Showing Off Santa Cruz

You may remember JennyT's last visit to NorCal. Well, apparently the metallic paper business is treating her well, as she was back in San Francisco on business again last week and this time, she brought her Swedish Meatball husband, Mantis, along as well (you may recall that JennyT and Mantis were Best Couple Ever nominees not too long ago). This time, they stayed an extra weekend for some sightseeing and a road trip to Santa Cruz last Saturday. That's them right there in Fosco's living room (looking purposefully cranky).

The best thing about JennyT (well, okay, one of the best things) is that she, like Fosco, loves the "eating vacation"--the vacation where one visits as many different good restaurants as possible. Of course, we always find ourselves rubbing up against that damn "three meals a day" limitation of the human body. But we fight it valiantly. Mantis, on the other hand, likes to walk on vacation. And walk and walk and walk. He spent most of his week (while JennyT was in business meetings) exploring a rainy San Francisco on foot. But, Santa Cruz is Fosco's territory, which means that we mostly ate and did not walk.

JennyT is such an experienced vacation eater that she managed to find a restaurant that she wanted to try on the drive from SF to Santa Cruz. Well-played, mon ami, well-played. I had never heard of the Bay Area chain Hobee's, but JennyT and Mantis recommend it highly. They arrived on Fosco's doorstep with an entire Hobee's blueberry coffeecake (with cinnamon-sugar crumbles on top!) for Fosco and it was delicious. Fosco will drive up to Hobee's someday soon. You know what else is good about Hobee's? The picture at right (from their website) of their president. He's kind of a tool, huh?

After another (typically) exceptional lunch at Gayle's, I got to show J&M my fave Santa Cruz sights, including the West Cliffs:

The crazy Steamer Lane surfers:

And the view from the Lower Campus at UCSC:

We took the requisite nature hike through UCSC Central Campus and everyone was duly impressed with the mysterious redwoods. We visited a local "attraction" (more on this later). We had a deliciously sushirific dinner at Shogun on Pacific Ave. In all, it was a delightul day with two of my favorite friends.

Which leads us to the question: when will you visit Fosco in Santa Cruz?