San Jose & Santa Cruz, CA

I've had a chance to do a little bit of exploring the last couple weekends, one trip to San Jose for errands, shopping, and most importantly, lunch on a patio in the sun in April. And one Sunday day-trip to Santa Cruz. I'd never been here before, so I started with lunch on the "south" side of town, at the Crow's Nest, then walked my way all up in SC proper. It def has a great beach town vibe, pretty big pier to walk, and crowds to navigate (especially if you drive into the heart of downtown).

Overall, they were both enjoyable, but having ways to avoid traffic would be ideal., IMO.

SJ

SC

 Very tasty, but you do pay for the view in the price of the food and drinks, fair.

There's also a reason to remind Midwestern visitors about sunscreen. It'll bite you later in the day if you forget to apply it out here, without a doubt.

Buongiorno from Specialized-Italy! Milan, Italy

I wanted to highlight some of the nicest historical & current bikes, and the office overall in Italy. It's all pretty much pictures. If you can identify the bikes, you're a bike nerd. I'll try to make this follow - current bikes, historical bikes, current parts, historical parts...

That's it for the bike nerds.

Italy + Random = Awesome, Milan, Italy

Simply some of the oddities of Italy/Milan. This group includes images of cars, wallpaper press dies, and other random items...

 They love their entryways.

You MUST try Limoncello when in Italy.