The Ukulele Beach Trip!

And it was a weekend of changes. Life sometimes doesn't work the way you expect it, but things seem to work out in the end. First, it was a bummer that the Little Basin Play Day Event a bunch of us had been looking forward to was canceled due to "lack of interest." I was supposed to lead six Beatles songs there and was fully prepared. So we decided to go to the beach instead and jam with "Sons of the Beach." I carpooled over the hill to Santa Cruz with John, Albert and Margaret. It had been ages since I'd played on the beach with my Santa Cruz friends whom I missed so much. Many of the "regulars" were there, all happy to see me...it started off cloudy, but the cooler weather was welcome during the Bay Area heat wave.

And Marty had copies of the long-anticipated Santa Cruz Ukulele book number 3! People have been waiting for this since like 2007. The first two Santa Cruz Ukulele songbooks were the first ones I ever purchased -- and I pretty much learned to play ukulele with the 400 songs in those two books -- a variety of songs, including Beatles, folk music, lots of standard songs we all know and love... Bob Dylan, even some Grateful Dead. the new book also has a bit of everything -- more Beatles songs (hey I'm all for that!) that weren't in the other books, more classic rock music such as Jet Airliner by Steve Miller -- and really, a bit of everything. Anyway, lots of people are excited about this new book!

Yay Carolee and Pat on the beach...they were going to help me out with the Beatles songs. they love the Beatles as much as I do!

We had so much fun playing with a gang of close to 100 people, and Margaret did a hula dance with others on one of the Hawaiian songs!

The sun came out as we ate our lunch right on the beach looking out at the ocean after the jam. We got out the new books and played a few songs from it, like Harvest Moon and Jet Airliner and a few others. Albert played guitar and the rest of us playing ukuleles... Then we walked on the beach and the cool water and sand felt good...

We missed Nancy's performance at the Meow Luau up the street, but John bought some fresh fish. 

I really dig the hat John "borrowed" from his daughter! it suits him well!

Then we went to Sylvan Music and played expensive instruments we didn't buy -- but so much fun there!  and Albert guided us to a funky buffet in downtown Santa Cruz that serves Asian food -- turned out it was pretty good...and we had dinner there. Never knew the place existed before and even Albert had a hard time remembering exactly where it was! 

We parted ways at the Cheesecake Factory parking lot Valley Fair where we'd all gathered that morning... my super close friends who play music with me. the four of us will go to Kauai together in August where we'll meet Sue and Dave.