Monterey, California is a place of contrasts, of reinvention. After the virtual collapse of the fishing industry that supported the town for so long, Monterey had to turn to other means of sustaining itself. There are as many stories to tell as there are people in this town, and that is what brought my social documentary class to California. Or it honestly could have just been the fact that it was California. In either case, I’m not complaining. IT’S CALIFORNIA.

How’s this for a welcome?

The group of us left Denver on the 19th of March, flying out to San Francisco to meet up and obtain rental cars for the jaunt down Highway 1 to Monterey. The flight was eventful in the sense that it was a miraculously clear day over much of the flight route. Being the photographer that I am, I gleefully exchanged the inside aisle seat I was assigned for a last-row window. As the 767 cruised on westward, the landscape of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California flew past below me. The sky was a startlingly clear shade of blue near the horizon, moving into an almost black hue as my gaze moved toward the edge of space.

Gettin’ high. No, seriously.

Somewhere over Nevada. Or Utah. Or something.

Finally, my plane got to where it was going. Kind of. We spent a half hour circling over Modesto, but that simply gave me more flight time for my money. Again, not complaining. Eventually, the huge traffic jam of planes trying to get into SFO broke up, and we darted in. Down at 1000 feet, the waters of San Francisco Bay looked like a wavy brown mirror, getting ominously closer and closer until *poof*! An airport! Off the plane, greeted by the likes of 747s from New Zealand, Australia, and China, I ventured to find the far-off rental car terminal that had been decreed to be the meetup point for our motley band of journalists. We found each other, procured cars, and navigated our way to Highway 1 and off to Monterey.

Stay tuned…