Destination East of Eden

She made it to the railway station...

had a ticket for her destination...  

( shades of  Simon and Garfunkel )

This picture is actually on the other end of the railroad line where we were awaiting her arrival.  She boarded a train early in the morning in San Diego which took her to Santa Barbara where the northbound passengers were transferred to a bus for the rest of the ride; and the bus was late.  Now we were  sitting in the railway station until we started  poking around the old Southern Pacific yard .

If you have ever eaten salad in the USA from greens you didn't grow yourself,  chances are you have  eaten lettuce from Salinas, California reputed to grow about  80% of the lettuce in the United States.

Salinas, named for its many salty marshes, is  a valley famous not only for lettuce and other produce grown year round, but for one of it sons, author  John Steinbeck, who was born in Salinas in 1902.  Steinbeck wrote many novels, including the famous The Grapes of Wrath and my personal favorite of his,  a saga of the forces of good and evil, East of Eden,   set in the Salinas valley.  Steinbeck's  character, Adam Trask, is depicted as being one of the first  to ship lettuce wrapped in paper and iced, across the country.

Being at the railroad station made me think of scenes in that book.  It is definitely a book I've been willing to read more than once and maybe it is time to give it another spin...or maybe at least rent the James Dean movie again.  If you haven't read the book, read the book first...as good as the movie is the book is a whole other experience.

The sun was out, as you can see and I took a picture

                                                                      of this tree

                                          and of this tree too, the  California Pepper Tree that we had parked under.

                                        It was after five pm on Sunday afternoon and the place was pretty quiet but 

 apparently I too was being photographed as I wandered around snapping shots of 

historic luggage

and flowers in the garden of the two preserved historic houses neighboring the station,

                                                    and a "ride control."

and finally in my view finder...

there was who we were waiting for!     Way worth the wait and  just in time for Father's Day.