Monterey

Weather Max 19 Min 13 - well it doesn't  sound hot but it was very humid :(

I uberred to Fishermans Wharf in style - a very flash black Mercedes - and wandered around reacquainting myself with the area. The first thing you notice about Fishermen Wharf is a strong smell of fish - not surprisingly - but your nose gets used to it very quickly.  The whole area really does appeal to me. I don't know quite what it is about Monterey but it just feels right. It's a lot bigger than I remember and I walked bout 13 kms today just enjoying the sights.

Fishermans Wharf

Fishermans' Wharf

I skipped breakfast and partook in a bread bowl of clam chowder....was wonderful.

Clam Chowder

Love it

There are big fat old harbour seals vegging all over the place on rocks in the ocean - I would have added  a photo but they just look like rocks lol

Plastic bags for dog poop - great name - Mutt Mitts

Now this is what you call and oxymoron

Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey area. It's the site of a number of now defunct sardine canning factories. (The last cannery closed in 1973). The street name, formerly a nickname for Ocean View Ave, became official in 1958 to honour John Steinbeck and his famous novel Cannery Row. In the opening sentence of Cannery Row Steinbeck describes the street as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream". Very apt.

Cannery Road

Cannery Row

Just about everything I saw was named after Steinbeck....I'm not sure if he would be impressed or horrified. 

Before I left Oz I downloaded Cannery Row so I could sit in  a coffee house on the real Cannery Row and read it and feel it. Was so good. I stayed for so long I didn't have time to do my planned trip to the Aquarium. Never mind. Tomorrow is another day.  Ah retirement.....I am beginning to understand how you work. 

Being short sighted can be an inconvenience but it also brings me many laughs. I often see a sign and what I see from a distance and what it really says will range from the rude to the hysterical to the ridiculous.  This one I read as Nasal Pomegranate School. Each year I need to get closer and closer to read what they really says lol