The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California.
Recently I spent several days in Monterey…an area rich in beautiful scenery and history. A bonanza for a travel blogger! I ended up with 17 blog titles and 628 photos which I’ll present through about May 15th. This works well for me because I’ll be in an “idle period” during that time. During my time at Mary’s, I’ll do routine maintenance, minor repairs and cleaning. On about May 21, Mary and I are planning to head-out for Yellowstone National Park (and other destinations) in Wyoming. Till then, enjoy Monterey!
Today’s subject – Cannery Row…
Cannery Row is the most popular vacation destination on California’s Central Coast. This historic waterfront district on Monterey Bay was made famous by writer John Steinbeck, who illustrated Cannery Row life in his colorful stories.
Cannery Row is the name of the street that runs parallel to the Monterey shoreline and nearest to the water.
The Monterey fishing industry began in the mid-1800s when Chinese fishing families arrived by boat. Located too far from their markets to sell fresh fish, they dried it using techniques learned in their home country. Later, Japanese fishermen arrived to fish for salmon, and by the time of the famed “cannery row” John Steinbeck wrote about, Sicilian immigrants had taken over as the area’s primary fishermen.
In the early twentieth century, plentiful sardines in the Monterey Bay combined with a shutdown in East Coast fishing (due to worries about German submarines) to propel Monterey into a sardine-catching and -canning frenzy. By the middle of the century, the sardine population declined due to natural cycles and overfishing, and by the 1950s, most of the canneries were closed.
In January 1958, the City of Monterey officially re-named Ocean View Avenue “Cannery Row” in honor of John Steinbeck and his novel that described a colorful past set amid the cannery culture of the time. Now, Cannery Row’s buildings are updated, shinier versions of turn-of-the-century canneries. They house an eclectic blend of specialty shops, local artists’ galleries, and more than 25 restaurants and world-class attractions that make Cannery Row a top tourist destination.
As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…
Three days ago I blogged about San Carlos Beach. I left the Bronco parked there and walked along the shoreline the about 2/3’s of a mile to Cannery Row…
John Steinbeck wrote of Cannery Row in the first paragraph of his book…
“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, ‘whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,’ by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, ‘Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,’ and he would have meant the same thing.”
Here’s an old photo of Cannery Row…
Here’s a close-up map of modern-day Cannery Row…
Note about the crossovers…
Empty cans were shuttled from warehouses on the inland side of Cannery Row to canneries on the bay side of the street. After the cans were filled and cooked, they were shuttled back over the street to enclosed crossovers to warehouses and rail sidings. The crossover became a distinctive architectural feature on Cannery Row.
More tomorrow…
You can read all about Cannery Row by clicking this Wikipedia link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannery_Row
You can read all about Monterey, California by clicking this Wikipedia link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey,_California
Tomorrow we will continue with more of the beautiful scenery and history that is part of Monterey, California!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.
Yesterday was sunny and 83 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 90 degrees.
The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…
Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein
On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!
Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8
If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos
There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrvzqm8-IKGdA
If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/
For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust
All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2015
Que Sera, Sera... Whatever Will Be, Will Be... 