Santa Cruz, CA October 28th
Loved playing this free show as part of my friend's Haiti Medical Clinic fundraiser.
I always love spending time in Santa Cruz (Capitola), CA. It feels like summer every single day: warm weather, sunny skies, peeling waves, tan people with smiles on their faces… pretty perfect, if you ask me. On October 28th, I teetered down the coast from Half Moon Bay, CA after a relatively sleepless night and, after napping for a looooong time when I finally arrived at my hotel, I walked the beaches and reefs at low tide for a while to chill and get my bearings. This was day #15 of the mini tour and performance #24 and, to be honest, I was starting to feel some of the late-night drives and early morning check-in’s at the seedy roadside no-tell motels along the way. I needed some chill time, and I found it along the shore while tide pooling and walking with my bare feet in the sand and on the smooth rock reef for a while during sunset down in Capitola.
On a really, really low tide, you can walk from Pleasure Point all the way down to Capitola proper. Great tide pool exploration abounds and cool cliffside caves.
After walking for a long while, it was again that time of the night when I needed to clean up, get my gear together, and set up to play. On this evening, I was playing for a fundraiser that my friend Amy Herold was putting on to help raise money for a medical clinic in Haiti that she visits and donates her time and expertise to each year. Seeing as it was a Friday night and Halloween weekend, AND a fundraiser, I knew it was going to be nuts. And crazy loud it was! I had my gear cranked WAY up and, while it worked out a.o.k., I felt like I blasted myself right out of the water that night. In any case, I had a ton of fun, met lots of great folks, helped raise some money for my friend, and even donated myself (well, a house concert by me, actually) to the cause. I went for a nice price, I’m proud to say, and am excited to head back down to Capitola in the next few months when the winner decides to redeem the prize. Should be a fun time! After the evening was through, I packed everything up, relaxed to a glass of wine in the post-party empty bar, and prepared myself for a deep, deep sleep… When I finally made it back to my hotel, as I closed my eyes, I kept seeing visions of this cool pier photographed below before it was finally lights out until the hotel manager banged on my door in an effort kick me out an hour past the check-out time the next morning (Oops! Sorry, bud! Thanks for not charging me extra!).
The Capitola, CA pier at sunset. Cool.