For the bulk of the last 10+ years, I have not traveled extensively far away from the Southeast. I’ve limited my journeys to Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I’ve not really had the desire to travel much outside of this comfort zone. I love sweet tea. I mean really LOVE sweet tea and anywhere that takes me out of the sweet tea range is asking a lot.
Well, in case you’re wondering, they don’t have sweet tea in California. When we first arrived to the hotel restaurant, I asked the waitress if they had tea. I could suffer through a glass of unsweetened tea if I absolutely had no choice. She wrinkled her eyebrows and said, “Hot tea?” I specified iced tea and she brought me a glass of iced tea that tasted like I’d just chewed an actual tea bag. Lord, have mercy. Not only do they not have the glory of sweet tea in their kitchen but they can’t even make iced tea.
I had lots of ideas about California before I got here. When I told my youngest son that I was going to California for a conference, his response was “why?” I repeated to him that it was for a conference. He said, “I know, but why would they want to do that in California?” He just couldn’t believe that people would willingly choose to go to California for anything. The media portrays California as a state with a bunch of pot smoking hippies, murderous gangs, and a group of people who don’t believe in laws. While there may be portions of California where these groups exist, it is not in Monterey, California. Many of the gift shops have hokey marijuana gifts like “I got baked in California” adorned coffee cups and I smelled it one day when we were on our bus tour, but Cheech and Chong weren’t hanging out on the corner. The closest I came to a murderous gang was a mentally ill man who was walking down the street arguing with himself about someone killing his puppy. I didn’t see any law breaking rebels, either.
What I have experienced is hospitality that actually rivals the best Southern welcome. The locals seem happy to have people visiting their town and every shopkeeper was pleasant. People were so polite and friendly that it did feel like I was in some kind of alternate universe. Every transaction I made was met with a little bit of small talk and a question about where I was from. One lady mentioned that she had only driven through Georgia once on a cross country journey from Massachusetts to Arizona. She went on to say that her grandparents, however, met in Georgia in the 1930’s picking peaches. She said both her grandparents were identical twins and their twins met each other in Arizona picking cotton in the 1930’s. She said she’d always thought it was amazing that their twins met each other without even knowing they were going to be in the same place.
The rugged landscape and urban areas seem to meet, and in some places, coexist. I never imagined that the seaside would be so intertwined with businesses, cliffs, and short strips of beach. Even though there are businesses right next to the water, the area doesn’t look over-commercialized. Most of the buildings in Monterey are styled after the old canneries that once lined the shores. The town isn’t extremely crowded down here on Cannery Row, which was quite unexpected. Though I know there are more urban and busy areas nearby, this little space is tucked away like a special little Hallmark-style village.
California hasn’t been what I expected at all. It’s been more. The sun in the morning hits your face and shimmers on the water like it’s close enough to grab right out of the sky. The birds sing a chorus of sea gull hymns that only nature can understand but everyone wants to know. Flowers are tucked away in planters and filled with the biggest succulents I’ve ever seen. The water shortage left most of the landscape dry and brown but little pockets of beauty can be found in potted gardens. Large hummingbirds pause on purple plants to taste the sweet nectar and speed away when you try to get closer. The seals can be heard barking from the pier area, especially as they splash into the water. The sea otters swim on their backs and frolic in the water. Their fur is dense everywhere except their paws, which they keep out of the frigid water. Long stalks of kelp wave in the Pacific swells, to and fro. Nature and man coexist in a way I’ve never seen before here. And it’s simply breathtaking.
It was during this trip that I told myself that I needed to travel more. I need to experience life in a foreign place, whether its California or Virginia, or across the world. The world is much bigger than I’ve allowed myself to experience but being here 2,000+ miles away from home I realize that it’s me that is smaller. I’m nothing but a tiny dot on this big world but I need to immerse myself in places that might intimidate me. I need to see that the human experience is not that different in other parts of this country, this world. There will always be things that bring us together whether its the call of the wild or the beat of the heart. This week I haven’t just visited California. California has visited me and I’ve welcomed it with open arms.
Messpot Diaries 