The boardwalk closed at around 10:00 pm and the beach scene died down before 11:00 so it wasn't that bad being close. It was great being on the beach. I didn't take any photos around the beach for fear of being taken for some kind of unsavory type,since the beach was full of scantily clad women and kids. I had a good swim. The water was cold but not as cold as my memories of swimming in Lake Michigan.
It was a half-mile walk to the beach and boardwalk. Less than a mile in the other direction, things got interesting. The first thing I noticed was a couple of buildings full of priests in clerical garb. The use of the Star of David in the architecture caught my attention. I thought perhaps this was a Rastafarian shrine. How cool would that be, Catholic Rastas in Santa Cruz?
This is the"Shrine of St Joseph, Guardian of the Redeemer", which isn't apparently the same St. Joseph of the Jesus-Mary-Joseph pop trio and purgatory shortening mantra. Oh no, this isn't your boring old biblical saint. This guy was canonized by John Paul II (remember him,the dead guy on the pope sled?) to be the patron saint of the unborn. HOLY ROMAN CLINIC BOMBING, IT'S THE PATRON SAINT OF THE UN-EFFING-BORN!
I found a statue of St. Joseph in the garden. Although this probably isn't the intended purpose of the statue, It looks to me like this guy just completed an abortion.
Chalk up another notch in my creepy Catholic symbol collection.
This is so over the top that their St Francis statue has taken to hiding in a tree with his hood pulled over his head, really.
On the lighter side, directly across from this joint is a surfer monument.
I found the best explanation for this on a park bench.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment