We spent this morning and afternoon wandering around Capitola, mostly following the route of the South Bay Striders‘ Secret Paths and Stairways 5K walk. The route had to be modified after the floods in January, which washed out the Wharf and made some of the stairways impassable, like this one.

There were plans to rework the Wharf before the storms; they’re more urgent now.

The route started with a walk along Cliff Drive, giving us a nice view of the railroad trestle and Soquel Creek.

We wandered down the Esplanade and along the beach before climbing the stairs to Depot Hill for a panoramic view of the city.

We walked on the Grand Avenue walking path atop the cliffs until it ended, then it was back into the street grid until we reached the turnaround point of the walk.

We even got some free advice, which was somewhat useful as a reminder to drink the water I was carrying.

It was mostly downhill from there, taking us along Soquel Creek and under the railroad trestle.

We had lunch at the Capitola Bar and Grill, which had a nice view of the beach; dessert was at Polar Bear Ice Cream, which had a nice view of the Capitola Bar and Grill.

And then we finished the walk and drove back to the hotel to rest up and have dinner; we’re seeing King Lear tonight back at DeLaveaga Park, and it’s going to be quite late by the time we get home.

We saw Santa Cruz Shakespeare‘s production of The Taming of the Shrew tonight at their theatre in the Grove at DeLaveaga Park. It was our first show at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and the first time I’d seen Taming (I’ve never seen Kiss Me Kate, either).

I enjoyed the play, despite its extremely problematical moments (I overheard a couple of patrons discussing “gaslighting” as we were leaving). Kate’s transformation seemed awfully quick; I don’t know if that’s due to the director’s choice in cutting the play to fit in two hours or if it’s like that in the original text.

I probably should say something about the setting (it’s very nice) but it’s late and I’m tired!

We saw Lyric Theatre‘s “The Best of Lerner and Loewe” at the Hammer Theatre yesterday afternoon, and it was a lot of fun; it was like listening to selected tracks from musical albums for five different shows. It was part of their second annual San José Light Opera Festival; the theatre was crowded and I hope there’s a third festival next summer.

I had hoped to take advantage of the row of chargers in the parking garage while we were enjoying the show, but it was not to be. We got to the garage a bit late, and the first charger I tried claimed to be “in use” on both sides. I gave up, moved the car to a regular spot, and we barely made it to the theatre before the curtain went up. By the time I got home, the car was down to 35%.

Today, though, I had better luck. Los Gatos has a couple of Chargepoint chargers in each of the downtown parking lots, and the price isn’t too bad: a buck to start the session, then $1/hour (for a 7.2kW charger) for the first four hours (it goes up to $5/hour after that). I wanted to leave the car for three or four hours, so we drove both cars downtown so we wouldn’t have to wait around.

We took our usual 3-mile walk before going to the market; I was going to go home with Diane when I noticed the traffic heading to the beach, and I realized that it might take an hour to get back to the parking lot in mid-afternoon…so we drove both cars home again; I did get to charge for an hour and a half and got up to 45%; it cost me $2.50.

The PlugShare map showed that Leigh High School, about a mile from our house and on our usual evening walking route, had a charger, and I thought about going there but was afraid it would be in use. When I looked more closely at the listing, I discovered that Leigh had 48 6.6kW chargers, and the price was only 10 cents/kWh. I downloaded the PowerFlex app and we drove over right after lunch.

There were plenty of cars charging and plenty of spaces; I plugged in and we drove away to do a little shopping before retreating to the house to enjoy the air conditioning. Seven hours later, it was finally cool enough to walk over to pick up the car; we got there just in time to hear the “click” as the car reached 100% charged. Total time: 8 hours, 25 minutes. Total cost: $4.64.

If I need to charge the car again before I can get a charger installed in the garage, I know where I’m taking it.

We took the new car on its first road trip today to Golden Gate Park so we could see the Ansel Adams in Our Time at the de Young Museum. I was a bit surprised when the car put itself into “Highway Driving Assistance” mode soon after I got onto the freeway and turned on cruise control – not only did I get adaptive cruise control, but I got subtle steering assistance to keep the car centered in the lane. It was disconcerting at first, but I think I like it.

We would have gone to see the Ansel Adams exhibit even if we hadn’t bought the new car; we’d reserved tickets a couple of weeks ago when I discovered that this was the final weekend it’ll be at the de Young. We were not alone – it was so crowded that I put on my KN95! I can’t imagine what the crowds will like be tomorrow and Sunday.

The exhibit had many of Adams’ famous photographs as well as some of his lesser-known work, such as his photos of Mazanar. There were also photos that some of his predecessors had taken in spots he’d later photograph, as well as photos from contemporary photographers which the curators selected to be “in dialog” with Adams.

We also visited Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence, which will be on view until mid-October. It was disturbing and interesting, but it didn’t really hit me until I entered the final room where the title work was displayed. Wiley had put his fallen Black rider on the same horse used in the J.E.B. Stuart statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond; I’d seen that statue many times over the years and hadn’t thought much about it (yet another Confederate general on Monument Avenue), but seeing the horse in a different context was enlightening.

We finished the day with a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden, our first since moving to California.

And then we drove home – total distance 103 miles, electricity used 27 kW or so. I know that the Kia Owner’s Portal has more accurate information, but I haven’t found a program to fetch the data and make it useful yet…but I’m sure someone has written one already.

We said goodbye to our 2017 Subaru Impreza Limited today; Carvana came and picked it up. They said it would be going to a farm in the country or something like that. :-)

I’d used the Leasehackr online purchasers list to get bids for the car before we tried to trade it, and I’m glad we did. The Kia dealer wanted to give us about $15.4k; CarMax offered $16k; Carvana offered $18.5k. I could have tried some of the other companies on the list, but I was happy with $18.5k from a company with a good reputation. We’d paid $27k for the car six years ago, so it had held its value pretty well (Subaru might not agree – their “Guaranteed Trade-In” offer was $12,850).

Selling the car was pretty simple; I had to give them information about the car (mileage, condition, color) to get their bid. Once I accepted it, I had to upload the title and our drivers licenses and e-sign a few forms; the next day (yesterday), they confirmed the price and told me to set up an appointment. I wanted to drive the car over to their office (about 7 miles away), but I would have had to wait two weeks to get an appointment; they offered next-day pickup for $290, and I took it.

The driver texted me today, told me when he’d be here, and reminded me to remove the plates and any personal items. He arrived on time, took a few photos, verified the mileage, had me sign a few forms, and put the car on his truck and took it away. The whole process took about 15 minutes.

I celebrated by getting rid of a bunch of old boxes in the garage – monitors, air purifiers, receivers, and more. That was fun – except for having to break up the Styrofoam they’d used to protect things during shipping; I ran out of room in our garbage can before I ran out of Styrofoam!