7-9 November 2008

In and Around Santa Cruz, California

This weekend I went to Santa Cruz where I grew up. It was so nice to be there. But the landscape and Californian ecosystem is so different than what I have been getting used to in Salem. To begin with it is still warm there and not only that it is sunny. However this does not hold true in the mornings, as usual it was foggy until about nine each morning. After the morning, the fog would lift and the day would become sunny. Although it has gotten much cooler than when I left in August it is still so much more summer esque than Oregon is. Also it is still green here. While the few deciduous trees are turning yellow, red or orange the rest of the trees are green. This is mainly due to the fact that most of trees here are oak or redwood. There are also a few different varieties of other pine trees. Were one would see the missing yellow of fall is in the wild grasses and fields. The lack of rain always leaves the shrubbery and first level of ecosystems dry. That is one thing I do not miss about California at all is how everything is that deathly yellow though the summer and fall.