The Tyrolean Inn

Celebrated my mothers birthday this past weekend with a little trip up into the mountains to the Tyrolean Inn. Specializing in Bavarian cuisine, this eccentric little restaurant in Ben Lomond has been tucked among the redwoods since before I was born. When my mom first moved here from Germany, friends often took her there to ease her homesickness. More than thirty years later, we enjoyed classics like wurst, schnitzel, spatzle and goulash, then finished things off with shared apple strudel and mousse with kirschwasser. Yum-or I guess I should say, lecker!

Falafel Pizza & A Random Afternoon

Nisene Marks Forest

Santa Cruz Summers + Utility Jackets

Weather patterns in this beach town are not as tropical as many tourists want it to be. We have a fair share of cool, overcast days during the summertime where you never see the sun or sky. But luckily, the past week or so has seen some beautiful weather! The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk hosts free Friday concerts on the sand. Last weekend my best friend and I went to the 6:30 performance by Blue Oyster Cult. Yes, this town is heavily stuck in past decades. The sun was still warm, the sky was clear, and the smell of cotton candy and beer wafted on the breeze. Even so, we wimps were ready with layers; the moment the sun went down behind the roller coaster, the temperature started dropping fast.

My new job is situated less than a block from the beach, though the weather on this side of town tends much more to clouds and ocean fog (see it lurking out there on the horizon in the pic below?) I'm often wearing two sweaters since I'm just sitting inside. Often I walk to the surf spot at the end of the street after work to join the dozens of other people who like to gaze out at the ocean view. I've also been trying to visit more scenic places nearby around sunset. I made it up a nearby hilly area and dodged a snake or two, but unfortunately the damned weather didn't really cooperate.

I've had this utility jacket for a few years now, and it's really held up well despite it's lightweight construction. It's perfect for layering and I can always use more pockets. Plus, it folds up really small! I think I might need a  new one with more weight and a lining to wear in winter, too. Where is your favorite utility jacket from?

• Wet Seal jacket (similar here and here)
• outfit one: teal Kill City jeans (Crossroads), thrifted shirt, polka-dot Tom's (gift), Forever 21 hat
• outfit two: purple Kill City jeans (Crossroads), H&M sweater, yellow scarf (Ross) 

Photo Friday | Beercan Beach

Pan-o-rama-happy

Wow, it's mid-July, things couldn't be progressing better and I am so so happy to be back among the interwebs. My computer is back up and running and a new lens is almost here. I gave the blog a makeover and can't think of a more adorable or fitting header image (and I snatched up the .com, too). Best of all, I am gainfully employed. Besides sewing gigs, I am working several days a week at a local photographer's gallery, editing photos in Lightroom and generally just getting to learn a bunch of cool stuff. It's really exciting to be able to do something I love, and the skills I am gaining will only help make my photos better! In the meantime, I have pledged to use the panorama camera on my iPhone more often.

Weekenders: The Succulent Sale

We drove south last weekend to visit Jardines de San Juan Bautista for food, friends, and ta massive succulent sale. We unexpectedly came upon a car show along the same street. All in all, the days was beautifully bright and warm and while I don't care that much about cars, I can always appreciate and enjoy shiny, pretty colored things. These cars could have been nail polished or lollipops for all I noticed. That day I admired a lot of paint jobs, ate nachos, selected cactus, and a saw a creepy old tunnel in the floor that used to lead to the Mission. Viva California!

urban outfitter's peplum t-shirt, sale | Kill City jeans, Crossroads Trading Company | short-sleeved 

sweater, Forever 21 (old) | Fossil sandals, Ross | vintage gray bag, Crossroads

Davenport Snaps

I have so much to tell you after this past weekend! But first I want to post the rest of the pictures from earlier this month when we tripped up Highway One to The Roadhouse for brunch and a walk along the beach. The gallery next to the restaurant has been repainting this sunglass-shaped sign for years; it's so cheesy but I love seeing it every time. Maybe they even drew out the sun, because we were lucky enough to drive out of the fog around Santa Cruz to a bright beautiful day. 

Roadhouse

With our various jumbled schedules, it's often difficult to squeeze in quality time with loved ones. "Weekends" aren't always the same anymore. Irregular schedules can often make trying to plan a group outing very daunting. Luckily, my boy and my mom both had this past (sunny!) Thursday off with me, and since quality time is usually enhanced by the presence of quality food, we took a short trip up the coast the the Davenport Roadhouse for lunch. I've eaten here many times over the years, back to when it was called The Cash Store, but this lunch was especially spectacular. I'm usually a breakfast-at-all-hours kind of gal, but we missed the new breakfast menu by a half hour. The fish 'n chips I chose ended up being the yummiest decision ever. If you're ever driving around Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz, I highly recommend you stop!

Adventure Time

During a break in the rain last weekend, Eric and I layered up and took Oreo for a long walk in Nisene Marks state park. Nisene is a forest reserve about ten minutes away that houses one of my favorite trees-the redwoods! We are lucky enough to live near lushly forested mountains and more than one state park, but this particular patch is special for another reason. This forest grows on land that had been completely clear-cut during the California logging boom that ended in the early Twentieth century; looking around, it's hard to imagine that this forest is a baby and only just beginning. After the recent storms, everything was bright green and a bit wild with happiness. Except for the banana slug, those are yellow with joy ;)

Go My Favorite Sports Team!

Last night, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series (that's baseball), for the second time in two years. I don't expect anyone to really care, because I didn't really care until very recently. I think I'm finally beginning to understand why caring about sports can be an exhilarating  and unifying experience! The team itself has so many quirky individual players and they've just interacted so well. I played little league and girls' softball for a few years back in the day, so baseball has always been more interesting to me than  Eric and I were lucky enough to go to one of the play-off games in San Francisco a few weeks ago; a sold out stadium for a home team creates an intense energy (and noise!) and it was so wonderful - Go Giants!

Labor (Free) Day

This past Sunday, the local Begonia Festival Parade celebrated it's 60th Anniversary. Around the turn on the century, the Brown family moved to the sparsely populated coastal area then known as "Camp Capitola" and set about making an agriculture business. They hybridized the Pacific Begonia, and for several decades the Brown Bulb Ranch supplied ninety percent of the world with begonia bulbs. At first I was a little shocked by how many flowers are used each year, but then I learned that begonias are not cut flowers. The flowers' presence signal that the tubers are ready to be dug up and propagated; begonia farmers are not very concerned with the above-ground product.

The Village

In the early fifties, a local Capitola swim teacher took note of how many pretty flowers the Brown Bulb Ranch "wasted" each year. Soon after, the first swimmers paddled down the Soquel Creek to the ocean on boards decorated with the brilliant, broad-petaled flowers. A few years later, the first floats appeared and a local tradition was born. This year,  the steamboat float was my absolute favorite.The band playing on one was very impressive, too; I don't know if I could groove while worrying about electrocution!

Beachy Keen

The ice-cream colored buildings in the background actually make up the Venetian Hotel, which is where we spent Christmas Day with Eric's family. The fog started rolling in from the ocean around three o'clock (I was glad for a jacket) and tourists started to move en masse off the beach, but not before the horseshoe throwing contest reached it's climactic end. Above average waves the day before had a disastrous encounter with the Sandcastle Contest, but Sunday went off without a hitch.

Candy Shoppe

We stopped by the candy shop for reinforcements before heading home. There are new (to me, at least) Jelly Belly flavors! My old favorites include pink grapefruit, kiwi and juicy pear, but now I'm equally enamored of the ice cream mix they made with Coldstone. I can't decide whether I truly like the chili mango.. And I've got to go back and try the cupcake taffy. What are your favorite jelly belly flavors?