So I'm still in Santa Cruz and have actually now decided to stay here for the winter. My original plan was to head up to the North to live with my brother Conor and his wife Shawna, but after being here for a couple of weeks, I just decided to stay. And besides, who goes to Canada for the winter? Especially when you can go to the beach in California instead?
Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Super Bowl Sunday
Tshirt weather I likeWorkaholic
Outstanding in the Field work is back in full swing now. We've got an ambitious 2009 schedule in the works and I've been spending the last couple of weeks contacting various chefs and farms across the country, asking them to be involved in our farm dinners this year. This year has been much much easier to put everything together. It definitely helps that I've done it once before and am a bit more confident in my communication, etc. but also because we are working with more than a couple of the people we know from last year. So instead of writing a long email saying "Hello... this is what Outstanding in the Field is all about... we've been all of these places, done lots of dinners with great chefs... you should too!" I can just write "Hi friend, how's 2009 treating you? Want to do a farm dinner again? Great- see you then!" Much easier. Less convincing involved. Although it still is great getting new people on board. I spoke on the phone today with a really wonderful sounding chef from Atlanta (Southern accents are so enchanting!) who didn't really know much about Outstanding in the Field. So I gave him the whole schpeel and by the end he was totally excited and impressed. Yay!
Zumba!
In an attempt to stay sane while working this year, I've been trying to take at least one day off a week and making sure I get out and about to have some fun. I also joined a local gym and have found my new favourite exercise class: Zumba! It is a latin/hip-hop fusion aerobics dance class. Some may recall the days in Vancouver when I was taking Latin Funk classes at Kits Workout (I tended to talk about it a lot!) and I've definitely been missing Tuesday and Thursdays with Gustavo. Zumba could never be as amazing as Latin Funk, but it sure is good fun, and you definitely feel it the next day! And of course I also love it for the good latin tunes! Check out this video to get a taste of Zumba.
Elephant Seals
One day a couple of weeks ago Jim and I went up the coast in hopes of seeing some elephant seals. Thousands of elephant seals come to this one area north of Santa Cruz once a year to mate and it's turned into quite the attraction. Now the parks dept regulate how many people go on the beach everyday and you have to buy advanced tickets to gain access. Jim and I decided to drive further up the coast, park, and then take a leisurely walk a mile or so down the beach to where the seals are (and we may or may not have been allowed to go). It was a really beautiful day, so the walk was nice. I wasn't really sure what to expect, so when we got to an area of the beach covered in these massive lumps that looked like huge logs, how was I supposed to know they were all seals?
So where are the seals?
See them now?
Not actually a log, but a few hundred pound animal!
Zumba!
In an attempt to stay sane while working this year, I've been trying to take at least one day off a week and making sure I get out and about to have some fun. I also joined a local gym and have found my new favourite exercise class: Zumba! It is a latin/hip-hop fusion aerobics dance class. Some may recall the days in Vancouver when I was taking Latin Funk classes at Kits Workout (I tended to talk about it a lot!) and I've definitely been missing Tuesday and Thursdays with Gustavo. Zumba could never be as amazing as Latin Funk, but it sure is good fun, and you definitely feel it the next day! And of course I also love it for the good latin tunes! Check out this video to get a taste of Zumba.
Elephant Seals
One day a couple of weeks ago Jim and I went up the coast in hopes of seeing some elephant seals. Thousands of elephant seals come to this one area north of Santa Cruz once a year to mate and it's turned into quite the attraction. Now the parks dept regulate how many people go on the beach everyday and you have to buy advanced tickets to gain access. Jim and I decided to drive further up the coast, park, and then take a leisurely walk a mile or so down the beach to where the seals are (and we may or may not have been allowed to go). It was a really beautiful day, so the walk was nice. I wasn't really sure what to expect, so when we got to an area of the beach covered in these massive lumps that looked like huge logs, how was I supposed to know they were all seals?
So where are the seals?
See them now?
Not actually a log, but a few hundred pound animal!See the people silhouettes in the first two photos there? Well lucky for us those weren't park rangers, but just scientists out observing the seals. They gave us a polite warning that if the ranger was to catch us out on this particular beach, which was closed to the public (what signs?) we could get hundreds of dollars in fines. With that, we carried on our way, back to where we came from.
We hadn't got too close to the seals, also because it isn't really that safe to do so. I have a hard time believing those huge lumps can move too quickly, but apparently they can. We saw a few move around and they sort of move like worms, "inching" along (metre by metre).
We safely crossed back over to the public area without sighting a ranger. But soon after we did encounter someone else:
A lonely elephant seal on the beach!
We hadn't got too close to the seals, also because it isn't really that safe to do so. I have a hard time believing those huge lumps can move too quickly, but apparently they can. We saw a few move around and they sort of move like worms, "inching" along (metre by metre).
We safely crossed back over to the public area without sighting a ranger. But soon after we did encounter someone else:
A lonely elephant seal on the beach!It was pretty amazing to get this closer up look of the animal. He was fully facing us too, so we could be a little more confident with anticipating any movement. Take a look at this, they really do look just like elephants, without the ears!
Jim thought that this was one of the juvenile males that wasn't involved in the whole mating process this time around. Apparently the full-sized males can get up to 6,000 lb. and be 16 feet long. I'm not sure I'd want to run into one of those guys at the beach...
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