Day 93, August 19th 2008, beginning in San Francisco, California

It was Monday, so Ryan headed off to work. We said goodbye to him, but forgot to take the going away picture. Sorry folks. You can see the back of his head in some of the other pictures I took as a consolation. Paul went back to sleep in Ryan's bed, and I farted around on the computer for a while. When Paul got up, we packed up and headed out the door. We said bye to Ryan's roommates Matt and Matt, and were on our way. Destination Santa Cruz.

It was quite the climb to get out of San Francisco, and when we got on the 1, we realized it was not fit for bicycles. We got off the first exit, and made our way along side roads until it was safe to return. We made about 20 miles to a small town when Paul noticed my tire was quite low. I was hoping the tire would make it to Santa Cruz, where I had planned on replacing it that night, but it was a bit too ambitious. I replaced the tube and tire, and we were down to no spares again.

After we got some drinks and ate, we hit the road again. We rode another 30 miles to a small town with a gas station and restaurant. We went to the restaurant and each got a burger. We ate outside, because it was so sunny and beautiful. We took our time, we only had another 25 to Santa Cruz. It was late afternoon, and the winds picked up heavily in our favor. I mentioned after that it was probably the fastest 25 miles we had done in the whole trip. We were cruising to the Cruz. The same winds we were enjoying were a perfect source of entertainment for a hoard of kite surfers we noticed as soon as we got into Santa Cruz county.

When we got into town, we made our way to where our friend Sean was staying. We unloaded our stuff inside, and Paul showered up. We headed out on the town with Sean to get some food. He first took us to this famous surfing spot where we watched the surfers surf, and the waves crash into the rocks. It was a serene setting, and entertaining at the same time.

After that, we went and got some falafels downtown near the famous Santa Cruz boardwalk. When we were done, we headed out to the boardwalk, but quickly got kicked off since there is no biking allowed. We swung by Mike's house, and he wasn't there. Mike doesn't have a cell phone, imagine that… so at times its difficult to reach him. Remember those days?

We went back to Sean's friend's apartment that we were staying at, and shortly after got a call from Mike. They had rented fern gully, a movie we had talked about on the trip. It's a cartoon about clear cutting forests, and it reminded them of Washington as there was so much of it done up there. Mike and his girlfriend Mia joined the party. Mike was hardly recognizable to us after shaving his beard that had been growing for a few months into the trip. It was pretty funny to see since the bearded Mike was the only one Paul and I knew. Sean's was still in full effect as you can see. Mike also brought over their photos from the trip, and we all checked them out. They had some pretty funny ones those silly guys.

We then put on the movie, which mind you is intended for 3-8 year olds. Here we were, 5 adults watching fern gully intently. We took a brief pause to get some pizza down the street, and anxiously returned to the movie. When it was over, Mike and Mia went back to their place. Paul was out, and Sean through on some Family Guy. We were under a roof again, man we were getting spoiled. Tomorrow would see us of to Fresno. Should be fun.

Life was good.