Locals

When I was in high school, my father lived in Monterey. I have not really spent much time in Monterey since he moved to Sacramento my freshman year of college. My memory is a strange creature. Even though I may not have spent time in an area in years, upon arrival, a map unfolds in my mind and I remember favorite places of the past.

Ocean Avenue is the street that takes you through downtown Carmel-By-the-Sea. At the end of Ocean Avenue is the beach. As a teenager, I wanted to go to the beach and thought, "Well, I'll just go to Ocean Avenue." My father told me that on a nice day, this particular beach gets really crowded. He then showed me another beach -- Carmel River State Beach. It is near the Mission and to reach it, you drive for quite some time through a residential neighborhood. It is one of those kinds of places that you have to know is there as you would never find it otherwise.

And so on Saturday, I revisited the beach of my memory.