When I was a kid in Springfield Illinois one of my mom’s friends told me about the university at Santa Cruz and it seemed like the greatest place on earth. I totally dreamed about moving there for school throughout my childhood but then I became obsessed with the Northwest and then I learned about Evergreen and ended up going there. The idea of Santa Cruz and living on the beach stuck with me for a long time. Maybe also because I loved the Coreys too when I was a kid and Lost Boys was totally filmed there.I was really excited when I found out the wedding was going to be there, since Mr. Smurf was in the wedding I got to ride along with the guys which was new experience!Guys, by the way have it so much easier when it comes to formal wear. They all get to basically wear the same thing and the only decision that have to make is tie or not. I am so jealous! We skipped out on the fast food with the rest of the groomsmen and went to Pearl of the Ocean, a Sri Lanken place in Santa CruzIt was fabulous! First of all the menu is all vegan except for one chicken entrée, I thought that was pretty awesome because you could take someone there who wouldn’t normally go with you to a vegan place and say “don’t worry they have an omni dish for you” I also liked that you could get 2, 3 or 4 entrées. I think we tried most of the menu, the mango curry was super spicy and I think the cauliflower cashew curry was my favorite. Everything was delicious.Later that night we went to the rehearsal dinner which was at a little Thai restaurant. They had fantastic spring rolls and papaya salad.  Ian and Janine who were getting are maybe the cutest couple ever. I am so happy for them!The next day I discovered the Bagelry and that certainly influenced all of my eating for the rest of trip. It was like a vegan bagel wonderland with tons of different toffutti toppings.The lady working there let me try a bunch of different spreads, the awesome part for people that want to try everything is that you can get half your bagel one way and the other half totally different. They wrap them up so don’t touch each other. The first day I tried the red pepper spread and the tofu tom.The tofu tom was my dream topping it had sun-dried tomatoes and garlic and olives, it was like eating the essence of olive! The bagels weren’t as dense as I like but it was more than made up for with the delicious toppings. Later I tried the Tofu Del Fuego which was spicy with jalapeños and also had olives, sunflower seeds, carrots and celery. I asked for this one with olives on top and I wish I had a picture of that, they chop up olives and put, I’d say, a half a cup on each slice. My god, it was a dream come true!

The wedding was beautiful, it was on a golf course and you could see the ocean and deer and everything. Mr. Smurf was the super fly usher.The next day, after bagels, we went hiking at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. I got to see lots of trees which filled me with glee.we hiked down a mountain and got to a beautiful spotThen we wandered around Santa Cruz and went shopping in their cute downtown that had an outdoor market.and then went to the pier and rode roller coasters.

I think Santa Cruz is probably the only place in the world you can do all of that on like 20 dollars! The next day I got some bagels for the road and headed back to the airport. All and all a fantastic trip. Congratulations Ian & Janine!