Monterey - The Salad Bowl

For those of you reading this that have never been in Monterey or the Salinas Valley in California, you have to know that this region has some of the most fertile earth for growing fruit and vegetables in the entire country. Once you come down hwy 101 into the valley you are completely surrounded by artichokes (see photo above), newly planted strawberries (see photo right). The chokes are in season and the berries have just been planted on top of plastic sheets). There is field after field of freshly turned earth ready for planting. I have

cycled through this valley and the surrounding coastal mountains 4 times during my AIDS Rides from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the late 90's. Riding my bike through the early summer crops of lettuce, chard, strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower, celery (you name it) that cross the landscape, into infinity, is a site to behold. One develops a whole new appreciation of farm workers when you see them bent over in the fields for hours and hours in the hot California sun. Work none of us white folks would ever think of doing today. Even if we were out of work and on food stamps! Sorry if I'm getting political, but hey, I AM a progressive Californian. :o) We need to give thanks to all of

those Hispanics who pick the food we eat every day. As we approached Monterey and the ocean, you can sense the change in the smell of the air.

Fresh, salty, misty, alive. The sand dunes are simply stunning with their winter ice plant color on to contrast the sand dunes in the background (see photo).

We arrived at Nina and Kim's Monterey home (see photos) to 'no power'. No surprise if you remember my last blog entry about the storm we drove through to get here. We spent the late afternoon getting settled and arranging candles

around the house so we could see as darkness fell. We decided to go out to Carmel for dinner, since we still had no power. We ate at a most excellent sushi restaurant called Sushi Heaven on Dolores Street. Well, of course I had died and gone to HEAVEN! I still can't get enough fresh seafood!

I do love coming to visit here. We just kick back and relax and do 'whatever'. No expectations. No worries. Sit and read a book all day. Do a little work via the Internet. Go for a hike. Shop for great food and then cook it together (of course it helps being on sabbatical and having

the time). That laid back California image the rest of the world has can exist every once in a while. As the storms kept coming, we kept losing power. We had to cook dinner one night by candle light. Very intimate and quite challenging to not lose a finger while chopping onions. We managed to make some great pasta with tofu meatballs (remember, you are in California!).

YUMMY! The tofu meatballs tasted just like beef. I SWEAR! Nina

is just a queen in the kitchen (see photo) :o) I will end this blog entry with a beautiful Monterey California sunset sky picture.