On the first day of our Spring Break trip, we woke up at six a.m and went to Santa Cruz. We arrived at about one. The drive was really nothing special; the route was mainly just through fields. We passed by some fields with hundreds of cows, which smelled just wonderful. Santa Cruz itself is alright. The layout of the city is a bit weird, with no real clear distinction between the suburban and rural areas. There also was a lot more homeless people than I thought there would be. We went to UC Santa Cruz, which is quite a fascinating school. It doesn’t look like a place for a school, it looks more like a national park.
The school itself was rather quiet when we went the next day because most of the buildings were closed on Sunday. A person working in the bookstore said the school is a lot louder on other days, but it still felt like the culture for people to keep to themselves there. The school is kind of isolated, which can be interpreted as a good thing or bad thing. On one hand, you’re away from other people, but on the other hand, you’re away from shops and grocery stores. The school feels science oriented, which makes sense with all the nature around them. It was definitely an interesting school and an interesting prospect for those who like an isolated, beautiful school. For lunch that day, we had a french dip, but for dinner, we had some good stuff. We went to an Italian restaurant and had Sunday gravy and black truffle gnocchi.
When on road trips, when there is some food that my family doesn’t usually have or doesn’t really exist where we live, we usually get it. The mindset is “Well, when else are we going to have this?” The food was very good and really hit the spot. The Sunday gravy essentially boiled down to penne with meat sauce and meatballs. The meat sauce was the real star there, and was some of the best I’d ever had.
Santa Cruz is a conflicting city. It’s really nice and has a lot of interesting food and people. But, it also is kind of gross, with a lot of homeless people. The layout of the city is also kind of weird, as I mentioned above. It’s a fascinating city though, and I recommend all to at least stop there for lunch.