i bought a small house and garden in pacific grove, but you'd better write me c/o the lab for awhile. can't even remember the name of the street. we're camping down here really, and i'm trying to pull myself together but pretty bruised as everyone is.
hi again! stayed up till the wee hours of the morning reading steinbeck: a life in letters. i like being in the same place that some of these letters were written. i'm quoting from them throughout this post. they'll be the ones in italics.
it's dead quiet here at night. there is a velvety blackness in the streets and you could here a pin drop – i mean if you listen for that sort of thing. i don't, but i swear i can hear the stars buzzing overhead. they are bigger here and silver. silver!
there's an old bike path behind the cottage leading down to the water. i like to walk down it late at night, really late, and disappear into the blackness. even then you can see the water shining on the bay below and feel the cold damp air. i don't go all the way down. i turn off around the middle and circle back to the blue cottage on other streets. past dark houses, but some have lights on in upstairs windows.
the days are cool and grey. if i don't see a single ray of sunshine i will count myself lucky. there's enough of that down south where i came from. you get sick of it after a while.
there are quite a few blue houses i've walked past. yesterday i was practically staring in the window of a house and i felt eyes on me. someone was watching! i looked around and saw this:
a doe resting placidly in a garden above me. this got me v. v. excited. like i always get when it seems that i'm walking around inside the pages of a story book. illustrations i remember from studying in childhood. i used to wonder if scenes like that existed in real life or the artists were just making things up to go with the story. now i know the truth! the story was written to go with the pictures, not the other way around.
this bench looked like it was made for me to sit on. i headed out across the bluffs towards it, but then i saw a rock that looked even better. so i went there instead. sat for a long time. breathing. absorbing. committing to memory.
when i got up from my rock i saw someone else was in my bench. i took her picture because i like the way she's sitting and staring. her eyes fixed on something out there on the blue horizon that i couldn't see. a thinker. she sat like that for a long time. by this time i was on a tree branch and doing some looking of my own.
you want to get some thinking and reading and quiet living done. you come HERE. you stay for a while.
i'm back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and the drinkers and no goods and it is a fine thing
now quite early morning. cloudy and likely to rain. yesteday was like a spring day. i went to salinas and worked at the paper then drove out toward the hills and found the old stage road which i haven't been over since i was about ten years old and we went to hollister that way in the surrey. went over it to san juan and do you know there were hundres of places that i remembered. kids do retain all right. stopped in san juan a while then drove back over the old san juan grade which in the memory of most people is the only one. they have completely forgotten that which was once called the royal road and it is now just a country dirt road, which is what it always was, of course.
okay. time to head out. the day is young and i have investigations that require a keen eye. stuff i need to look into.
i'll put the kettle to boil for our late afternoon tea in 4 or 5 hours. meet me back at the cottage and we'll swap notes. compare stories.
Ah Ha! I guessed Pacific Grove when you sent your teaser last blog. Way back in the dim dark past, I spent a couple of years in the area. Read all of Steinbeck, wandered Cannery Row and tried out what was what from the books. The lab, the grocery… before it was all touristed up. Days on the beach at Carmel with my year old son… Thanks for the memories.
MaryAnn~~
Love armchair traveling with you but THIS trip is the best of all, for me.
You see, when I was a wee child, 1-4 years old, I used to live right in this area and damn, I feel I know it…
Your photos take me right there…i Know it all, once again , as if returning from a longggggggg trip
and here it is…The houses,the rocks, the deep hills,trees,did I say Rocks!!! and the Sea.
Here, I am told, I tried to embrace the Sea….and warm tears came as I viewed Monterey from your eyes.
I re-call…I remember….I AM still here!!
Thank you so very much,
xoxo
~sass
thanks for the info on vrbo. Now I just need to research a LA neighbourhood where there is a vrbo walking distance close to a farmers market, good eat cafes and some funky shops. Unless you can recommend a couple of neighbourhoods to consider.
mary ann, you need to write a book girl. your words are moving and mesmerizing. yup. they. are.
Your blog is an inspiration…
How do you do what you do?
Any tips appreciated.
If you ever have the time (now, or a future trip!) you really should check out the funky little town of San Juan Bautista (the San Juan JS is referring too). Full of history and just a really cool side trip. Right behind the mission is the old “kings road” – I always wanted to wander along it….one of these days!
Once I read a letter to Steinbeck’s son who had written him because for the first time this son was in love. John wrote a beautiful thoughtful response to his son about love. I think everyone might learn about love from reading Steinbeck’s letter to his son who was away at college, I think. One of my favorites that I ended up writing in my quote journal.
Blue houses used to belong to the fishermen of the village. They were blue so the local people knew where to purchase their fresh fish each day. Some of the blue houses would have a lantern or similar indication in the front yard to say when a fresh catch was in. (Course you probably knew this already…. 🙂
Blue cottages, the greyness, those trees, OH…That DEER! Awesome photos, and stories. Sounds absolutely blissful indeed!
you BOUGHT this charming little blue cottage? how magical!
Lot’s of wonderful memories surfacing reading and looking at your photos. Mostly from the late 60s, early 70s…yet so fresh in my mind. Pacific Grove was a family favorite.
Making me miss the blue cottage we nested in while living in Corona del Mar.
Letting the fog roll in through the French doors. Falling asleep to the barking of sea lions. What a privilege it was.
Your little rental looks so cozy. What kind of culinary treats are you whipping up in that retro kitchen? And, did you hang on the side of that sliding barn door and push yourself back and forth? Pitch any rocks into those waves? Did you pet Bambi’s mother? Do the cats there all wear seafaring captain’s hats and have peg legs? Your photos have transported me into another realm:)
Almost every summer I go to a retreat with wonderful people at Asilomar Conference grounds, just down the way from where I think you are. Then, sometimes, I just go to Pacific Grove because I want to. That beach. Oh, my. You’re reminding me I haven’t been there for awhile.
spellbound, enraptured, entranced, agape, mesmerized, um, you get the idea. translate all that to me that I am lovin all of it and am going there right now in my mind. I plan to stay there for awhile, funny cuz in my journal earlier today, before I read your post; I’d written ‘sometimes I crave solitude’ that is serendipity for ya.
Gads! Every picture in this post choked me up. I am so homesick! Going to San Diego for the birth of a grand daughter in two weeks. Not quite home. But at least I’l get to see my ocean and smell the sea and hang with the bums and the drinkers and the no goods! Apparently I cant wait! Please, throw a kiss out to sea for me will you?
While you’re there go to Peppers – fantastic Mexican food. It’s off the main drag on Forest. Great coffee place on the main drag, a huge old building, lots of seating – old couches and such – a great journaling spot.
Erin in Morro Bay
Oh yes! Pacific Grove…this is the CA. coastal area I love most. I wish I could live there. Enjoy your stay in this beautiful place. The views are spectacular. The first time I travelled here was with my parents who were coming to Monterey to visit my Dad’s childhood friend who worked in the Cannery in Monterey. The site of Steinbeck’s, Cannery Row. This was just after the war, maybe 1948/49…you could smell the canneries from a long way off. Not so pleasant to a kid.
I went on a Steinbeck marathon read a few years ago…even had his DIL join us for a chat on our online bookclub. She was very interesting. Not so fond of Steinbeck as a parent/in-law. But had some insider info that was compelling.
Awww! I’m pretty dang sure you’re in Pacific Grove. Did you tell us already & I missed it? My husband and I had our honeymoon there. Those streets look awfully familiar! We want to go back sometime soon. Maybe you’ve convinced us!
Just wonderful!
A zillion years and one marriage ago we were on our way to Monterey for language school. Sadly he was the one going to the language school while I had the skills for language. He changed his mind and broke my heart.
The cottage looks perfect for one. Cozy inside with the damp sea air outside. Those coastal trees always tell the real story!
I think I know where you are even though the link HERE did not work. Pretty sure I sat on that bench in the same location. Exquisite and lovely cottage and I know what you mean about the sun rays and the buzzing stars. You are a deep dreamer!
Mary Ann – I love this part of CA! I live in Seattle but spend a couple of weeks every summer close by where I think you are on retreat. Your little blue house is the sweetest thing ever.