I had to go to a business conference in Monterey California last week. I'd been asked to speak at it months ago but had not thought too much about it until the last minute. There were only two things I knew about Monterey before going out there.
First, Monterey was the setting for the famous John Steinbeck novel from the 1940's called Cannery Row. The title comes from the fact that Monterey is located on the California coastline and had several huge fish processing plants there, notably sardine packing plants. There was a movie made out of it not too long ago, starring Nick Nolte as I recall.
It's been years and years since I read the book, but to tell the truth, I remember it being kind of a sad and depressing book. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that all of the characters are losers, but I would say that they mostly lacked ambition. They were all resigned to a very meager place in life without much yearning to make better for themselves. And I dunno, not in a contented Zen sort of way, but in a sad dreary sort of way. So in my mind, being the location for Cannery Row is not exactly something I'd expect Monterey to be proud of. But I did note that the hotel I was staying at was located on a street called Cannery Row. So there was at least some acknowledgment of their place in literary history, humble though it may be.
The thing I didn't realize about Monterey is that it is something of a golf mecca. I'm not a golfer myself, but my Dad is and my brother-in-law is so I hear about golf things every now and then. I knew there was a semi-mystical place in golf called Pebble Beach. I knew that golfers spoke of it in reverent tones. But honestly I had no idea that it was in Monterey. And as it turns out, the major gold tournament, called U.S. PGA Tour's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am had just wrapped up the day before I arrived. Several friends and colleagues had asked me if I was going to do any golfing while I was there, which I at first thought was kind of a dumb question because they all knew that I do not play golf. But eventually there were enough of these passing references that I got a clue that Monterey is a big place for golf courses including the Pebble Beach course. On the flight out there a little old lady that I sat next to told me all about the many golf courses in the area. I was a bit sad and embarrassed to then tell her that I don't play after she'd so enthusiastically told me about all the good courses in the area.
So I got to the conference hotel and spent my first day doing conferency things. And that night, instead of doing the semi-obligatory group dinner outing thing, I decided to strike out on my own. Not so much because I wanted to get away from my colleagues, because as a rule, it was a great crowd. But I just wanted to explore the place on my own. I did not want to be pinned down in a restaurant for the next few hours. So I began to wander around the Cannery Row area of Monterey. There were statues of Steinbeck and banners honoring him so that people would remember why Monterey is famous for that. But I have to say the whole Cannery Row vibe was touristified quite a bit. Lots of trendy little shops and restaurant with Cannery Row themed names. There were several big warehouse looking buildings that looked like they might have been remnants of the old fish processing plants. But I don't think they were. I think they were constructed to sort of look like them. And honestly, think about it. Would anyone want to build a tourist attraction in a run down fish processing plant. What could you do with that? Possibly you could turn the old warehouse into a performance space. Or subdivide it into a mini-mall. But there's just not that much history in a fish processing plant that you'd want to preserve. Turn it into a museum? A tribute to an industry that went obsolete? It's a difficult problem for the local tourist board I'm sure. But they'd done the best they could. And despite my ragging on it for being touristified. it was a pleasant place to walk around and browse. They had several vantage points where you could look out over the bay.
It turns out that one of the most notable things about Monterey, after the Steinbeck association and the golf stuff I suppose, is the marine life. And in particular, the sea otters that live in the bay. One of the big attractions in the Cannery Row area is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Various friends had told me that it was well worth the steep price to go to. So on my last day of being at the conference, I played hooky for a few hours to watch the marine life in the bay and go see the aquarium.
There aren't any beaches to speak of in Monterey Bay. It's mostly rocky at the water's edge. Plus it was in February, so it was more than a bit chilly. But as I said, the Cannery Row area and the hotels along that stretch had walkways overlooking the bay which made for easy bay watching.
So what was there to see. Well the first thing you noticed was the rocky shore line covered with various barnacles and and sea plants. The looked old and slimy messy. They looked like plants that were hanging on for dear live trying to get enough sun and nutrients to stay alive. And it made the whole shoreline look ancient and alien. The next thing you noticed are the birds. Uh, I could not begin to tell you what kind they were. Hey, you want to get educated, go check out a book from the library. The best I can say is that they looked like various types of gulls but with some distinct pigeon heritage in them because they ran around squabbling with each other and scouring the buildings and sidewalks for food just like pigeons. But mostly they congregated on rock outcroppings and squinted their eyes into the breeze and looked like they were cold. Not that any of them complained directly but I think their coldness contributed to general crankiness because they were constantly fussing and squawking at each other. You could also see various birds floating in the water out in the bay. Not sure if they were the same birds I saw on the rocks. I don't think they were. But they were far enough out that I could not get a good look at them. Anyway, they would sit in the water, very still, bobbing along with the waves like a dark grey rubber ducky and then out of the blue, for no apparent reason, one would dive down into the water. Looking for something to eat I suppose. When they came back up the remained just as still as they had been before. I have no idea if their dive had been successful or not. No visible eating was going on. So it had this effect of those duck games you see at the carnival where they float along and then sink under the water for a bit when you shoot them.
The real attraction in Monterey Bay though is the sea otters. Cute and fuzzy. They are on all the tourist brochures. A species pressed into service for PR purposes. Well, it's better than dead sardines, right. Now when I was a kid, back in 3rd grade or so. I was fascinated by otters, both the fresh water kind and the sea water kind. I remember reading as many books as I could about otters and there were several young kid fiction books about them in our school library, which I'd read over and over. I think part of my fascination with was due to the fact that they were sleek, and sly, and clever, and quick. All of the things I wasn't. I was pudgy, had bad coordination, and slow. Of course I didn't think of it in those sorts of terms back then. In third grade you aren't so self- analytical. But all I knew was that I thought they were cool. Well, a few decades on, I'm still somewhat pudgy and not very good at the whole hand-eye coordination thing and I lumber around just as slowly as ever. So the fascination with otters is still there and I was really looking forward to seeing the otters in Monterey Bay.
It took a while The hotel staff assured me they were out there and that you could see them without binoculars on a daily basis. So the morning I played hooky from the conference I spent the better part of the morning looking out over the water hoping to see sea otters. There was lots of stuff out there. The aforementioned birds, the occasional fishing boat passing by, bits of rock outcroppings sticking up out of the water. All very nice and I took lots of pictures of them. But for the longest time the only other thing I saw out there in the bay were bits and pieces of logs, some sort of driftwood or debris floating around out there. After about an hour of this, I was starting to get bored and disappointed. And then as I was watching a particular log drift by on the current, it suddenly sprang to life, doubled over and dove under water. huh? That was no log, that had been an otter all along, I just never realized it. It was far enough out in the water that I could not see any details at all. Just a black lump of something floating in the water. But once I realized what I was looking for, I could see quite a few of them out there. I asked some of the folks nearby if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing and a kid told me that they float on their backs in the water while the break open muscles and eat them. That triggered a whole flood of third grade otter stories. I knew that. I used to know that anyway, back in the day. So I was pretty excited that I was actually seeing live otters even though they were way out in the bay and they looked like nothing more than floating logs.
Next stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A fantastic facility and my friends recommendations were spot on. The jellyfish exhibit alone was worth the price of admission. I got some great pictures of the various jelly fish in the tanks. Truly bizarre alien life forms if there were ever any. They also had huge gazillion gallon tanks full of fish that normally live out in the deep waters, filled with plenty of sharks and tuna and sunfish and all kinds of fish. One think I learned about the deep water fish is that their size is actually a defense mechanism. The have to grow as big as possible as fast as possible to avoid being eaten by their predators.
Another of the aquarium highlights was the octopus. I'd seen an octopus once before, in a marine museum in Australia. And my experience with the octopus in the Monterey Bay Aquarium was the same as my previous experience. An octopus is just about the scariest animal you will ever have cause to encounter. You can just look at them and tell that a) they are very intelligent and b) they are sizing you up. Yes, it may be in a tank behind glass, but when you make eye contact with the thing, you can tell it's trying to figure out if it could take you down in a fight.
So the octopus is not the kind of creature you want on the front of the the tourist brochures. You want otters. Those warm blooded mammals that play around in the water and have those endearing whiskers. Well the Monterey Bay Aquarium folks aren't stupid. They know what people want to see. So they have a big sea otter exhibit with two otters there to entertain the crowds. And they didn't fail to please. Unlike so many animal exhibits where the animals basically sleep the whole time between feedings, the otters at the aquarium exhibit were reasonably lively. They were always doing something. Always investigating something. And there was a sign at the exhibit that said that the otters undergoing "training" sessions at least once a day with staff there at the aquarium. Not so much because they need to be trained to do anything, but just because it keeps them from being bored and lethargic. I can relate to that. I was able to get several pictures of the otters there at the aquarium. But somehow it didn't quite satisfy me. It didn't quite satisfy the urge to commune with otters the way I'd dream t in the third grade. Having them in a cage at the aquarium was nice but they weren't in the wild.
So earlier in the day they were too far away, at the aquarium they were too close and too caged in, despite the fact that they seemed good natured. After I left the aquarium I went back outside to the overlook area behind the aquarium and stood around with a bunch of school kids half heartedly looking out over the bay for more otters. Like before I was able to see the ones very far away. But I didn't even try to take pictures of them. In fact I didn't even turn the camera on because I'd taken way to many bump in the water pictures earlier in the day.
Well, you can see where this story is heading. Yep. I did in fact see another otter that morning. Probably less than 50 feet away in the bay. Swimming around a rock outcropping. He stuck his head and neck up out of the water just like they do on the front of all the tourist brochure and scanned those of us in the crowd at the lookout point. Apparently it judged that there was no food forthcoming from the crowd and it dove. I tried to watch for where it was going to come back up. I frantically turned on the camera to try to take a picture of it. But no such luck. None of us saw it again. But that quick glimpse, even without the picture satisfied that third grader itch inside me to see the otters I'd dream t about and forgotten about for so many decades. And I couldn't care less that I didn't get a picture out of it.
