So Many

So many thoughts are running through my head. How many posts do I have that start out that way? Oh well.

Last night Hubby and I had an amazing date. Wonderful, fun, cultured, and sweet. We restaurant-hopped from Soif, to the El Palomar Taco Bar, to Cafe Limelight. We started out with Roasted Baby Beet Salad with Chevril, Fried Eggplant with Manchego Cheese, Figs wrapped in Pancetta, and a Lemonade Cooler at Soif. Feeling satisfactorily unstarving we moved on to the main course of a shared chicken quesadilla with pico de gallo, guacomole, and sour cream, at the El Palomar Taco Bar. Not to be without the wining and dining, I also enjoyed a margarita on the rocks, extra salt. After a short walk to the end of downtown we stopped at our favorite recent discovery, Cafe Limelight, for a cheese plate with Brie, Gouda, and Manchego. A Hefeweizen for Hubby and finished it all off with a root beer float for me, and a New York Cheesecake for him. Not once did the conversation stop, it flowed from restaurant to restaurant, with a small amount of open air in between. It was a romantic, peaceful, and delightful evening. I told Hubby this is what they are doing in the big cities downtowns, going from restaurant to restaurant for small appetizers, just to get a flavor of everything. Some restaurants are even catering to it, such as Soif, by offering small plates, separate from the appetizers and main courses. After just doing Santa Cruz's small but charming downtown I can tell you it was a delight and something to be savored and done again and again.

This morning Big Guy and I built a log ride (click around for some more fun pictures on that page) out of Duplo Legos this morning. It was a brainstorm of genuis and creativity mostly on his part. I supplied the concept of the conveyor built to get the log (a BG made raft out of castle pieces) up the ramp and he came up with the ideas for the rest. Five or six changes later we came up with a very satisfactory version of the Log Ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The only thing that would have made it better was water for it to splash into and we'll work on that tomorrow.

On the other hand all these happy thoughts and we see New Orleans on the news last night. People wading in three of four feet of filthy water. People trapped literally in the rooftops of their house. People floating in water, waving to the news cameras, signaling for help. Children and babies. My prayers and my heart goes out to them. How sad and how horrible that such a thing could happen.