Under a Purple Colored Sky

 Rockapella in Santa Cruz

Travel Day and Sightseeing

Sunday and Monday, July 20-21, 2025

When my Facebook Friend Phil sends me a direct message, it's usually a Rockapella video that he's found somewhere which I've never seen.  This time, though, it was a video that had just been posted to Rockapella's website, announcing that they would be in Santa Cruz in a couple of weeks. WHAT?!!?  So I dropped everything I was doing and looked it up to see if it was for real.  Well, there they are on the venue's website!  And tickets were available in the front row!  So I did what I normally do for these announcements:  notify the PellaPosse.  I had lots of people to notify but it was such a last-minute thing on a Monday in the middle of summer, and we would need to drive up because flights would be hella expensive.  I also remembered that I had an engagement to attend the night before, so I would need to leave early on Monday morning, see the show, then turn right around to work the next day because I was already taking a lot of time off in July (see recent posts about drum corps).  As soon as I could get somebody to cover for me at work for concert day, I purchased my ticket front row center:  A 10.  Then I waited for the Posse to figure out if they would be joining me.

Bro thought about coming, but he decided against it, I think because he was already going to travel up north later in the week, and also because he had just come home from Europe.  He was going to keep me company anyway, but when he heard that someone else would be coming,  he felt OK about not going himself.  Aw, he was going to take care of me and keep me awake so that I wouldn't have to do that all by myself and fall asleep at the wheel.  KP said she would go.  Other friends forgot that Rockapella is supposed to be priority and that they had other things to do, but KP and I are always up for an adventure with each other, so she bought her ticket, and we waited for the day to come.  I had tons of stuff to do so I didn't have time to make goodies for the guys, which bummed me out because they were FINALLY coming to California, but I just couldn't risk being too tired to drive.  Then I realized that my plans for Sunday were for lunch, so I asked KP if she would be OK leaving a day early, and she was.  I didn't book a hotel until about a day before, but I got a good deal so it worked out.

So I went to my friend's 65th birthday party, which was very nice, and left a little bit early so I could get home.  I caught a little bit of traffic, so I got home a few minutes after KP arrived.  I waved to her roommate whom had just dropped off KP, and found KP with my dad and WonderPup.  I gave her "something geeky" from my trip to Japan, which was a little booklet with three lines on each page.  It was for writing haiku!  I mean, what better time to give her a haiku book than on a Rockapella Road Trip, right?  So you will be seeing a lot of haiku interspersed throughout these posts!   We were on the road shortly after I found the keys that were in my purse the whole time. 

Car keys went missing

but now we have hit the road

three hundred miles

Where is the grapevine?

between Santa Clarita

and hot Bakersfield

KP was a good passenger and kept me awake, not that I needed much motivation for that because ROCKAPELLA.  We stopped for gas in Lost Hills, and got dinner at the Arby's where they had spelled my brother's name in an insane way.  Yay, potato cakes!   

The potato cakes

are back forever Huzzah!

Bro said OMG

We got back on the road and I saw a sign for Dinosaur Park, but did not see anything resembling a dinosaur nearby, so I decided that they were invisible and not worth our time stopping to not see anything.  Also, it would be dark soon and then it would be even harder to see the invisible dinosaurs.  

Dinosaur park sign

but no dinosaurs in sight

lavender garden

When we got closer to the coast, I asked KP if she was seeing the same color of sky that I was: purple?  She said yes, it was purple, and we were pretty sure we weren't just sharing the same hallucination of being on a different planet.  Unfortunately, the photos she took make it look like the sky is more of a dark pink, but it was purple.  Like Deep Purple purple.  It was stunning.  It reminded me of my bestie's photos from her trip to Nigeria and the purple sunset.  

Rockapella songs

Sherry and I sing along

and watch the sunset

beautiful sky

it looked pink in photos

but it was purple

Actually more purple than this

It was quite dark by the time we got to the Four Points Sheraton in Scotts Valley.  SCOTT!  No, not in the hotel.  After almost getting hit by someone trying to park in front of the registration  walkway, I found their underground parking area and we parked there and registered.  We brought our stuff up to the room and started to relax, but then I realized that I had left my charger cord in my car.  KP wouldn't let me go by myself, so she graciously walked down with me while she was wearing her cute Cookie Monster jammy jams.  Thanks, KP!  I was happy to have a bed to sleep in to rest my back after the long drive.  Never mind that the people on our floor were a bit loud.  It didn't matter, as long as I didn't have to drive home in less than 12 hours.  I texted my friend June to tell her that I was in town to see Rockapella, and she bought tickets for the show!  I love spontaneous friends.  

View of our hotel lobby

The next morning, we got ready to go to breakfast.  KP came out of the bathroom and said, "I'm in love."  She really liked that shower!  It was huge.  It had a rain shower head as well as a hand held, and there were buttons that made sense to turn on whichever (or both), and it had a temperature gauge, and I sure didn't blame her for feeling that way.  I think it could have used a shelf, though, so I could put other stuff in there.  Maybe people were having too much sexy time in there to notice that.  Or maybe they were afraid it would get in the way of sexy time.  Perhaps I've written "sexy time" too much for someone who didn't get to do that on this trip.  

KP had Starbucks gift cards to use, so I located one up the street, which took me way too long to get there because Waze had me drive around a few blocks for some reason.  We almost went to the Wood Gift Shop because that's so us to just go to random places, but I decided against it.  I wondered if "Scarborough" was the one Simon & Garfunkle sing about, you know, the fair.  Although KP laments that her students haven't figured out that she doesn't actually go to Starbucks, I'm happy because I get to reap the benefits for free breakfast.  

what's a wood gift shop?

Scarborough, JT Two Doors

Scott's Valley Starbucks

Afterward, we went to a market that was in the same area, and they had some meat grilling on a big smoke grill thing.  It smelled yummy.

Mmm... Meat!

I love quaint markets in other places!  They always have interesting things that I don't see in my area, like baby watermelons and different ice cream.  I wanted to try this one, but they didn't have any smaller containers.  

Do otters enjoy Snickerdoodles?

KP found "Mary's Gone Crackers" and giggled so much about it that she bought a box for our nutritional snacks.  Oh, we had plenty of snacks, just not the healthy kind.  We tried them later and although they weren't the best tasting, they were tasty enough that we started to crave them later.  Darn those nutrients.  We also bought greeting cards for the guys because they were pretty.

Mary's gone crackers

purple cards for all five guys

but who is singing?

We went back to the hotel to relax, write out our cards, and change into the clothes we would be wearing for the concert.  We knew that John would be subbing for someone, but weren't sure who.  I got confirmation that it was Manny, which is good because KP had already written for Cal by that time.  Unfortunately, the hotel didn't allow for us to check out late because of whatever the lady saw in her "departures" list.  Shouldn't you be looking at the "arrivals"?  Or maybe she was looking at both.  I don't know.  The hotel was beautiful, by the way, and had we more time, I probably would have lounged outside while reading a book.  But no, we needed to check out at noon, which is pretty decent for checkout time.

We were thinking of just hanging out at a mall and seeing a movie so as not to get too sweaty before the show, but KP also wanted to see the ocean, so I said we should just go to the Boardwalk and do the touristy thing.  The drive is much prettier in the daytime!  I changed into my flip flops because I wanted to be on the beach for just a few moments.  We were hungry again, so I we shared a meal so that I could have a corn dog and KP could have my fries.  We also got souvenir cups because we're touristy.

Eating a corn dog at the beach

Showing off my new cup at the beach

We walked to the arcade, and I would have played video games, but the lowest amount you could put on a players card was $20 and I didn't want to pay that much.  So I got a pressed penny of a carousel horse instead.  $0.51 souvenir is good for me!  

Cup and Penny

We had seen the funnel cake booth when we arrived, so we shared one of those.  

KP the Deliverer of Funnel Gooodness

I contemplated getting a henna tattoo because the cheapest one was only $5, but didn't want to wait to get it.  It was just a really nice day to sit by the beach, so I'm glad that KP mentioned it. At one point, I got sand in my eye, and tried to wink it out of there.  This is what I look like when I wink in my selfies.

Sexy, right?
I may have had a little bit of sugar.

We drove around to get gas so I wouldn't have to find it after the show, and drove to Natural Bridges State Beach, where we didn't see any bridges, but we did see a LOT of birds, including a couple that were having their own brand of sexy time near us.  I do not have photos of that.  Anyway, it was a bit windy there, as you can see from my hair.  

Birds On A Rock

We weren't very far from the venue, so we found a nearby Starbucks to rest and use up the remainder of KP's gift cards.  They're so fancy there with their plates and in-house cups!  They also had these at the one near our hotel.  Is it always like this everywhere inside?  I'm so used to getting drive-thru or pickup that I haven't sat inside a Starbucks in quite a while.  As we were sipping our iced tea, we saw that people were beginning to congregate outside.  Oh, yay!  A protest!  It was a relatively small one, but by the time we left, I was heartened to see about 20 people there, including a kid that looked to be the age of a pre-teen at the most.  I love seeing parents teaching their kids good civil rights.  I made sure to thank them for their actions before we left.

Let's go to the show!

Next up:  Rockapella on a Shakespearean Stage