so we headed for home, stopping off at Aptos Coffee Roasters for a couple of cups to go and some low fat oatmeal cookies. After a while, we put Dixie on her leash and headed for Hidden Beach again. Because of the downpour earlier, there weren't many people out so we walked all the way down to the beach. The breakers were phenomenal, cresting about ten feet above the water's surface in row after thundering row. The water was so churned up that frothy clumps of foam lay scattered over the beach like huge meringues. We walked along the water's edge for a while, but the surf was so loud that having a conversation was impossible. We climbed stairs labelled "No Trespassing! No Loitering! Observe Leash Law!" over a massive molded concrete sea wall and into a gated community.
Lucky for us, this enclave of million dollar homes carefully tiered row after row up the palisade to maximize the ocean views just happened to be the terminus of Club House Drive. We trudged up the hill, across the train tracks, and around the bend, braving the seemingly endless stream of SUVs and minivans blythely doing 50 in a 25 mile an hour zone. Everyone, even Dixie, was relieved to finally make it to the actual club house so we could detour into the relatively quieter limited access streets and finally home.
We thought Dixie would be exhausted by the long walk, but she was more energetic than ever, circling the living room as break neck speed and barking up a storm. Before our "little glass of wine," we had a meditation session and Dixie seemed disturbed by our sitting so still. She had a couple of extended barking spells and needed a lot of petting to reassure her after we were done. With our wine, we had a nice dinner of Greek salad and salmon, ratatouille and pita bread with bread pudding for dessert. We talked to Phil's aunt and Drew and Tony after dinner and settled down in front of Steve's toasty stove for an evening of emails and Sudoku.
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