I know I just posted yesterday, and it usually takes me a few days to write up something new, but Elise and I went to Boulder Creek today, and I had to share.
Quick note: we've decided to move, and as part of that, Elise and I have decided to explore around the Bay Area to decide where we want to move to. Boulder Creek was our first stop.
We packed up the truck and took off, actually a bit late, around 2:30pm today, which is Tuesday, Sept. 15th, 2009.
In the above picture, we've stopped at the corner market before leaving, to get some water and some snacks. I decided to take Shar with us at the last minute, because she's just been so antsy and puppy-esque, and I thought it would do her some good to get out of the house for a bit of a trip.
Boulder Creek is a small town in the Santa Cruz mountains, more specifically in the San Lorenzo Valley (for local news, click here for the Press-Banner).
Boulder Creek is a nice little town, and if I'd been thinking, I'd have taken more pictures, just so I could show you some of the places we stopped to look. We parked at the New Leaf Market (think Whole Foods Market, only local and independent) and took Shar for a walk up one side of the main street and back down the other. Well, actually, we didn't quite go all the way - the main street stretches for a bit - but we went far enough to get a decent look at the businesses. There was a gas station, a regular market - Johnny's, which I'd intended to go in, but forgot - the organic market, a dry cleaners, a wash-your-own-dog place, three or four art boutiques, including the one art/antiques place we walked through (more about that in a moment), the water district office, a Fosters Freeze that, I think, gave me mild food poisoning from the hamburger I ordered, the Odd Fellows Lodge, one hardware store, one lumber yard, an auto parts store, and an old-fashioned "pharmacy" of the type that also sells knick-knacks, cards, perfume, soaps, etc etc as well (and didn't you used to love the one your mom used to visit when you were young? I did...). There was also a Round Table's, a chinese food place that was open but completely empty, a mom-and-pop-looking diner (The Mountain Inn? Something like that...) that was closed on Tuesdays, a brewery cafe, one other cafe that specialized in desserts, that was also closed... and probably a few other places I've forgotten. Point is, it was a pretty well-rounded downtown, for such a small place.
Now for the art/antiques place, which was really wonderful - the building said "Mac's 100-yr-old place" or something like that.
Here's the only picture I could find
on the official website, and this isn't what it looked like when we were there today, so I did a bit more digging...
...and came up with THIS picture - no, we didn't get to see the cute Rottie - which is what the place looks like right now. (This picture was taken off of Flickr, from Lynna62).
Anyway, this was more "antiques" than "art gallery", but it was exactly my favorite kind of antiques place - the kind where you have to go carefully over every inch, because there are wonderful little hidden things in every corner. They have a strange outdoor-kinda-flea-market-everything-under-awnings-kinda-place out in the back, so not only do you have a million little hidey places for cool stuff inside, but there's a million more out the back door as well. I bought Elise a little Elise-sized parasol, which they let me have for $3 instead of the $5 it was marked, and I wanted to buy half a million other things, most not more than$5-$10, like the cool giant enamelware pot I could have used for a huge-ass canning bath, or the various pots and pans and copper molds I could have put on my kitchen walls, or the funky chicken porcelain thingy that would have just collected dust on a shelf, but would have looked bitchin' cool doing it. Oh well. It's not like all the good junk will spoil. I can always go back when we're a bit more flush.
The one thing I did get from their funky backyard weird fleamarkety area was the following: a series of eerily cool pictures, more chiaroscuro with which to leave a nice taste on the grey matter. I GOTTA ask for a good camera for Christmas! Please forgive these - they were taken with my cell phone camera...
So, anyway... We went back to the truck and drove down the road to the Fosters Freeze, where I got a hamburger and Elise got a hotdog and we both got rootbeer floats (too much softserve vanilla ice cream, and the rootbeer was flat), the consumption of which left me with a slightly-more-nasty-than-usual case of stomach unhappiness. At the writing of this, it's now nearly midnight and my stomach has finally settled back to a feeling of normalcy.
Before we left, I took Shar out to go poddy, which she did, in her own massive, inimitable fashion. I was caught unprepared, and yelled for Elise to bring me a plastic bag from the truck. There was a very nice lady taking out her garbage bins just down the street, who overheard and laughingly offered me a bag out of her trash, which I happily accepted. Shar had to introduce herself, as she usually does, head down and tail thrashing madly, leaning her full weight against the lady's legs for a good petting. We struck up the usual "OMG-she's-just-a-puppy?!" conversation, after which Elise, Shar and I climbed back into the truck and went on our way. It was sometime after 6pm at this point, and we decided to take Big Basin Way out of town.
I was originally going to follow it for only a mile or so, but we got kind of wrapped up in how cool it was, and after several miles had passed, I turned on Trevor (my gps - surely I've mentioned him before?) to "consult the oracle" and find out where we were. Turns out Big Basin Way empties back onto Hwy 9, which is how we got to Boulder Creek in the first place, so we just kept going straight.
It was an incredible drive, very lonely, and I have to be honest, it would have been scary without having Inny to depend on. There's just something about a 3/4 ton heavy-duty diesel that gives one a feeling of security, like wrapping yourself in several inches of solid steel, all driven by an engine that just about never breaks down... We went through Big Basin Redwoods State Park, agreeing as we did so that it would be a wonderful place to bring the trailer to, for a quickie camping trip once we actually get the trailer registered and are able to tow it again.
The road kept going, following a ridgeline for some ways. I stopped to take this picture...
... And then turned around and took this one of Elise and Shar.
After that, the light faded, and it was a pretty standard drive home. We got home about 9pm, and Jeff got home from class a few minutes after that.
The consensus between Elise and myself, after our expedition was complete, was that, while Daddy could get to work in Saratoga without too much trouble, he couldn't get to Game Kastle without a significant amount of difficulty, which has to be taken into consideration.
One thing we came to an agreement about - both Elise and I love the mountains, and the redwood forest, and the smells on the air, of woodsmoke when we were near campgrounds and smoke from fireplaces when we were near houses, of bay laurel trees and eucalyptus trees and cool mossy forest, of sea fog when we got closer to the ocean, and dry manzanita when we got farther away.
I'll have to keep you updated on our next trip out. We're not sure where to try next, but we might explore out on the coast, just for the heck and giggles of it... Maybe out by Half Moon Bay, and San Gregorio, a place I've been to a few times but not since I was much younger.
Okay, toodles for now.
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