I lived in Santa Cruz in 1991 and 1993 for 3 months each time. The people are one of the most interesting things in Santa Cruz. Two interesting characters at that time were the Bird Man, who wore all flowwing white and rode a bike periodically yelling out "Marianne!" The other interesting guy would do his own strange version of Tai Chi in the doorway of an a vacant building across the street from the post office. He would have a radio, which could be playing anything including disco, and he would wear a bee keeper type/safari hat. While there I worked in an organic saurkraut and kimchi factory. It was cold and stinky there. We would fill 55 gallon drums with cabbage and stuff and then stick them in the corner near a space heater. A few days later we would takle off the lids and scoop out all of the moldy muck on the top few inches and then bottle the rest. People would often stare at us when we stopped off at the supermarket on the way home from work, I assume because of the way we smelled.