Marisa Miller Loves Santa Cruz

OK, so after I made that post about Local Girl Does Good, I think i should make a bit of a disclaimer. Until today, I didn’t know much about Marisa Miller. Oops, let me correct that – I knew nothing about her whatsoever, never heard of her. I confess that I do watch America’s Next Top Model sometimes with my wife, but I’m still pretty clueless about the current crop of Supermodels. I guess the fashion industry is something that’s not on my radar screen, for better or worse.

But somehow or other, I ended up on the Sports Illustrated Web site, looking at Marisa Miller’s Gallery. Of course, I went to the site looking to find stuff to read, but somehow I got trapped in Marisa’s gallery and stumbled around (blindly, I swear) until I came upon the interview they did with her. It’s kind of the standard Sports Magazine-Supermodel Interview, but a few things struck me about it.

Here are some quotes:

If I didn’t have any responsibilities tomorrow morning, I would spend tonight …

Probably going dancing somewhere because I love to dance with my friends. I’m in Santa Cruz right now, I’m home.

If I didn’t have any responsibilities for a week, I would go to …

Honestly, I think because I travel so much, I don’t really want to go anywhere. People, always ask me that, like, ‘Where would you go on vacation?’ There’s a ton of beautiful places I’ve been to but I just love my home in Santa cruz. I’m home right now…Santa Cruz is very, like, real. It’s very kind of earthy, and it was a little hippie, it’s not like that now, but people are very simple here. It’s cool. You can be really unassuming and in a sweatshirt and jeans all day, and your flip flops. It’s great.

If you asked my friends about me, the first thing they would tell you is …

That I’m very down-to-earth. Santa Cruz, for instance, is a really small town so a lot of people in the town know who I am, you know, especially from Sports Illustrated.

If I could be anywhere else in the world right now, I would be …

Nowhere. I am in Santa Cruz at my house. It’s so crazy because when I crawled into bed last night, It’s like no other bed I’ve ever slept in, its just … I mean, it’s just awesome. It’s such a good feeling being home, I can’t even describe it. I appreciate things here so much.

Do you have any sort of special connection with your hometown?

My parents met in Santa Cruz. They met surfing at one of the local beaches here. I was just raised here and it’s such a great environment because it’s a simple lifestyle and there’s a lot of real people. You can get away here, it’s a good place for me to come home to. It’s a good place to be raised. It’s a very natural environment. We had horses and stuff like that, and the beach. It just brings me back to earth when I come back here.

All together, the word “Santa Cruz” appears nine times in the interview. Now, here’s a woman who has traveled all over the world. She could probably finagle a residency visa just about anywhere. She’s probably got enough cash for a down payment on a decent pad in most towns on this big blue marble of ours. But where does she prefer to live?

Santa Cruz, that’s where.

Let me know if you want to buy a house here. 🙂