Monterey

I think I must fall in love with the Monterey Peninsula, the place I call home, at least once a day.  I think that it is the most beautiful place on earth.  There is always something that reminds me of how much I love it.  Tonight, it was on our evening walk.  The light was just right, it was just the right temperature out, and there was the smell of salt in the air.  For me, there is the way the foghorns sound so lonely late at night, or the lights on the purse seiners in the fog.  It is the changing colors of the bay. Some days it is blue or green.  Some days it is silver or so gray that you can not see where the water ends and the fog begins.  I love the abundance of sea food, the friendliness of the people, the fact that the area is dog-centric, the places to hike, and the general vibe.  

I will share that we walk slow here.  Really slow.  I realized it when I moved here, kicking and screaming on a job transfer about 22 years ago.  I moved from the Bay Area and was young and a bit on the impatient side then. Now I shuffle along like my neighbors.  A friend of mine just moved here from a major city.  I warned him about the slow walking thing.  He said, "Oh my gosh, you are right! It has been driving me nuts!"  That is how we roll here.  

There are times I will be walking along a path by the ocean I will suddenly catch my breath at the overwhelming beauty here.  It is so awesome.  It is amazing to be stunned by how beautiful the place you live is.  In addition, we have so much history here.  Monterey was the first capital of California. We walk in the same places as the characters in John Steinbeck's novels.  The historic mission in Carmel is a very special place.  It is the site where Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions is interred.  It is a place where Robert Louis Stevenson convalesced and Ansel Adams lived. Thomas Kinkade even had a home here and I imagine that many of his paintings must have been inspired by the storybook, fairy tale cottages of Carmel.  

So tonight I go to bed, grateful for my little piece of earth here and all that surrounds it on the Monterey Peninsula.  I am hopeful that tonight the fog horns will sing me to sleep.