Had a really random day yesterday… Decided (sorta on a whim, no less) to head to the beach and Adele and I ended up at this semi-random beach near Santa Cruz (I think the beach is called Dooney Boone or something like that, but I can’t seem to find it on google maps!). I’ve been to it before, but the last time I went, the skies were a little gray and the wind was blowing a chill into my bones.

Yesterday, however, the weather was perfect. The sun was warm (in mid-October!) and the clouds made these ribbons in the sky around the sun. I got to enjoy my lox sandwich and double-dutch mocha on the sand and just breathe and watch the sea as it swashed into the cove. There’s such a strange sense of calm that beaches provide. It’s almost like meditating with all the senses and being to perceive with a heightened sense of being – the salty air, the texture of the sand and rocks, the sound of the splashes, the view of the sun resting in the sky. Ahh… ce’st la vie.

More interestingly, we got to talk to a few of the beach-bums there. The last time I went (on a weekday), it was absolutely empty. This time around, there were people and behind the big rock at the cove, on the other side, it was a nudist beach! I never knew! There were probably about 15 people, mostly older remnants of the hippie generation, but also some people in their 20s, just hanging out. (I didn’t get naked, by the way, in case you were wondering.) I quite envied their carefree-attitude. I mean, why can’t we hang out at the beach and really feel what it is to be human? We’re born naked. We shower naked. Why can’t we hang out on the beach naked?

The giant rock in the middle of the cove had a flat top surface and was at least a good 10 feet high. At the top, we had great conversations with this guy named Ernesto who was about 60 and was a yoga junkie. It was surprising how much wisdom random people could dispense on a random day. I guess sometimes, it’s easier to listen to a stranger than to people we know. They can say whatever they want and be honest without fear of repercussions (unless we were psychotic homicidal maniacs, which aren’t – mostly). And I talked to a Sergio from Croatia who had been in the US for 30 years and has “had enough of America”. He missed home and European culture (especially with how comfortable they were with nudity). We talked a lot about what we liked about the US – its opportunities and challenges, the health-care (which almost bankrupted him when his wife was charged $28k for a one hour procedure to fix a ripped thigh muscle) and the music. It just made me realize, that the US was a place of extremes. There were pros and cons, but extremes at each end. It’s just very hard to walk a middle path here. Or maybe, I just don’t belong.

After the beach, we went to check a jazz club that Ernesto recommended. It was this quaint little place called Moe’s Alley and wow, they have had some really big names there. It was really a hole-in-the-wall kinda place but they’ve hosted people like BB King and Muddy Waters there. And the band that was playing was called Mumbo Gumbo which played country-influenced Cajun swing. It was quite eclectic and they had about 6 musicians with them, each of whom were uniquely talented individually but enjoying bringing their sound to the table. The crowd (mostly older people, I’d say the average minus me and Adele was probably 50) all danced and had a good time rocking out to the music.

I guess one day, I’d probably be 60ish and rocking out at some small, unknown club that played 90′s music. And I’d meet some young 20-year-old’s and say something like, “About time you young’uns got to enjoy some great music! Oasis was the bomb back in the day. Not like what you have now in the 2040′s.”