Today we poked our heads out of the bed around 7 am. The jet lag had more or less rubbed off. It didn’t take too long to breakfast, pack and for Maggi to fetch the bill from the lobby. She returned to the car complaining, quite rightly that the people behind the desk remain bluntly unhelpful to everyone.
The road out of Yosemite is very straight forward. A series of long downhill and the uphill stretches that last for several miles each and which you never find the like of in the UK lead you to the flat lands.
This area between the Sierra Nevada and the California Coastal Range, known as the San Joaquin Valley is dominated by agriculture. Vast fields without hedges or breaks have a crop or are bare, and this goes on for miles.
On this stretch of flatness we stopped for an early lunch break at Eddie’s famous cafe which received top marks in tripadvisor ratings in Los Banos. To our surprise Eddie’s actually served nice coffee and made us feel welcome. The food was hearty and simple much like a good greasy spoon in the UK.
Eddie’s made a change from the mass market outlets like Starbucks and MacDonalds. Individual service for regular customers who want a satisfying meal at a reasonable price.
We spoke to Adam when we left and he reminded us that John Steinbeck was born in Salinas just off our route and that his house is open to the public. We decided to make the slight detour and found the place closed on a Sunday. A quite large property which has now become a restaurant with rooms. A quick photo and then off.
We needed some groceries for our stay in Seaside, a suburb of Monterey, so we stopped off at Safeway’s for the necessary fare.
We found our home for the next 4 nights, a small bungalow on Hilby St. We have off street parking on this poorish but respectable road. The ocean is ½ mile away as the crow flies, but it took us about 40 minutes to walk there. The route took us through a park with a large lake but afterwards we had to walk beside a busy dual carriageway and under a freeway.
After a climb up a steep hill we looked down on the coast, where people were swimming and a surfing and sunbathing. In fact we saw a typical warm Sunday on a sandy beach.
In the evening we ate at home and watched a Paul Simon concert he performed earlier in 2026 at the age of 84. He titled the tour The Quiet Celebration perhaps because he lost his hearing in one ear during Covid and he’s only just learnt how to overcome this and play for an audience.
Both Maggi and I really enjoyed the show. We skipped the first 30 minutes and listened to his older material including some hits as well as really good album tracks.