Monterey Bay

Very nice campground near Morgan Hill

Morgan Hill:  Inching our way south from the Sacramento area, we decided to leave California's central valley and take a look at Monterey Bay and vicinity.  We set up camp near the town of Morgan Hill, a half-hour drive from the bay.  Once again, the weather was warm, sunny and generally beautiful.  We haven't seen significant rain in months.

The campground was pretty quiet.  Ron got to watch the San Francisco Giants win the World Series and this was a good location for side trips to other interesting places.

San Juan Batista:  Salinas is a short drive from Morgan Hill so we drove down to see the Steinbeck Center.  On the way, we took a short side trip to the small town of San Juan Batista (Pop. 1,800).  This town has centuries of history and its Spanish heritage is clearly evident in the many old buildings that line the two blocks of downtown.  Several buildings are more than 200 years old and still occupied by stores, small cafes and other businesses.  This is a true working town that has managed to preserve its weathered appearance and character naturally.  We found no souvenir shops, espresso stands or other touristy glitz anywhere, which was refreshing.  Visitors eat at the Fault Line Restaurant or the Mission Café.

Downtown San Juan Batista

A block off the main street stands Mission San Juan Batista, founded in 1797 and named for St. John the Baptist.  It was the fifteenth of California’s string of 21 missions and had the largest mission church.  It was also the headquarters for Father Junipero Serra, father of the missions.  Although old and worn, it’s still an attractive and functioning Catholic church.  The mission cemetery holds the remains of about 4,300 Spanish and pioneer settlers and mission Indians, including Maria Trinidad, the first person buried there in 1798.  Most are in unmarked graves.

The mission sits atop the San Andreas Fault, overlooking miles of agriculture in the valley below.  From the edge of the escarpment, we could look down on the remains of the famous 600 mile long El Camino Real, the original road that connected the 21 California missions and pueblos.  An old stone stairway led us down to the road where we stood for a few minutes to get a feel for that historic place.

 

Salinas, the seat of Monterey County, was incorporated in 1874.  The fertile Salinas Valley is often referred to as “The Salad Bowl of the World.”  They grow everything here, including lettuce, broccoli, mushrooms, strawberries and lots of other fruits and vegetables.  Grape vineyards and small family wineries are also everywhere.  Even in late October, we passed fields being harvested by hand and roadside stands full of fresh produce. 

We did our own self-guided walking tour of Oldtown Salinas, poking our noses into the interesting shops, coffee houses, bars and restaurants.  This city has gone to a lot of effort and expense to restore old buildings, provide nice landscaping and pedestrian amenities, and preserve its history.  The results are impressive.   There are several venues for live theater and cinema and the newly refurbished art deco Fox Theater offers live music and comedy shows.  Unfortunately, we were there at the wrong time.

 

Near the north end of Main Street we arrived at the National Steinbeck Center.  As the tourist brochure describes, this is “where literature jumps off the printed page and into your imagination.”  John Steinbeck was a Nobel prize winner and one of America’s most popular writers.  He was also a very interesting character.  The center presents his life story from his childhood days in Salinas, through his poverty years as a starving writer, to his first major breakthrough with the book Tortilla Flat, which was later made into a movie.  Many more successful books followed, including The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men.  During World War II, he volunteered to be a war correspondent.  He wrote many newspaper articles and the books Bombs Away and The Moon is Down from those experiences.

 

Steinbeck was a very shy quiet man.  He didn’t grant many interviews, didn’t make speeches and hated to be recognized in public.  Eventually, he needed to get out of the house and do some traveling to rejuvenate his creative juices.  To do that, he and his poodle Charley took off on an extended trip around the U.S. in his pick-up and camper to observe life in America.  That adventure led to his popular book Travels with Charley, which Bonnie is currently reading.  His pick-up and camper are on display at the Center.

The Steinbeck Center bookstore carried copies of most, if not all, of Steinbeck’s books.  However, we happened to stop at a local antique store a block away where we purchased several of his works at a fraction of the retail price.  Can’t wait to start reading.

 

Following our stop in Salinas, we drove over the hill to Monterey Bay.  We stopped at a beach access point near Sand City and enjoyed the view.  Bonnie even made her way down the sandy hill to stick her feet in the water.

Santa Cruz:  On a warm sunny Saturday we drove over to the beach community of Santa Cruz to attend the Third Annual Chili Cook-off.  About 48 teams entered the cook-off and had their booths set up all along the boardwalk.  We purchased a “tasting kit” and went about sampling the various offerings and voting for our favorite.

We hadn't been to Santa Cruz in many years and it has changed and modernized.  The famous boardwalk is crowded with carnival rides, shops, food booths and arcades.  On the day we were there, it was also crowded with thousands of people having a good time (and eating lots of chili). 

The famous Cocoanut Grove has been modified somewhat but is still the boardwalk's main anchor.  Ron recalled taking a bus from Treasure Island Naval Station in 1966 to attend a rock-n-roll dance at the Grove.  The Strawberry Alarm Clock was the featured band.  What a memory!


The beach photo was taken from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, which is about a half mile long and strong enough to support parking lots, traffic and more shops and restaurants.

It was noon on the wharf so, while Ron was saving himself for the chili cook-off, Bonnie found an excellent crab and mushroom sandwich complete with clam chowder at one of the local eateries.

 

 

Concrete Ship at Aptos:  One of the most interesting things that we encountered was the concrete ship at the end of a long pier at the small town of Aptos, just south of Santa Cruz.  This old ship was built as a tanker for World War I in 1919.  But, it was too late for the war so it was mothballed.  In 1929 it was purchased and brought to Aptos, attached to the end of the pier and made into an amusement park complete with swimming pool, dance floor and cafes.  In the early 1930s, the company went bankrupt.  The ship deteriorated, cracked in the middle, was declared unsafe and turned into a fishing pier.  Today, it's off limits to everybody and a real mess.  It's falling apart, stinks to high Heaven and surrounded in a cloud of flies.  We took a couple pictures and got away as fast as possible, swatting flies as we went.  Not a great tourist attraction for Aptos, that's for sure.

San Jose Flea Market:  We came across a brochure describing the largest weekly flea market in the United States.  It has been in business 50 years and was just up the road in San Jose.

This place was unbelievable.  It was like being in Tijuana but much cleaner and more orderly (no offense intended to our neighbors to the south).  Approximately 1,500 sellers had their tents and tables set up along the aisles of the 120 acre site.  There was row after row of jewelry, handbags, belts, shoes, clothing of all kinds (mostly for women), toys, and even arts, crafts and fine furniture.

Mixed in with the vendors were at least 25 food outlets, snack bars, outdoor BBQs and even mobile beer vendors to help ensure that the folks were having a good time.

Two playgrounds, a restored antique carousel and arcade games were available to keep the kids busy.  And, for those who needed to rest their burning feet, lots of tables and chairs were available, along with live Mexican music on the center stage.

Latest women's fashions (not much for the guys)

While we were having a good time shopping the flea market, somebody was having an equally good time in the parking lot, removing the spare tire cover from our Honda.  That was a real disappointment and not a good reflection on the fair city of San Jose.  But, we figured that anyone who needed a six year old weathered tire cover badly enough to steal it off a tourist's car, probably needed it worse than we did.  The next day we paid a visit to the local Honda dealer and ordered a replacement.

 

Monterey:   High on our list of things to do was to visit Monterey's Cannery Row and the outstanding Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The aquarium had special displays of sea horses and jelly fish, as well as many other interesting marine plants and animals.  The jellies were especially amazing.

Beautiful Jellies

Diver Feeding the Fish

Cannery Row, a favorite subject of John Steinbeck, isn't what it was in his day.  Today, it's a busy tourist district of souvenir shops and restaurants with high prices and great views of Monterey Bay.  The remnants of old Cannery Row buildings can still be seen and trucks still clog the street as they unload their merchandise.

Big Sur:  Another high priority was to take a drive down the Big Sur coast on Highway 1.  It was a nice afternoon as we departed Monterey, but the fog was closing in.  By the time we got south of Carmel by the Sea, the fog had taken over.  We drove about ten miles or so down the coast, catching brief glimpses of the rocky coastline and finally gave up and turned around at Bixby Bridge.  The Big Sur coast is pretty, even in the fog.  Maybe we'll return someday and try again.

 

Into the fog at Bixby Bridge