Thursday, September 13, 2012

"Cannery Row...is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."

Playing: Love Will Tear Us Apart-Joy Division
Reading:"La Dernière Classe" by Alphonse Daudet
One of my favorite books is John Steinbeck's Cannery Row because it chronicles the lives of this eclectic community and shows how everyone is intertwined. Even though everyone in the book has their flaw, they're deep down good people and that's what makes everyone so lovable. After hearing about Sophie going there, I asked my parents if we could go on one of our days up in Berkeley and they agreed. First of all, the drive down is gorgeous beyond belief and I wish I had time to stop off and hike everywhere. Second of all, I will save that for a day when I am older and have adventurous friends. Anyways, we got to Cannery Row around 11:00AM and it was really foggy outside, but nice to look at. A lot of the old fish canneries were still there too.
The whole area is cute to walk around, but it's super touristy with tacky restaurants everywhere, trying to lure you in. If I had more time that day, I would've loved to have gone kayaking amongst the sea otters. See the little dots in the photo? Those are sea otters! Not only am I really good at kayaking, but I heard the otters were very friendly and would paw at your kayak. I'll definitely have to try that one day.
If you read Cannery Row, you'll probably like the rest of the photos. Here is Pacific Biological Laboratories, which is the basis for Doc's Western Biological in the book. Doc was actually based off of one of Steinbeck's good friends, Edward F. Ricketts. Ricketts owned Pacific Biological Laboratories and was a biologist that wrote on everything from Buddhism to Bach.
Wing Chong's was the inspiration for Lee Chong's in the book, which is kind of obvious due to the fact that the names are so similar. Wing Chong's was a real store, even though it went out of business awhile ago, but it's still there and other shops have filled it. I can't remember which stores, but I think mostly touristy shops with t-shirts and such.
Although it's no longer a whorehouse, since Cannery Row is a family friendly area, the Bear Flag Restaurant is still there. In the book, Bear Flag Restaurant is owned by a lady named Dora, but in real life, it's owned by a woman named Flora. See? Not much of a name change here either. Personally, after visiting, I think Cannery Row is a dedication to the people of Cannery Row, even the bums, because Steinbeck loved them all so much. That's why all the characters are good people because Steinbeck saw them that way and he didn't see all the bad parts. At least, that's what I think.
Have you read Cannery Row?

9 comments:

  1. I have never heard of Cannery Row, so that was interesting to read about!

    -Lisa
    The Lovely Memoir

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  2. Pretty pics! How awesome it would be to kayak so close to the sea otters?!

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  3. Nope I haven't read
    Cannery Row yet!

    The place indeed
    sounds very nice even
    it was foggy that day!

    Haha, I'm not so good
    with kayak... but I
    definitely want to see
    sea otters from close
    by!

    xx

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  4. omg, it's like a little town. it's so cute. i bet it's really peaceful down there.

    Win a $50 gift card to Cutieshey Clothing! Enter here. :)

    :)
    Carrie
    http://readmylifeascarrie.blogspot.com/

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  5. i hate it when places are super touristy :p

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  6. Lisa-You must read the book! It's one of my favorite books ever!

    trishie-The only sea life I've kayaked near are sea turtles, fish, and a small shark. The turtle just popped up next to me and I was afraid I would accidentally hit it with my paddle. D:

    Ice Pandora-You should definitely read it and I'll help you out, if we ever go kayaking together. :D

    Carrie-It would be more peaceful, if it were less cheesy, I think.

    Hello Naka-I think touristy places are fine as long as you don't have to live there.

    PaliStory-Thank you!

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  7. wow never knew there was a book about cannary row! we use to go to cannary row a lot when we lived in the bay as a weekend getaway.. it is really touristy.. but i'm a total marketing victim.. so i loved it hahahaha. i really heart their aquarium.

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  8. Lisa-I wanted to visit the aquarium, but it was so expensive! D: I'll have to check it out next time.

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