lifeinflux

I’m not sure you can get more fun out of a day than I managed on Friday. An early morning drive down to Santa Cruz with two friends at 8:30 AM was the start to a terrific day that culminated in an evening tour of one of my new friends’ lovely home and plans for a wine tasting in the near future. In between was a lovely 2.2 mile hike along the coast starting at Lighthouse State Park and ending up at Natural Bridges State Park. I met some lovely people including Zeus, a huge black Great Dane, and Zeus’ owner who was so ridiculously good-looking he made every female’s head turn who happened upon them and almost caused a car accident by some poor hapless female who was completely overwhelmed by his man beauty. After the invigorating hike, we went to lunch at a local haunt called The Crepe Place and had a lovely time getting to know an incredible group of women from the Bay Area while we hung out on the back patio of this very nice French restaurant. Crepes, salad and wine were consumed and finally it was time to hit the Boardwalk to line up to see the Gin Blossoms. By the time we parked and walked onto the Boardwalk, the entire beach front area around the stage was open. We hit the sand, I took some pictures, and still had just enough time for a 45 minute nap in the sun before the concert started. All the old favorites from the 90s were played including “Hey Jealousy”, Til I Hear It From You”, and “Follow You Down”. We also got to hear two songs from their new album, No Chocolate Cake.

Robin Wilson looks exactly the same… minus some hair. In some ways the concert felt like a repeat of the last time I saw the Gin Blossoms… which was ohhh, about 16 years ago. Robin Wilson handed down a tambourine into the crowd, pandered to fans young and old, and sang into someone’s cell phone to their mom/dad/grandma/child who was unfortunate enough to not make the concert that day. The concert did not last long; one hour and fifteen minutes of play time with an hour and a half break until the second show. A lot of folks left, including our group, during the break. Gin Blossoms are notorious for playing the exact same songs at their back-to-back concerts so there was no need to stay on the beach and freeze only to listen to the same set list again. Our group moved onto the boardwalk, and spent about 30 minutes chatting about our next get-together and talking about how fun a wine tasting party would be in the near future. My group had a pleasant drive up 17 North heading back into the Bay Area and we stopped at Beth’s new house and walked through planning the upcoming wine party in a few weeks. All in all it was a delightful day. I got home around 10:30 and sacked out a mere hour later with a smile on my face and the smell of the ocean still in my hair.

I think I need to play hookey from work more often and have more days of fun like that. Good friends, good food, good wine, good hike, great beach, amazing weather, good music AND a nap? You just can’t beat that!