When I envision Christmas, I think of New England. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and Holiday Inn (two similar plots which get mixed up in my memory) are the epitome of winter. In real life, there’s sledding and snowball fights and hot chocolate while your snowsuit dries by the fire. That’s my childhood version of Christmas.

As a travelling freelancer, my adult version of Christmas differs quite a bit from my New England upbringing. And yet the spirit remains the same. The feeling isn’t carried down from the heavens on snowflakes; it comes from within us as we experience and celebrate the light returning to the earth: The Winter Solstice.
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While others bundle up Christmas Eve and head out to their parishes for communion, sermons, and singing, I go to bed early to be awake for my Christmas morning church service. It is not in a manmade cathedral, but rather out in the woods, under the towering redwoods and along the bluffs, overlooking the vast and powerful ocean. My church has no walls, and its ceiling is the sky above.

This year, with the national parks being closed or unattended, I chose county parks and beaches as my church. The highways around San Francisco were clear on Christmas morning, so it was a short drive down the coast to Santa Cruz. Greyhound Rock was to be the ultimate destination, but because high tide was noonish, I chose to delay our travels to later in the afternoon and explore Santa Cruz from Moran Lake to Pleasure Point.

Starting in a neighborhood of seaside town bungalows, we took a dirt path between residences and around what was supposed to be a lake. It appeared to be more of an ambitious pond, rather than a lake. Here is where I realize that New England has an entirely different criteria for “lake” than California does.

The lake/pond ended at the road that cut across and above it. On the other side was a plot of beach, no bigger than my Burbank front lawn.Our feet hit sand and Tucker sniffed the rocks and seaweed that had come up on shore. It was before noon, but the tide was clearly rising, evidenced by the water lines that were almost to the road.

Tucker climbed up on some rock outcroppings on the edge of the beach, looking out over his domain. The leash being short (since we were near the road, he wasn’t allowed his usual extra few feet of freedom), I had to join him or he’d be pulled down off his perch. I put one foot upon the nearest rock, and instantly discovered it was not yet quite rock but still in its sand phase of existence. My foot fell through, crumbling the sandpile and my balance. I fell backwards, just as the tide roared up on shore and ran under me, soaking my feet, pants and butt. My backpack had broken my fall, so at least my shoulders hadn’t gotten drenched.

I righted myself quickly, feeling the salt water slide into my back pocket where my phone was. I grabbed my phone, and immediately silently praised Otterbox for its impenetrable case. I still took my phone out of the case just to make sure there wasn’t any trapped water, and found it to be perfectly dry. I checked my backpack—my paper journal had also been spared. It was 10am on Christmas morning, and although I stood on the side of the road with wet and sandy jeans, my socks full of water, soaked underwear, I was overwhelmed with thanks that my words and my digital map/camera/communication device were all in working order.
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Tucker and I carried on along the streets, and I was first surprised at how many people were out and about. Then I realized I’m in a place with like-minded people, so why wouldn’t they all want to spend the day as I did? More surprisingly, not only did no one who actually witnessed me take my fall at the beach say a thing to me, but no one gave me funny looks or said a word to the inexplicable wet woman with a pitbull as she walked along the sidewalk toward Pleasure Point. I suppose in a surf town, you’re just used to seeing damp people wandering about.

​The sidewalks were full of families and couples and individuals. There were dogs aplenty with their human companions. Out in the ocean, surfers waited patiently to catch the perfect wave (see black dots behind Tucker.)

​Tucker seemed as happy as I did to be out and about on this adventure. 

I hadn’t expected it to be so populated, nor so civilized. From the map, I expected open land, not a sidewalk around the cliffside with homes on the other side of the street. But that’s okay—we’d get our serene moments later on at the beach. This was our fellowship time.

“Oh my god, he looks like Lily,” I heard a woman say as she walked toward us with a man, a child, and a very happy, tail-wagging brown dog about Tucker’s size. “We recently lost our Lily and she was a brindle just like him, “ she said to me.  “He’s been really sad since she passed away. We all have.” Her pup was all wags, and I imagine Tucker was hearing tales of Lily as well. “They were best friends. I wish I had my phone so you could see a picture.”

We all spoke for a short while, she telling me stories of Lily, and I answering questions about Tucker. Our canine companions finished up their conversation as we did, and as they walked away I thought about those little signs we get from the universe. Coincidences maybe. Or maybe we attribute meaning to things that aren’t there. But maybe, just maybe, they are indeed messages. As my thoughts came together about the eternity of the soul and relationship to the physical world, a black and tan dachshund walked toward me with her person at the end of the leash. I almost laughed out loud. If that little doxie was a nod from Dutchess then perhaps Lily had somehow arranged for Tucker to come across her beloved family this morning. While we look for signs in the universe, we might very well be the signs others are waiting for.

With cheer in my heart, I stopped for Tucker to enjoy a little story time along the beachfront where someone had set up this adorable scene.

The sound of jingle bells—actual jingle bells, not the song—made me to turn toward the street. There I witnessed the equivalent of New England’s Norman Rockwell Christmas, California style:

In the empty road, a lean black dog in a red and a white sweater, donning sleighbells around his neck, raced down the street on a ten foot leash, his twenty-something human guardian on a skateboard sailing behind.

Now that is the quintessential Santa Cruz Christmas.

Knowing we could never top that, Tucker and I headed back to my trusty steed where we loaded up and headed to our more private portion of our church service: Greyhound Rock.

From the highway, it was rather unassuming: just a parking lot sparsely populated. Indeed this would be the quieter part of our day.

Once parked, looking over the cliff, we could see the beautiful beach below and the waves crashing up on the rocks. The trail down to the beach wasn’t obvious. It was definitely keeping itself hidden, special, only for those who truly wanted to find it.
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The steep incline had a few tiers to look out over the beach.

​And down below, the tide was halfway to it’s lowest point, allowing us a vast area to walk:

​Tucker always seems happy at the beach. He walks briskly away from the tide coming in, but always seems to love walking and galloping upon the sand.

His ears in the wind and smile on his face is all I need to fill my heart with joy.

​Mother Nature even provided him a little Christmas gift:

​I don’t know why I spend money on manmade toys when nothing can beat a simple stick steeped in seaweed and crustacean carcasses.

As with any walk or hike, Tucker needs to go from one boundary to the other, pushing the limits as to how far he can go. We probably could have walked further, but I was worried that I might not judge the tide and end up stuck on the wrong side of a cliff’s edge. I was finally dry; I didn’t care to be covered in ocean again.

​With the sun about to set in less than an hour, I was hoping to make it up to Skyline Blvd to watch the sun set over the ocean after driving through the sacred redwood forest where my heart is home. ​

We stopped off to give Methuselah Solstice greetings. I don’t believe Tucker has ever met her, but he seemed slightly unimpressed… or perhaps just tired from his long day of Christmas adventuring.

​Back at our humble San Francisco cabin in the city, Tucker had his special dinner (I have no idea why it tastes good… it sounds disgusting.)

​And then it was time to open gifts.  After seeing Tucker with a broken tennis ball he had found on the beach a week earlier, I questioned my purchases. Perhaps random trash was better than a new toy.

​But it seems he liked what he got as well. So, I guess his taste is like mine: I like new things, but truly appreciate the antiques for the stories they hold.

Christmas is no longer the Bing Crosby and Norman Rockwell images of my childhood. But that’s okay. We make our own traditions as we grow up, and the Christmas spirit is alive and well no matter where we are as it resides within us.

Tucker and I wish you all a happy holiday season. May you always find the Christmas spirit within your heart, no matter where you are or what time of year it is. Wishing you all blessings of love and light.

Three hundred and fifty-eight days (just shy of one year) after Tucker and I arrived back from our last location gig and subsequent trek across the States, we loaded up our trusty steed and headed north. Back home to the redwoods… sort of.
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Although our weekend personal getaways take us to San Francisco proper, our own home-away-homes during our location gigs have always been among the redwoods on the peninsula. There, the sidewalks are paved with fallen leaves and the smell of earth permeates everything, even when the windows are closed.

This time though, there were no such cabins available. As a runner up for accommodations, I had been hoping for a beach house in Pacifica or even a house in Daly City that might have a yard but even that search came up empty. And then, a week before take off, a search lacking filters came up with this beauty (photo from MLS):

It was as if someone had secretly stolen a redwood cabin from the woods and tucked it away in their backyard in the city. Although I would miss my morning walks in the woods, the commute to work would be wonderfully short, and once the door to the street was closed, Tucker and I would have our own private cabin. No one floor flat and no cramped quarters of a junior one bedroom like the other city options I had inquired about. A proper house (only 700 square feet, but still a stand alone house), in a small garden, where Tucker and I could be safe, secure, and forget we were only steps away from a concrete jungle.

I must admit though: it's not all concrete.

At the end of our street, just a ten to fifteen walk away (depending on how much sniffing Tucker needs to do), is Kite Hill—a quarter acre mound of green where numerous trails from different parts of the city (and elevations of the city) intersect. Here, people come to just look out across the bay or let their dogs socialize in the morning. 

Even within the city, there are strange pockets of nature, as if nature fought back, refusing to give up every square inch to manmade edifices—no matter how beautiful they might be.

​One afternoon Tucker and I wandered about this forest known as Sutro Park which, although it had only a couple miles of trails, seemed many miles away from the city that surrounds it.

Tucker found this meta art piece rather ridiculous. Humans are always trying to replicate Mother Nature's work, but here in her own gallery it was blasphemous. 

On the other hand, this is exactly what this city is about: little gems of creativity and individuality. And an incredible respect and reverence for nature. This was merely someone's expression of that. That love of nature is reflected in the architecture and in the city design as a whole.

Just from Kite Hill, I could see three green spaces: Corona Heights, Tank Hill, Twin Peaks. I could see people on those mounds of earth, so I estimated they couldn't possibly be that far sway. I decided Tucker and I should trek to a couple of those green spaces and get to know the city.

Indeed it was not far—it just a lot of ups and downs to get there.
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Corona Heights Park was only half an hour walk on city streets before our feet touched soil again. Up through the dog park to the tippy-top where we could see much more of the city and the bay.

That mound out near the water is San Bruno Mountain. I had looked into staying near there as well, but learned that Tucker would not be allowed on that grassy knoll. It's one of the few green spaces within the city that is not dog friendly. It was immediately taken off my list of possibilities.

Although Corona Heights offered a lovely view of the Bay, I still longed for the westward view, the ocean, the place where the fog rolls in, and so we headed northwest to Tank Hill.

Many hills (and about twenty minutes) later, we arrived at its base. There, in the distance, those two little reddish pillars are the Golden Gate Bridge.

​We climbed the hill to find more people here than at Corona Heights. 

Everyone was standing facing east, looking out at the Bay that we had seen from Corona Heights. I wanted something different. So we went around the rocky outcropping to find the view that suited us better:

​There was still city, but much more of Nature and a lot less of Man to be seen.

​Tucker and I sat on the grassy knoll with rocks behind us, getting to see the most of nature that we could this deep in the city.

​San Francisco is a beautiful city. I’m not knocking it. I’m just more of a woods and sea kind of person. However, every night when I walk Tucker, I take the time to really see every individual house (and hope no one thinks I’m casing the joint) to appreciate the attention to detail. The details make up the whole and every distinctly individualized house makes up the city itself. These patches of green spread about the hills and valleys is what makes San Francisco so unique. People realized that Nature is important and that open space must be preserved. It’s why real estate is so expensive here: there’s a limited amount to reside in. The rest is for Mother Nature.

​Even secret passageways have the touch of Nature—like this one we took to get down from Tank Hill. It’s called Pemberton Lane—four city blocks of stairs. And on every riser flat was an entrance to a home. People live here as if tucked away in a fairie glen.

In under two hours, Tucker and I had traversed over four miles of the city and spent a good deal of that time on soft earth. So overall, it’s not bad to live in the city. But we will absolutely be venturing beyond the city streets as often as we can to be under towering canopies of redwoods and along the shore, taking in the sea air and watching the fog roll in.

And that's another great thing about San Francisco: you don't even need to leave it to get to the ocean.