Santa Cruz Downtown Guide.

No pictures of the beach or surfing today – instead I will take you with me to downtown Santa Cruz! 

It is a lot of fun, since most of the pretty stores and coffee shops are situated along the main thoroughfare – so do you want to join Noelle and me on a stroll up and down Pacific Avenue? 

We’ll go thrift shopping; we’ll have ice cream and then go to the movies! 

I will sum up all tips and addresses at the bottom of the text so that you have an overview just in case you will one day spend a day or two here. 

Are you ready?

1. Vintage shopping.

Noelle and I love thrift stores and there are a bunch of them all over Santa Cruz. 

We like looking around Crossroads Trading Co. and Moon Zoom the best; both stores couldn’t be more different from each other. 

Crossroads Trading Co. has a great selection of current fashion at affordable prices.  

Noelle and I buy jeans by J. Crew and Adriano Goldschmied (the Godfather of Denim), loafers by Minnetonka, and cute tops and dresses. 

Moon Zoom, on the other hand, resembles more a costume rental place than a classic thrift store. 

By no means let the crammed interior discourage you, for once you dare to enter you will discover a true treasure trove full to the rafters with the most beautiful pieces from decades past. 

There is really nothing you couldn’t discover here: college jackets, coats from the 60s, cute airhostess caps and short retro tennis skirts. 

Noelle and I are a little bit intoxicated and take turns in trying on the craziest things while having lots of fun. 

Finally we leave the store with a 70s vintage dress (for me) and a wonderful yellow summer dress (for Noelle), which, as we find out afterwards, is a design by Jean Paul Gaultier.  

Definitively our Deal of the Day!

2. Lunch.

Just a few steps further along the way you’ll find “Assembly”: 

Wonderfully stylish yet simple interior and a great lunch menu, mostly sandwiches and salads. 

Noelle orders a bulgur salad with duck breast; I try the burger on a homemade bread roll. 

Everything is freshly prepared in-house and comes in exactly the right sized portion that allows us to also have ice cream after the espresso – we’ll get the ice cream right away across the street. 

3. Ice cream.

In my opinion Mission Hill Creamery is the best ice cream shop in town; every kind of ice cream is prepared with the best and freshest local ingredients and tastes delicious. 

You’ll be instantly hooked. 

My personal highlight, however, is the "awesome" guy.

He is one of the young ice cream sellers and whichever kind or combination you end up ordering he replies "aaaaawesoooome" every time with such enthusiasm and fervor that you are absolutely convinced to have chosen the best thing in your life. 

Everything well done.

Everything, not only the kind of ice cream, but EVERYTHING.

Fantastic, great, awesome.

Any insecurity vanishes on the spot only because you ordered a scoop of "local strawberries with whipped cream and fudge sauce".

Priceless.

Aaaaawesoooooome.

4. Cool shops.

Past the Gap store (don’t miss the active wear!), in a little side street, is my absolute favorite of all stores in town:

The concept store Stripe’s design is wonderfully inspiring and full of “I want to have everything at once” things. 

Noelle and I buy some delicate lace bras and small enamel cups. 

Best of all: one door down is "Stripe Man" – which is the world’s loveliest shop for all male hipsters that have ever walked the earth. 

The interior is beautifully created down to the smallest detail and the selection of products only adds to it – and YES, the staff visually fits into the picture to perfection. 

A must-see!

5. Books.

I regularly lose myself in bookshops and have to be found again with the help of a large-scale search operation – this is how it feels when I enter a bookshop. 

And entering American bookstores is even worse. 

I like one of them in particular:  

Logos Books & Records has a great selection of new and used books, vinyls and CDs. 

6. Coffee shop.

Finally we’ll have an iced coffee at the hipster coffee shop Verve (the one where poor bloggers who don’t have WiFi at home work on their laptops and thus occupy every table for hours) and above all: 

The world’s biggest, softest and unbelievably delicious Mary's Cookies, which I have written about before HERE.

7. Movie Theater.

There are some pretty movie theaters in Santa Cruz, all of which I have already been to with the kids (in the course of improving language skills, of course). 

Our favorite, however, remains the Del Mar, which sets you back to the 50s simply upon entering: featuring a retro interior it doesn’t usually show blockbusters, but independent, unusual movies.

Recently Noelle, Pauline and I watched "Iris", a documentary about the 93-year-old style icon who loves accessories and color! 

(I hope it will be shown in German movie theaters, too, or at least be available somewhere sometime later). 

My personal Santa Cruz highlights at a glance:

- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: open daily

- Thrift stores:

Moon Zoom: 813 Pacific Ave

Crossroads Trading Co.: 811 Pacific Ave

The Closet Shopper: 504 Front St

- Ice cream:

Mission Hill Creamery: 1101 Pacific Avenue

The Penny Ice Creamery Pleasure Point: 820 41st Ave

- Cool shops:

Stripe: 107 Walnut Ave

Patine: 1001 41st Ave

- Books:

Logos Books & Records: 1117 Pacific Ave

Bookshop Santa Cruz: 1520 Pacific Avenue

- Coffee shops:

Verve: 1540 Pacific Ave 

Windmill Cafe (not necessarily stylish, but the best smoothies in town and great breakfast, also vegan): 21231 E Cliff Dr

- Lunch and dinner:

Assembly: 1108 Pacific Ave

Kelly's French Bakery: 402 Ingalls St

Burger: 1520 Mission Street

Pleasure Pizza: 800 41st Ave

Bantam: 1010 Fair Ave

- Movie theaters:

Del Mar Theater: 1124 Pacific Ave

Regal Cinemas (huge reclining seats): 1405 N Pacific Ave

- Flea market, every Friday from about 8 am (apart from the usual flea market stuff often longboards and surfboards at affordable prices): 

2260 Soquel Dr

Uncomplicated, relaxed, summery and a little stylish for the city: shirt dresses! 

1. Noa Noa

2. S.Oliver

3. Kaporal Didou

4. Tramonata

1. Noa Noa

2. S.Oliver

3. Kaporal Didou

4. Tramonata

I would love to take the ice cream seller home with me to Germany: 

Someone who seriously reassures you, with every decision you make, with absolute conviction and passion:   

AAAAAAWESOOOOOME!

Everything in life well done! 

Yeah!

Love,

Joanna

Translated by Ginnell Studio.

White lace dress.

One of my absolute favorite trends for this summer are swinging 50s-style dresses - alongside high-waisted retro shorts and midi skirts.  

These kinds of dresses are light and breezy, joyful, girlish and the most feminine dresses of all, because their cut automatically creates a beautiful silhouette. 

I would love to keep twirling like a 5-year-old the whole time I’m wearing my dress ☺. 

It isn’t white, by the way, but ivory-colored and has gorgeous lace details. 

Apart from that it’s on sale right now! 

And I discovered something else here: 

I recently wrote that I don’t apply any make-up here, because the natural look is simply more fitting. 

If you have a tan, make-up can easily seem over the top. 

But those who still would like to highlight something in summer a color palette like this is simply ideal! 

"Contouring" is very hip right now and I can practice “contouring light” with this palette by not applying any make-up at all, but only gently dabbing on a little concealer under the eyes and then gently applying the darker hues on the sides of the cheeks, the temples and the hairline with a brush. 

The light powder is applied to the nose, the forehead and underneath the eyes. 

Finally I hold everything in place by adding the white powder on top of everything (only a very small amount, of course). 

You should try it, too, the effect is unbelievable! 

And since the palette contains so many different hues you can use it year round without a problem, depending on your skin color. 

You can find these color palettes in many of the local drug stores and cosmetics departments. 

"Contouring" is very hip right now and I can practice “contouring light” with this palette by not applying any make-up at all, but only gently dabbing on a little concealer under the eyes and then gently applying the darker hues on the sides of the cheeks, the temples and the hairline with a brush. 

The light powder is applied to the nose, the forehead and underneath the eyes. 

Finally I hold everything in place by adding the white powder on top of everything (only a very small amount, of course). 

You should try it, too, the effect is unbelievable! 

And since the palette contains so many different hues you can use it year round without a problem, depending on your skin color. 

You can find these color palettes in many of the local drug stores and cosmetics departments. 

Dress: Anthropologie (I wear a size 2) 

Powder color palette: Amazon (HERE or HERE)

Shoes: &OtherStories

Love,

Joanna (who can hardly wait to finally wear her high heels again!) 

Translated by Ginnell Studio.

The happiest birthday girl of all times: all about the (dream) birthday (trauma).

A few days ago I celebrated my 41^st birthday. 

The children and I sat on a rooftop patio in the middle of San Francisco, enjoying our lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and talking about the highlights and mishaps of past kids’ birthday parties - you know what I mean: 

Those stories, when the birthday child can’t handle all the festivities anymore, breaks down crying and yells at all her 4-year-old guests. 

By the way, in hindsight this is very, very funny. 

Yet only in hindsight, just as my own story that I had forgotten about for years and that I suddenly remembered up there on the rooftop patio. 

A story of suffering, mind you, as in former days I couldn’t think of any one day more horrible than my own birthday. 

A week before I was already tremendously anxious about it, and I usually spent the day crying and needed two additional days to recover from it. 

No kidding!

Why this was so?

The whole thing was a disgusting mix of not clearly defined expectations on my behalf about how the day was supposed to play out – and the guaranteed disappointment and the fear in face of the former, respectively. 

I cannot even say exactly what I expected, point is everything was WRONG, everything was TOO LITTLE, everything was deeply DEPRESSING and above all: 

Nothing but desperate.

And how frustrating for everybody involved, including my own family! 

For no matter what they did, it was all WRONG, TOO LITTLE, etc. anyway. 

And my husband generally did everything even more wrong than wrong, because I was so extremely demanding that I was disgusted by myself. 

And as unliberated as can be on this day. 

Jil can still remember it, by the way ("Oh yeah, that was always super terrible.”) – my other kids don’t remember anything, which makes me assume that it must have happened a few years back. 

As I said: I assume. 

Because sometime, somewhere I simply lost it, just by the way, so that I only became aware of it again right now. 

Something else I noticed: this year I was really happy about my own birthday and I was so excited and joyful like a 5-year-old, who not only receives everything she ever wished for, but a rainbow-colored unicorn on top of it. 

Funny enough, particularly this year nothing exciting and surprising happened, as the children had little opportunity to prepare anything without access to a car and my husband just sent me a quick “Happy Birthday” via What's App.

But that didn’t dampen my joy, quite on the contrary! 

I bought myself the most stylish birthday cake I could find. 

And birthday lingerie. 

And a round of birthday Levi’s for all the girls. 

And a picture-book birthday dress (which is worth a blog post in itself). 

I was happy as Larry about every single birthday wish and posted tons of pictures on Instagram and would have loved to put a sparkly crown saying “Birthday Girl" on my head. 

And then we drove across Golden Gate Bridge and maybe I had to cry just a teeny tiny bit with joy – simply, because I could hardly stand being so grateful. 

Grateful not because of the bridge, the dress or California, but brimming with extreme gratitude that I even exist in this world.

Oh, how lucky I am! 

Why do I write this?

Because I am convinced that many people are so trapped in their own expectations that they are utterly depressed, if things don’t go the way they had wished for.

It can be one single day like a birthday, as in my case, and if you are honest: c'mon already, it is just this one crappy day; you’ll get over it.  

But it can also be your wedding day:  

For there could have been more flowers. And the groom should have prepared a soulful speech. And besides, the whole wedding should have had the soft blurriness of romantic atmospheres from beginning to end, just like in the wedding blogs. 

Unfortunately the groom didn’t care one bit about neither the speech nor the blurriness and now there you are, crying your eyes out. 

Or you have a kind of life plan and it doesn’t happen the way you had ideally envisioned. 

You wanted to have had two kids by the age of 30 and a terraced house with a sofa and a labrador retriever matching its color. 

Now you find out that you can’t have children. 

Or the husband had an affair and you are getting a divorce. 

Or you go bankrupt, or you lose your job, or you still don’t have a house, or a husband, or a dachshund even at age 40. 

Or something unforeseen happens and all you can think is: 

"I HAVEN’T ENVISIONED IT THIS WAY! 

BUT I HAVE WISHED FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! 

IT SHOULD ALL BE QUITE DIFFERENT! AND NOW HERE I AM.” 

Utterly unhappy. 

And this is why I tell you today: 

What the heck.

If you don’t have a concrete image, but decide to enjoy whatever comes along, no wishful thinking can set you any limitations. 

It was too small for you anyway, only freedom in every aspect befits you, nothing else. 

And this means freedom from any life plans (big or small ones) – and the possibility to enjoy every second independent of them. 

This freedom also means that the most beautiful things suddenly surprise you without having known beforehand how lovely they are, such as a spontaneous invitation to go on a Harley bike trip into the sunset in California for the birthday girl. 

And how do you arrive there? 

This of all things I won’t tell you today – as in my case it was suddenly gone, love had removed it entirely without my own efforts. 

But since I think that regarding the areas I am free in myself I can set my readers free in, too, let’s have a free round of “freedom from expectations” for everyone today! 

Just because my love is so strong. 

We’ll do the Levi’s round next year then! 

Happy Birthday to me!

Love,

Joanna

p.s. I didn’t like the cake, by the way, because I had failed to hear the word “white” in connection with “chocolate”. 

And who even wants white chocolate  :(?

Translated by Ginnell Studio.

Bye bye May - hello June!

Thank you for allowing me to take you along to California during the entire month of May! 

This month Jil and Pauline joined us, by now I totally know my way around Santa Cruz and San Francisco, and the kids surf like champions – sometimes competing with sea otters and seals ;), as these are not very afraid of people and don’t let the surfers phase them.  

Additionally... 

 - I described further details about our everyday life in Santa Cruz and took you along to the flea market and the Beach Boardwalk, 

- there were 10 ideas for summer – such as our current favorite summer granola,

- I raved about the friendly Californians, who spontaneously gave me a free dinner, 

- and reported about our beauty finds in America – and what in particular we noticed about them, 

• I showed you the nicest bikinis of 2015,

• shared the recipe for a summery cinnamon bread with strawberries and my California playlist

• and wrote the third part about things you don’t learn in school – and told you why California doesn’t make me happy.

Or rather not happIER, as….

... the atmosphere here is so full of happiness that it is sometimes almost over the top. 

The children and I have a nice, harmonious, relaxed, joyful and above all funny time from morning to night. 

I am surrounded by 4 teenagers who basically don’t do anything but eat, lie on the beach, surf, eat, goof off, run on the beach, eat, sing, watch Netflix in bed together with me and snuggle, goof off again, walk the dog, eat, stroll around San Francisco, eat there and goof off (Noelle’s words today: “If you aren’t able to dance in public you are not really free.”, so guess what we all did in Macy’s.) and later immediately eat again. 

(There seems to be an obvious relation between eating and goofing off, don’t you think? Don’t you?!) 

Shortly afterwards Pauline noted that, if you are really free, you’d have to sing at the top of your lungs in public, too. 

And guess what we all did…

AND I CANNOT EVEN SING! 

And even if you cannot be here in person (which is a good thing, as I can’t possibly buy even MORE food!), I am convinced that our combined joie de vivre is so strong that it spills over into the furthest corner of Southern Baden and will catch you full on. 

Or to Lower Bavaria.

Or wherever my readers happen to be at the moment. 

This is my magical superpower – apart from being able to always recognize the most expensive thing in a store without checking the price tag. 

Yes, I can!

Love,

Joanna

P.s.

My advice for any parent stuck in a tiresome toddler phase right now, contemplating giving away their loudly screaming offspring to any old passer-by for free: 

Don’t do it!

Once they are fully-grown you’ll regret that you didn’t have at least 5 of them. 

Honestly!

To those who had at least 5 of them:  

GOOD DECISION.

... the atmosphere here is so full of happiness that it is sometimes almost over the top. 

The children and I have a nice, harmonious, relaxed, joyful and above all funny time from morning to night. 

I am surrounded by 4 teenagers who basically don’t do anything but eat, lie on the beach, surf, eat, goof off, run on the beach, eat, sing, watch Netflix in bed together with me and snuggle, goof off again, walk the dog, eat, stroll around San Francisco, eat there and goof off (Noelle’s words today: “If you aren’t able to dance in public you are not really free.”, so guess what we all did in Macy’s.) and later immediately eat again. 

(There seems to be an obvious relation between eating and goofing off, don’t you think? Don’t you?!) 

Shortly afterwards Pauline noted that, if you are really free, you’d have to sing at the top of your lungs in public, too. 

And guess what we all did…

AND I CANNOT EVEN SING! 

And even if you cannot be here in person (which is a good thing, as I can’t possibly buy even MORE food!), I am convinced that our combined joie de vivre is so strong that it spills over into the furthest corner of Southern Baden and will catch you full on. 

Or to Lower Bavaria.

Or wherever my readers happen to be at the moment. 

This is my magical superpower – apart from being able to always recognize the most expensive thing in a store without checking the price tag. 

Yes, I can!

Love,

Joanna

P.s.

My advice for any parent stuck in a tiresome toddler phase right now, contemplating giving away their loudly screaming offspring to any old passer-by for free: 

Don’t do it!

Once they are fully-grown you’ll regret that you didn’t have at least 5 of them. 

Honestly!

To those who had at least 5 of them:  

GOOD DECISION.

Thank you to ginnell studio for translating this post!