Proud To Cross the Street

The city of Monterey recently installed this rainbow crosswalk downtown. The host we talked to said it was because Santa Cruz had one and they wanted to keep up. The joke is that, as far as we know, there is no rainbow crossing in our town. So I took a picture of it to show our officials what the place south of us has done. Maybe we can catch up… Whatever the story is, the bright colors mark the entrance to a tourist street that seems well traveled. This afternoon traffic was rerouted so the weekly Farmers Market could set up booths over a three block area. If we’re going to compete, the Monterey Market is bigger and has a wider variety of non-agricultural products (crafts, beverages, prepared food). At times it felt like any street fair where the vendors aren’t really connected to the community. I prefer our focus which seems more local and more food oriented.

We were there on a whim, to try a new Vietnamese restaurant. It was excellent and reasonably priced and worth driving an hour to get there. Especially since we found a charming bookstore, boba tea, and the Tuesday Market as we strolled around after lunch.