The plan for today was to make it to Santa Cruz and stay with some new friends we had made on the Climate ride. There was a bicycle club from there that had invited us to stay with them on our way out of town. The problem was that Santa Cruz was 90 miles with a big climb from near Oakland where we were staying. So when we were offered a plan by Randy who was commuting over to Palo Alto to give us a ride through suburbia to gave us a ride to shorten the trip by a few miles we took the offer. Tuesday morning I woke early at Randy's house and we headed out picked up Kevin and were on our way.
The Palo Alto and Santa Clara area across the Bay where we started was busy and developed, but with great bicycling paths .
We had a big climb up and over Saratoga gap out of the San Francisco Bay basin to get to the coast. It was a long and steep climb but beautiful.
With great views back across the Bay....
.....and then on the decent views out toward the ocean.
It was a sunny day and after the decent we passed through some small towns and for the first time it got really hot. A very sunny day it hit 90F.
We arrived in Santa Cruz a very cute and prosperous looking town. But the amazing thing was that on the coast it was a different climate! Suddenly it was very cool with a damp mist coming off the ocean.
Here is Kevin bundled up when 2 hours prior we were dying of heat.
I found a great local coffee shop and discovered that Bernie had been in Santa Cruz just that morning. So I dug out my Bernie tee shirt attracted some likeminded locals for a lively and inspired political conversation.
Meanwhile Kevin had a few "recovery beverages" at a Brew Pub right next door.
After having recharged we headed toward the beach area and discovered that Santa Cruz was a hotbed of surfing. With a long history with the sport.
We first found this beach loaded with surfers.......the minor league for beginners as we found out when we went further up the coast to find these guys.....
Unbelievable....apparantely the tide, moon, current and waves were in alignment to create some great 20 foot high rollers. And we could stand only a few hundred feet away on this bluff and have a court side view.
True daredevils and amazing to watch.
We then rode a short ways to the really cute and expertly appointed and landscaped house of new friends we had met last week on the Climate ride. Bicyclists are the friendliest, most hospitable and fun crowd of people. All appreciate each other for being on a bike and we were hosted in comfort and with a fantastic gourmet feast by Ricardo and his wife Dianne.
They turned it into a reunion party with others on their team from the week before. We all made plans for a reunion of our own where I could return the hospitality on the Maine 2017 climate ride when thy all promised to come East.
We went to bed with another great day under our belts.
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