Your Labor Day weekend just got very busy 😎
☀️ Well Hello, Santa Cruz!
😎 Whether you can believe it or not, it’s time to say “peace out” to August. But Labor Day weekend is coming in hot – and Santa Cruz seems determined to send summer out with a bang. From dueling pianos by the beach and jazz in a garden to art, ocean films, apple picking, a moonlight train and more food than anyone could reasonably eat in one weekend, there’s a LOT happening. 🎉 Apparently nobody told Santa Cruz County that Labor Day weekend is supposed to include some downtime. This week’s calendar is bursting at the seams. Here’s what caught my eye.
⛳😂 Depending on when this newsletter lands in your inbox Monday, you may be a little late to play the entire Central Coast Comedy Golf Classic – but you may still be able to get out to Pasatiempo and join some of the fun. One of the highlights is the T-Box Roast, where professional comedians greet golfers at a designated tee box with good-natured roasts before they take their shots. The tournament gets underway Monday, Aug. 31, with a 2pm shotgun start, followed by an awards celebration and taco buffet at Pasatiempo Golf Club.
🎤🎶 Or spend tonight (Aug. 31 at 7pm) with the original a cappella rockstars, Rockapella, returning to Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s Monday Night Revels for a one-night-only performance. Best known as the house band from PBS’s Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, the group brings its high-energy mix of pop, soul and seriously impressive vocal wizardry back to Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park.
📚🎤 Get your poetry on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at Satori Arts, where former Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate David Allen Sullivan and Ignatius Valentine Aloysius headline InterAct, a free community poetry night. They’ll read from their new collaborative collection, Everything I Touch Is – & Isn’t – You, followed by an open mic. Sign-ups at 6:30pm; event starts at 7pm.
🎹🎶 Wednesday, Sept. 2 (6-8pm) brings music and laughs to the beach with Dueling Pianos at Capitola’s Esplanade Park. Two pianists face off with crowd favorites, audience requests, sing-alongs and plenty of spontaneous comedy. Bring a beach chair, grab something to eat in the Village and prepare to join in – requests are encouraged and dancing is usually inevitable.
🎸🎷 Pat Metheny fans will want to head to The Crepe Place Thursday, Sept. 3 (5:30-7:30pm), where Santa Cruz guitarist Joshua Cedar joins Jon Dryden on piano, Ken Okada on bass and Jim Kassis on drums for a free evening exploring the music that helped shape modern jazz guitar. Expect everything from Metheny’s lyrical, Brazilian-influenced sound to John Scofield’s infectious blend of New Orleans funk, blues and jazz fusion – plus a few surprises.
📚🪷 Or head downtown Thursday evening, Sept. 3 (7-8pm) where Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Paula Arai for a reading and signing of her new book, Of Mud and Lotuses: Dreaming the Lives of Buddhist Women. Arai explores 2,500 years of Buddhist women’s lives, resilience and their often-overlooked influence on everyday Buddhist practice.
🎉 And then we get to Friday. Labor Day weekend officially arrives with an almost ridiculous number of ways to spend the evening. Pick your pleasure:
🌲🎨 Head to the mountains for the Downtown Boulder Creek Block Party, with a shop-and-swap market, local deals and trades, live craft demos and a kid zone. Friday, Sept. 4, 5-8pm.
🎨🖼️ Wander galleries, shops and creative spaces around Santa Cruz during First Friday, when art takes over venues throughout downtown.
🌊🎬 Settle into the Rio Theatre for the Ocean Film Festival World Tour, featuring six spectacular films celebrating life above, below and way out on the water – from marine wildlife and environmental restoration to extraordinary feats of human adventure. Friday, Sept. 4, 7-10pm. $22.
🏖️🎬 Grab a blanket, low-back chair and picnic dinner for a free screening of A Minecraft Movie right on the beach at Esplanade Park in Capitola. Friday, Sept. 4, 7:30-9:30pm. Free.
🥁🫁 On Saturday, Sept. 5 (2-3:30pm), Good Times’ own Wellness Columnist Elizabeth Borelli will team up with award-winning percussionist Jim Greiner for Breath, Beats & Beyond: A Rhythm and Breathwork Journey. The immersive 90-minute experience combines belly breathing, vocal toning, gentle body awareness, hand drumming and rhythmic shaker practices to explore how breath and rhythm can calm the nervous system, quiet the mind and deepen our sense of presence. No musical experience is necessary – drums and rhythm instruments are provided, and everyone goes home with a pair of egg shakers to keep the beat going. At Kula Connections in Capitola ($40).
🎉 And that’s only one way to spend an absolutely packed Saturday. A few more possibilities:
🦦🌿🦇 Wildlife lovers have two very different reasons to head toward Elkhorn Slough Reserve. Join the Early Bird Tour, a three-hour guided birding walk open to beginners and experienced birders alike (8:30am; first come, first served). Or wait until evening for Birds & Bats at Porter Ranch, combining a guided birding hike with the chance to watch bats emerge from the Porter Ranch Barn as the sun goes down (6-8pm).
🥕🎨 Browse the free Ben Lomond Village Market (10am-2pm), with fresh produce, handmade crafts, food, live music and family activities at Ben Lomond County Park.
🍎🌳 Celebrate the start of apple season by picking your own at Luz del Valle Farm in Aptos or Sweet Water Farms in Watsonville, where apples, pumpkins and beautiful orchard views await. Timed visits can be booked from 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday (pricing varies; see websites for details).
🌺🦜 Get to know the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum a little better during its monthly First Saturday Tour (11am), when guides tailor the walk to the season, the gardens and whatever happens to be particularly interesting that day. Admission: $13.
🌮🍔 Come hungry to the All-Star Food Fest, where Collective Santa Cruz and DoubleMeatPlease are bringing together some of the county’s best restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, food trucks, pop-ups and local makers inside the brand-new, 20,000-square-foot Hwy 17 Studios. 11am-5pm at 831 Almar Ave., Santa Cruz. Free.
🍷🇫🇷 Take a vineyard and cellar walk followed by a Provençal-style French worker’s lunch paired with wine at Roberts Ranch Vineyards in Ben Lomond. Saturday, Sept. 5, 11:30am. $80; $60 for wine club members.
☀️ Think Sunday might finally calm things down? Think again. A few more ways to make the most of the long weekend:
🎉🎶 Celebrate the waning days of summer at the free Seabright Summer’s End Block Party, with live music, food, local makers and kids’ activities. Sunday, Sept. 6, noon-4pm.
🌻🎨 Unleash your inner artist at Bruno’s Bar and Grill’s Sunflower Paint Party in Scotts Valley, where even first-time painters can create a sunflower masterpiece to take home. Sunday, Sept. 6, 1-3pm. $45.
🎸🌊 Spend Sunday afternoon at Paradise Theater, the long-running outdoor community gathering spot on East Cliff Drive in Pleasure Point, where Anthony Arya plays at 1pm followed by surf-rock favorites The Mermen at 3pm.
🌙🚂 End the night in wonderfully old-school Santa Cruz Mountains style at Roaring Camp’s Moonlight Train Dinner Party, with BBQ, live music, line dancing, two-stepping and a ride through the redwoods aboard vintage railway cars. Sunday, Sept. 6, 6-10pm.
Now…while you catch your breath…let’s also catch up on the news.
News Highlights:
Watsonville Community Hospital Nurses to Rally Over NICU Closure, Staffing Shortages
Bill to Strengthen California Offshore Drilling Protections Heads to Governor
Highway 9 and Highway 129 Roadwork Continues This Week
Big Sur Wildfires Burn More Than 33,000 Acres
North County Democrats Host Endorsement Forum
Free Mental Health Services Available in County Schools
RTC Pushes Back on Rail Trail Criticism
Plus From Rocket Ships to Oil Rigs, Scared of Salads, Under Pressure, Combo Pizza, Fried Chicken Inspo, Street Talk……and Much More!
TOP STORIES
Watsonville Community Hospital Nurses to Rally Over NICU Closure, Staffing Shortages
Nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital plan to rally today (Monday, Aug. 31) against an ongoing closure at the facility’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Bill to Strengthen California Offshore Drilling Protections Heads to Governor
Legislation aimed at strengthening California’s protections against new offshore oil drilling is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom after passing both houses of the state Legislature.
Highway 9 and Highway 129 Roadwork Continues This Week
Drivers in both the San Lorenzo Valley and Watsonville should plan for delays this week as Caltrans continues work on two major county routes. Highway 9 will see daytime and overnight one-way traffic controls at several locations from Boulder Creek to Felton, while overnight paving continues on Highway 129 in Watsonville between Lee Road/Riverside Drive and the Salsipuedes Creek Bridge.
Big Sur Wildfires Burn More Than 33,000 Acres
Two major wildfires burning near Big Sur have scorched more than 33,000 acres, forced hundreds of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of Highway 1. The Plaskett Fire, which started Aug. 26, remained just 1% contained Sunday, while the larger Timber Fire, burning since Aug. 8, was 21% contained. Officials warn firefighting efforts could continue for weeks or even months.
North County Democrats Host Endorsement Forum
The Democratic Club of North Santa Cruz County will hold an endorsement forum for local candidates and ballot measures on the November election ballot on Tuesday, Sept. 1. The forum will include brief presentations and questions for Democratic candidates in the races for Scotts Valley City Council, Scotts Valley Water District Board and the SLV School District Board.
Free Mental Health Services Available in County Schools
Students in all 10 Santa Cruz County public school districts have access to free mental health and substance-use services at school. Families are being asked to provide insurance information so districts can seek reimbursement for the care, but parents won’t be charged and students can receive services regardless of insurance status.
RTC Pushes Back on Rail-Trail Criticism
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) will consider its formal response Thursday to a civil grand jury report critical of the county’s long-running rail-trail planning. The RTC agrees with concerns about rising costs and aging infrastructure, but disputes several other findings, including that the commission has been hampered by “political paralysis” and lacks a unified strategy for delivering transportation projects.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
In Richard Stockton’s latest cover story, he reveals how SpaceX, proposed oil rigs, and the Commerce Department’s review of California’s coastal-management program are all pieces in the fight over who gets to control California’s coast. State and federal leaders fundamentally disagree about what the coast is for. One would think it would be for California.
Four in 10 Americans say they’re buying or eating less fresh produce because of the recent Cyclospora outbreak, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey. More troubling, 55% of respondents said they have little or no confidence in government oversight of the U.S. food supply.
In this week’s Wellness column, Elizabeth Borelli poses the question: Is hyperbaric oxygen therapy help or hype?
“Same family. Same recipes. A new home.” That’s how the good folks at La Placa Italian Cuisine are presenting their new world headquarters in Scotts Valley (219 Mt. Hermon Road, Suite F).
Featuring made-from-scratch, hand-breaded and cooked-to-order upscale fried chicken inspired by the real thing in Tennessee, Nashville Fire Chicken opened in Scotts Valley in January and moved to the Capitola Mall food court in June.
This week, John Koenig asked people on the street the question: Where do you go when you need to get away?
Wine writer Josie Cowden tells us that The Hilt’s mineral-laden and complex 2023 Estate Chardonnay ($50) is brimming with flavors ranging from crunchy nectarine to dried mango and peach nectar, along with lovely toasty notes.
Read your Free Will Astrology horoscope from Rob Brezny here.
WAIT, WHAT?! 🐕🏁
A determined dachshund named Mary Poopins may not have won this year’s annual Wiener Dog Race at Emerald Downs in Washington, but she definitely stole the crowd’s heart. Mary, who uses a wheelchair, kept trucking down the track long after the other dogs had finished, earning the biggest cheer of the day when she finally crossed the finish line. Sometimes the biggest victory is simply refusing to stop. ❤️