Santa Cruzin'

In Santa Cruz we were meeting up with Joe's friend, Janet. Originally, we were supposed to go to a pool party in San Jose, then a beach party in Santa Cruz, both of which fell through so we didn't really have any plans. Walking down the main street of Santa Cruz we realized that it was a bit of a different place. The town itself was very nice, but the people of the town added some color to it. There were a lot of homeless people, hippies, people playing guitar on the corner, and a fair share of weirdos (to put it lightly.) But whatever, we were visiting, so when in Santa Cruz, right? We had dinner at a pretty good pizza/pasta place and Janet met up with us. Our plans now were to camp out in a Redwood State Park. We decided to go with it, until we didn't get to the park til after sunset. At that point, we figured we were going to be doing our fair share of camping and headed back to downtown. We went out on the town and had a good time. First bar we went to had 2 pool tables, but only one cue with an actual tip. And to add insult to injury one of the "stripes" was a solid with two lines drawn on it in permanent marker. This was a classy establishment. I taught Janet how to play pool and she ended up beating Steve and myself, kind of embarrassing. After that it was onto an Irish Pub, which has been our default for most of the trip. It was fun there with dancing, but by the time we were ready to dance, the crowd had changed and it was time for us to depart. Next stop? The Pacific Ocean? At 1 in the AM? Sure. So Steve and Janet jumped in and were having a grand old time. Me and Joe were a little hesitant, but I went in and almost froze to death. We then drove around until we found an open motel and checked in for 9 hours. I was exhausted and past out. This hotel was the equivalent of the first bar we went to. The TV was held onto a stand with belts, the beds were caddy corner to each other, and the bathroom had no mirror. But thats the fun of doing this. Next morning, Janet decided to tag along with us to San Francisco and off we went with our new companion.