IOL Summer 2001

Click here for Bash photos & reports

Click here for Bash 2002, Las Vegas details

Date: July 13-14-15, 2001

Cost: World Gym workouts, Dave Draper & Dr. Ken Leistner seminar and Bar-b-que — none, no cost. Movie night featuring Dave in "Don't Make Waves," at the Nickelodeon, no cost if pre-arranged (I'll tell you how to do this; keep reading), Sha Na Na concert at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, no charge. Farewell lunch, Sunday at Rosa's at the Yacht Harbor, $5-10. Living cheap, once you get here and find a place to stay.

What to expect: I think we can assume that with a hundred or more IronOnline and Garage Gym friends collecting around the World Gym Santa Cruz for a few days we'll have a variety of impromptu workouts, PRs and information sharing to inspire everyone!

FRIDAY, JULY 13:
Special showing of Dave in "Don't Make Waves" with Tony Curtis and Sharon Tate at the Nickelodeon in Santa Cruz. As a special treat for us, the Nickelodeon will be showing Dave in a classic eposide of "The Beverly Hillbillies!" (99% sure this would be the first time every shown on a big screen, eh?) 5:30pm, free with advance tickets; all others will pay at the door.

Click here to visit the Nickelodeon's coming attractions for a preview

Then, still Friday night, at 8:30pm, we'll traverse the Pacific Garden Mall heading for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and a free beach bandstand concert featuring rock n' roll band, Sha Na Na. (Can you hear them, now? It's a test: How old are you?) From there you can ride a roller coaster, walk a couple of blocks to Riva's on the Wharf for a fish dinner, or have a corn dog on the boardwalk. Dave's promised not to watch who's eating what— all weekend long.

SATURDAY, JULY 14:
Before the BBQ Dave will be joined by Dr. Ken Leistner (who's jetting in from New York 'cause he heard there was a bunch of ironheads hanging out, eating) for an informal Q&A seminar about training, nutrition and their training memories. We'll give them the floor of the World Gym Santa Cruz at 11:00am Saturday morning and I'm guessing they'll talk until someone tells them it's time to eat. After that, we'll scurry across the street to the Harvey West Park, where we'll hang, eating more or less, for the rest of the day. Seminar and bbq, no charge.

I haven't a clue how many people are coming, but we reserved the park next to the gym with bbq pits, tables, lawn and redwood coverage that will easily accommodate 200. We're committed to excellence in food prep — IOL pal Stella (who goes by the handle "Luvs2cook" when she's not "Xtremegirl," which should tell you something) is in charge of the kitchen and Garage Gym honcho Dan Martin has grabbed the grill tools, so food is happening. We have a COSTCO a block away, so we can fill Dave's truck with supplies and push it back over to the gym, no problem.

SUNDAY, JULY 15:
The smattering of people still in town mid-day Sunday who want a chance to bid farewell will meet at Rosa's Rosticeria at the Yacht Harbor, loosely at 11:30am — meaning come and go as you please. Prices here range from fairly cheap (fish tacos or roasted chicken plate for under five bucks) to moderate (ten-ish for some fancy food). It's casual, good and overlooks the yacht harbor which is great. Get there early or stay late and wander around the harbor, or walk across the parking lot to one of the nicest beaches on the Monterey Bay, where you can spend the rest of your Sunday afternoon.

Place: Santa Cruz, California, about an hour and a half South of San Francisco, 30 minutes west of San Jose. It's a wonderful resort town on the Monterey Bay, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and redwood forests on the other. Plenty of relaxing and exciting stuff to do to keep you busy for as long as you want to stay, with Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur 45-90 minutes south and San Francisco, Mendocino and the Napa/Sonoma wine country within 2-3 hours to the north.

Click here for a list of good links for lodging of all sorts

I was thinking that if you wanted to make arrangements you might want to be thinking about them well in advance. You'll find links below to everything under the sun, from Shakespeare to Frisbee Golf, from beaches to redwood forests, from hard rock to symphony. There should be something for everybody around our area, and our hope was with lots of planning and plenty of linked attractions some of you who have less-than-enthusiastic mates and family members might get them excited about the trip.

Click here for our local links pages

The weeks before and after are terrific times to visit the California Coastline, both north and south, and you'll find some fabulous links here on dd.com to lead you from Santa Barbara through Pismo Beach, up along Big Sur through Carmel and Monterey to your stop in Santa Cruz. From there you could travel up the coast to San Francisco to a Giants game at the new Pac Bell Park, over to the Fisherman's Wharf for a fresh cracked crab cocktail, across the Golden Gate Bridge and up into the balmy Sonoma/Napa County wine region.

A winding train trip could take you over to the quaint little art town of Mendocino, and after lunch you could wander farther up the coast and into the redwood forests of Humboldt Redwoods. If you had more time, you might take a walking tour of the Victorian Village of Ferndale on your way further north into the water resort area of Southern Oregon's fantastic Rogue River. After you swam and fished, but not before you took a Rogue River Jetboat trip, you'd probably have to catch a plane home, because by then it'd be time to get the kids back to school. (I think my next career should be "tour guide.")

We'll leave the light on for 'ya.

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More later, surely, as thoughts arise. Meanwhile, hope to see you in the Group! Laree