Bay Tripper

I am seriously running out of ways to title Monterey posts.

We went to Monterey for a few days. It was our first visit since March. The intervals between visits have been much longer the last few years due to real estate activities. We have completed a number of renovations, and these are time consuming tasks. Quite frankly we deserved more than a few days in Monterey, but it would have to do for now.

We rolled into town on Tuesday at around 3:30 p.m. After checking in and unpacking, we walked to Peter B's for dinner.

We had a nice meal and watched the Kings get dismantled by the Spurs.

The next morning we secured our coffee and walked along the water. I tried out the Leica LUX app I downloaded for my iPhone. It is supposed to mimic the look of various Leica lenses, both new and old. The app also gives you full manual control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc.

I chose a black and white film filter and started shooting.

I like the look and it was undoubtedly more fun to fiddle with settings like a real camera. And I definitely prefer it over the overprocessed and oversaturated, AI-driven "photos" the iPhone produces.

We rode the bay trail later in the morning. The detours are still in place due to the bus route project and the camp ground being built in Fort Ord Dunes State Park. Going into the dunes is the best part of that ride, so that was a bummer.

That evening we ate at the Alvarado Street Brewery. The food was great and my beer was fantastic.

The next morning we rode into Fort Ord. This is my favorite place to ride in Monterey, but the trail closures/detours do make it a little tougher to get there on safe roads.

Our last few trips into Fort Ord included the climb up to Laguna Seca. We enjoy this route, but the ride back down to Monterey via South Boundary Road does have some traffic and with that comes a little stress. Instead, I mapped out a loop within Fort Ord so we could return to Monterey on the bike trail.

It was a nice, peaceful 27-mile ride with a moderate 1600 feet of climbing.

It was at this point my Leica app stopped working. Apparently you are limited to a handful of pictures as a free preview before the monthly fee of $6.99 kicks in. I enjoyed the experience enough that I may consider a subscription in the future, but for now we return to our regularly scheduled programming in fake iPhone color.

Yuck.

You may have heard about the high sea levels along the coast of California. There are a number of reasons for this, which you can read about elsewhere, but we definitely noticed it in Monterey. The surf was always much closer to us.

Typically we see a whole lot of beach in front of Monterey Beach Station, a popular wedding spot near Municipal Wharf 2. These two pictures from the web show the normal expanse of sand.

You can see the water way off in the distance in front of the building.

And here's what it looked like after our ride Thursday:

Not much room for a wedding. The sandbars on either side of the building are a recent addition to the normally flat beach.

After a shower and some lunch we took a long walk to Pacific Grove. Monterey was about as quiet as we've ever seen it. This is Cannery Row at 3 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon.

Part of it is the time of year, of course, but the economy is definitely playing a role. It's obvious some of the businesses are struggling. The wonderful French bakery we discovered a couple trips ago, the one I was eager to visit on our first morning, closed permanently sometime between visits. Although we had only recently found it, the Paris Bakery had been a local fixture for over 40 years.

In addition to the lack of people, there was also a lack of wildlife, which contributed to the weird vibe. There were no sea lions to be found and very few sea birds. The silence was eerie.

We made out way out to Pacific Grove through town, browsed in a few shops, then walked back to Monterey along the water.

Another thing we noticed was the clarity of the water. It was unbelievably clear.

This is another phenomenon being reported up and down the state. I looked it up and unfortunately, it isn't a good thing.

El Niño is causing Kelvin waves, which are massive, slow-moving underwater pulses of warm water that travel along the equator from west to east. In addition to contributing to the high sea level, these waves also push cold water deeper and raise temperatures near the surface. Without the normal upwelling of deeper cold water, the nutrients don't come to the surface. This is the food plankton depend on. And without plankton, the water is clearer and the food chain is broken: No bait fish, and no birds or marine mammals that depend on those fish.

Luckily, this is a somewhat normal outcome for El Niño years, and the environment recovers in subsequent years. However, this El Niño is unprecedented. Time will tell.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was a shorter trip that we are used to, but it was still good to get away.

Later.