I spent much of the last week in Steinbeck country. Photos below, or you can view the gallery.
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Vacancy Abandoned hotel in Santa Cruz. |
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Ocean Views Soon-to-be abandoned motels in Santa Cruz. |
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Santa Cruz A restaurant on the faded, cheesy wharf. |
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Santa Cruz |
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Santa Cruz |
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Santa Cruz |
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Santa Cruz Sea lions hang out under the wharf and bark like crazy. |
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Santa Cruz Hanging out under the pier — digitally zoomed photo. |
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Salinas Valley Castroville is west of Salinas. Kate’s whorehouse was off of the Castroville Road, now Market Street. |
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Castroville They take their artichokes very seriously in Castroville. Seriously enough to deep-fry them. |
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Castroville The real thing, growing in a field, pre-deep-frying. |
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Artichokes |
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Salinas Valley The artichoke center of the world! |
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Salinas Valley A farmhouse between Castroville and Salinas. |
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Salinas Valley |
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Salinas A restored locomotive at the train station in Salinas. |
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Salinas Mural in Salinas. |
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Salinas A mural on the wall of the parking garage near the Steinbeck Center. |
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Samuel Hamilton The real man, Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather. |
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Model T The controls of a Model T. |
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The Grapes Of Wrath |
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The Grapes Of Wrath The article mentions a competing publication, called “The Grapes Of Gladness,” about what a wonderful place to work California was. |
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The Snake The Steinbeck Center is sadly short on manuscripts and letters, preferring to remember a writer through cheesy interactive exhibits. But there were a few manuscripts on hand. |
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Steinbeck’s Passport This was the one he used while overseas as a war correspondent. |
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Rocinante The original truck that Steinbeck drove around the country in, memorialized in Travels With Charley. |
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Rocinante The interior. |
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Rocinante |
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Rocinante |
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Salinas This was the Monterey County Bank, where Kate kept her money in a safe deposit bank. It’s now an antique/craft market. |
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Salinas I’m going down to the Greyhound station Gonna buy a ticket to ride I’m going to find a lady with two or three kids And sit down by her side Ride till the sun comes up and down around two or three times Smokin’ cigarettes in the last seat Sing a song for the people I meet And get along with it all. — John Prine, “Clay Pigeons” I bought this album in Santa Cruz and listened to it and a Mark Knopfler/Chet Atkins album all the way down and back. |
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Salinas Steinbeck’s house, now an overpriced restaurant. |
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Salinas He played harmonica! |
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Steinbeck House |
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Steinbeck House The restaurant’s cash register. |
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Steinbeck House |
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Salinas The former Bank of Monterey, photographed from the window of the cafe that used to be Porter and Irvines, the general store where Kate shopped. The store closed in 1974. |
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Salinas |
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Salinas Valley |
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Monterey Monterey is a horrible tourist trap now, with Cannery Row now a strip as ugly as Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. But at least they put up a bust of Steinbeck. |
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Monterey And he … lives on. |
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Monterey |
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St Pete Beach I also spent two days in Florida for a conference. This hideous monstrosity, the Don Cesar, is pretty representative. The directions I got to the conference said to “Turn left at the big pink hotel.” And driving into town I’m thinking, “Which big pink hotel?” since this is, after all, Florida. Then I come over the bridge and see this thing. “Oh, THAT big pink hotel.” |
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St. Pete Beach Beautiful beaches lined with ugly buildings. |