Wild Thing: Sea Lions!

 So, yeah, sorry about the long time between posts.... Anyways on to the post!  So Oregon, I love Oregon.  The coast is beautiful simply beautiful and I love it, the California coasts (Monterrey in case you forgot).  Sea lions are everywhere on the coast!  This is a good thing in my world, even if they are loud little buggers.  But they are adorable, loud little buggers.






















So once I posted a post that mentioned sea lions and posted a video clip cause on the Oregon trip my camera was acting up.  I have some pictures from that trip, but I got a bunch on the Monterrey trip!!! So Monterrey, I think I walked everywhere for days, it was amazing, and there was a municipal pier about halfway between Cannery Row <3 and Fisherman's Wharf!

 

It was amazing about a half mile and there were some seals playing, and some sea lions just lying about.  And then at the end of the pier, there was literally hundreds of them.  It was a bit smelly and loud, but they were kinda cute just sleeping around.  The day before I left, I went whale watching, and as we were leaving the marina there were some just hanging out, playing and sleeping in the most adorable fashion.

Sourrounded by Water

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." John Steinbeck: Cannery Row.

So I have finally gotten around to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  Not sure I why I was putting this one off.  Probably because there are so many pictures of the joint.  So the Monterrey Bay Aquarium is at the end of Cannery Row in Monterey California.  It is housed in an old cannery.  So it has a very unique feel to it.

John Steinbeck and the Artichoke Queen

And since I got my home work all caught up, I don't feel bad about blogging and wasting my productive time one something so much more fun!


Cannery Row once was actually a place filled with Sardine Canneries.  Now it is filled with cheesy gift shops.  And yet I still loved it.






But they do still celebrate John Steinbeck and his books.  This map of Cannery Row, shows everything would have been.




At the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas it would have been much cooler if they had big books of John Steinbeck books, that I actually enjoyed.  I never actually finished reading this one.



 


 
Then there was the Pearl.  The book that nearly ruined Steinbeck for high school students every where.  Yeah, not my favorite, but I did see the building where he wrote it.  That was cool.



And I blame Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday for the romantic delusion that I have that it would be cool to live in an old boiler.  And yes, there would be curtains, regardless of the fact there are no windows.









And did I mention that Marlyn Monroe was once the Artichoke Queen?  Yep, true story.  Miss California Artichoke Queen 1947.

All Things Steinbeck

So, I am going to try different styles for these first few posts.  I need to see what works with what, as with the Y'Stone post, that lends itself well to wordy posts.  Some that I have might just be more picture based.  I am letting the posts do what they want.

Beach in Monterrey CA

So, since I left Yellowstone, I have gone on to major trips.  The first one was a year ago this Halloween.  I went to visit my dear friend Ashley out in Monterrey California.  Ashley and I have been friends for years, since our Waldsee days.  And she know of my deep love of John Steinbeck, especially of Cannery Row which coincidentally enough is in Monterrey.  So armed with my vacation pay, I hoped on a plane and headed for the coast and headed to Monterrey the Mecca for my Steinbeck lovin' heart.

Oooh look a courtyard, California is chalk full of them, and they are pretty with gardens.  So the first thing I did was walk to the harbour just to get my bearings, and of course to call my bestest friend.

 Yep, a harbor, boats, pretty much a standard view from my trip.  This was by Fisherman's Wharf.  I spent a quite a bit of time here, it was a wonderful spot to drink coffee, read, write or enjoy the gorgeous weather.

John Steinbeck

The best thing was that everything that I wanted to see was in walking distance. So that meant I could walk to Cannery Row.  Now, I was expecting a commercialized Cannery Row, I had no delusions that it would not be a tourist destination.  And it delivered, but it still had a feel about it, too me at least, that reminded me of the book and what it must have been like back in the days of sardine canning. 

Old Cannery Boilers

At the very end of Cannery Row, in an old cannery building is the Monterrey bay Aquarium.  It is a wonderful place, very open, and designed well, that and they have programs and speakers there all day.  I watched on sharks, it was very interesting.  The rest of the row is lined with shops and restaurants.  There are some museums and the old buildings are fixed up and are part of a walking tour.  

The other thing about Monterrey that was awesome was not only was there a city wide "path of history", but on almost every block in Old Monterrey, there were public gardens.  And I love gardens, so of course I went though each one at least twice.  Taking pictures of flowers is one of my favorite things to do.  Ashley and I also went to Carmel-by-the-Sea (did you know that Clint Eastwood used to be mayor there?), Salinas-to the Steinbeck Museum, and Pacific Grove.  Carmel-by-the-Sea, was a little tourist, boutique, ridiculously expensive town.  Had a great beach.  The Steinbeck museum in Salinas will probably have its own post dedicated to it.  

Full Moon Rise, seen while whale watching

While in Monterrey I went whale watching.  It was an amazing few hours on a boat.  We didn't see much, but we did see 2 whales and several dolphins.  And if you look in the water when the boat is leaving the harbor, you can see hundreds of jelly fish, now what could be cooler than that?