Santa Cruz Chronicles - day 5 

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“The Endless Spoon; In Search of the Perfect Frozen Yogurt (in Santa Cruz)” 

I’d be willing to assume that the vast majority of my acquaintances are aware of my slight obsession with frozen yogurt.  That having been said, I have taken on the challenge of finding a frozen yogurt shop in Santa Cruz, California that matches my all-time favorite yogurt joint back home in Newport Beach, California... America’s Cup.  It’s been five whole days since I arrived into Santa Cruz, and so far, I’ve been getting my bearings, exploring numerous places to run, and just exploring the area in general.  Back home, the question of where to go to get frozen yogurt never arose.  If I was going out to grab some “fro-yo,” it was to one place and one place only.  It was a mere perk that I would get to use my yogurt punch card to eventually get two bucks off my 10th yogurt.  It was always a fun day when you reached the end of the punch card.  

So far, I’ve experimented with two different frozen yogurt shops up here.  The first one I tried was called “FroYo.”  Talk about original.  It was your typical yogurt place where the yogurt attendant filled your cup with yogurt, but then you were in charge of topping your cup with the condiments of your choice, and to your desired extent.  First things first.  People need to realize that there are VAST differences amongst yogurt shops.  The first noticeable quality in a yogurt shop is whether or not it is “self-serve.”  I, personally, tend to prefer self-serve shops, because it puts me in control of how I build my creation.  The second thing, would have to be whether or not the yogurt attendant puts the toppings on for you or not.  Again, maybe it’s just me, but I find great pleasure in being the complete artist when it comes to frozen yogurt, and thus clearly prefer an entirely self-serve atmosphere.  In my mind, the places that do everything for you are (I apologize for the bluntness) a joke.  There’s absolutely nothing fun about the yogurt experience when you can’t have some physical contribution to the creation of your frozen yogurt.  

I stumbled upon the first frozen yogurt place while walking around downtown in search of a dresser just the other day.  But I actually had to search out the second frozen yogurt shop.  It was less than a mile from my house, AND it was completely self-serve, so I had to give it a try.  The place was called “Top A Lot Yogurt,” and I do give it credit for living up to its name.  My personal topping choices don’t vary too greatly, but from what I could tell, their toppings were adequate.  Their yogurt on the other hand was a little too much like greek yogurt.  Even their dutch chocolate yogurt was a little too tart for my liking.  But who can I fool... I can’t bitch about it too harshly, because I still ate it.  On a positive note, something that I did very much appreciate, was how they provided an endless stack of sample cups near the yogurt dispensers, so customers need not be a bother and nag employees for a measly one ounce paper cup whenever they wanted to try a flavor.  As much as I wanted it to match America’s Cup standards, it didn’t even come close.  Oh well, I’ll keep trying new and different frozen yogurt joints, and will be sure to keep you updated. 

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In other news, I got a long run in today.  Now, what’s considered “long,” you may ask?  Today I logged roughly 16 miles in an hour and 50 minutes.  You do the math.  In my opinion, the best way to get in a long run in a new location, is to purposefully get yourself lost, so that you must find your way back home.  Chances are, by the time you find your way back, the run will be considered “long enough.”  That was certainly the case today.  Except, today, I discovered where I was much sooner than expected.  I guess you could say that I’m quickly getting the lay of the land up here.                      

Until next time...