for now

So much to write about the last few days: the conference, work, people, Monterey Bay Aquarium, sunfish, winetasting, karaoke. And posting of pictures. But for now let's lay down the scene.

It had been years since I had last been to Monterey and longer still since I had been to the museum. We often just stopped in Santa Cruz. I went on the 17-mile drive once and meandered through Carmel and ate chowder in Monterey. The drive to Monterey isn't bad, about 2 hours if you move when there isn't traffic. Past the outlets of Gilroy (I don't know why people go all the way out there just to shop), then take 156W past the Cloverdale and the artichoke fields, past the sand dunes covered in ice plants and lichen and moss with a few cypress and Monterey pines. The sand dunes reminded me of the drive to Vegas, but these were like rolling hills and though there were no leaves turning red, the low lying plants that somehow stayed imbedded in the shifting sands were quite the palette of red, orange, dark brown, green that made you know it was fall.

Just beyond, Monterey Bay named after a Spanish lord. We were in old Monterey where a self guided tour following metal plates on the ground walk you past much of California's history. The Larkin house: home to the only US embassador to California. To the buildings where the California's constitution was written, past the homes and lodges of the Spanish elite who lived in that area to the maritime museum marking the time of sardine and whaling plants.

The Monterey Bay Trail takes you to the old Fisherman's wharf full of candy shops pulling taffy, kitch, and restaurants offering samples of their finest chowder. On the weekends, there's an actual guy with a pet monkey, who shakes hands for a quarter and poses for a dollar while the guy cranks the music box. Though the monkey almost grabbed for a kids ice cream cone instead of his hand. You'll go down a bit to the Coast Guard pier where you can take a closer look at the sea lions who are usually quiet in the morning, but start barking in the afternoon til about 2am. (But at 5 the seagulls are awake with chatter). The path takes you behind Cannery Row that feels like most every coastal tourist with some of the same chain stores, a few art galleries, restaurants, fitted on piers that the waves crash upon, the tops of the kelp beds undulating a few feet away.

At the end is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a former fishing cannery turned fish conservatory. In the distance, you can see Santa Cruz particularly at night. And always, always, the moist air and rhythm of water meeting the coast.