Salinas/Watsonville, CA

[stepper77]

Watsonville, CA (pop 51,199)

Located in the south western part of Santa Cruz County, bordering Monterey, Watsonville is primarily an agricultural community establish in 1868. Demographically, downtown appeared predominately hispanic/latino and, according to wikipedia, that group makes up about 75% of the city's population. In my travels around Northern California, I've often thought many of these older agricultural towns might be abandoned otherwise without immigrant populations, which would be a shame. Downtown Watsonville looks well preserved, though a little quiet.





























































Sometimes all you have to do is look up and you'll see something unexpectedly beautiful. My friend traveling with me said she'd never have noticed these if I hadn't pointed up my camera.





















Watsonville Civic Center





Salinas, CA (pop 148,850)

Located 20 miles South of Watsonville, Salinas is the largest city and the seat of Monterey County. The city is also an agricultural center. I found downtown to be a delight. While many of the store fronts remained empty particularly towards the southern part of Main Street, the majority of the buildings looked recently repainted and renovated. And while most of the stores were closed on Sunday, the day we were walking around, there was still a notable amount of people, of all sorts, walking around, perhaps because of the new movie theatre at the northern end and the John Steinbeck Museum.



To start, we came across this beautiful building which, despite its look, is not one of California's famous missions.













Salinas Amtrak Station



Steinbeck House





Old Monterey County Courthouse Buildings





Part of the new building, but, I didn't get out of my car here to see more of it.



Heading to downtown





Abandoned in favor of a new one at the other end of Main Street?

















Beautiful Art Deco building





Another look...















No, this isn't a flashback





While not super busy, since most of the stores are closed on Sunday, there were more people milling about than this would indicate.





















National Steinbeck Center. John Steinbeck, author of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, among others, was born in Salinas.







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My little boy peeping his head in the lower right corner of the photo.







My favorite building.





















Friends and dogs can be so patient







It was no longer open







________________________________________________________________ Tour of California 1: Los Angeles, 2: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, 3: Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach, 4: San Jose, 5: San Diego, 6: Fresno, 7: Stockton, Modesto, 8: Gold Country, 9: Eureka, Arcata, 10: Monterey, Carmel, 11: Santa Cruz, 12: Sacramento Pt One, 13: Sacramento Pt Two, 14: Roseville & Folsom, 15: Concord & Walnut Creek, 16: Tri-Valley, 17: Berkeley, Emeryville, 18: Fremont, 19: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, 20: Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo, 21: Oakland, 22: Benicia, Vallejo, 23: Napa, St. Helena, 24: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, 25: San Rafael, 26: Larkspur, Mill Valley, 27: Sausalito, Tiburon, 28: Hollister, San Juan Bautista, 29: Long Beach 2008, 30: Venice, 31: Santa Monica, 32: Sacramento Pt 3, 33: Solvang, 34: Alameda, 35: Knights Ferry, 36: California Zephyr, 37: Colfax, 38: Davis, 39: Oakdale, 40: San Francisco Pt 1, San Francisco Pt 2, 41: Chico, Redding, 42: Kings Beach, 43: Merced, 44: Gold Country pt 2, 45: Gold Country pt 3, 46: Sonora, 47: Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, 48: Orange, Fullerton, 49: Anaheim, Irvine, 50: Newport Beach, Laguna Beach,51: San Francisco, Pt 3, 52: Lodi, 53: Martinez, 54: Ft Bragg, Mendocino, 55: San Luis Obispo, 56: Sacramento River Pt 1, 57: Sacramento River Pt 2, 58: Lake Merritt/Oakland, 59: Marysville/Yuba City, 60: Woodland, 61: Beverly Hills"62: Los Angeles, 63: Sacramento, 64: Lakeport, 65: South Lake Tahoe

[glowrock]

Gorgeous photos! I'm sad to say that I've never actually been through Downtown Salinas as many times as I've traveled from L.A. to Monterey! Shame on Glowrock, shame on Glowrock!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Nineties Flava]

Wow that was a lot nicer than I expected either Watsonville or Salinas to be. Those are some very well-preserved downtowns. If you ever go back I'd be interested to see what the neighborhoods look like. This might be the first thread of either of these two cities on this site. Great photos

[jg6544]

Beautiful parts of California and practically every kind of fruit or vegetable we eat grows locally.

[patriotizzy]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Wow that was a lot nicer than I expected either Watsonville or Salinas to be. Those are some very well-preserved downtowns. If you ever go back I'd be interested to see what the neighborhoods look like. This might be the first thread of either of these two cities on this site. Great photos

+1000. I was impressed at the beauty and preservation in So. Cal. Thanks for the pictures!

[sopas ej]

Great photos, stepper77! I drove through downtown Watsonville myself, some years ago, but I never stopped and took pictures.

Around the same time, I also went into Salinas and actually stopped there for the very first time (Salinas was always a place that I would drive THROUGH without stopping). I went specifically to go to the Steinbeck Center, which is a very interesting place, totally worth the visit. It made me appreciate John Steinbeck more. I went to the Steinbeck house but it was closed. As I recall, it's now a restaurant, or at least contains a restaurant, correct? I also went on a Sunday, and downtown Salinas looked just like that, with very few people walking around, it seemed.

Again, great photos.

[Expat]

Stepper, these are great pictures. I am pleased to get a peek at both of these towns and pleasantly suprised at the well preserved & charming buildings.

Also glad to get a peek of your dog. I am a dog lover and have two myself.

[northbay]

ate breakfast at first awakenings probably more than 5 years ago. already downtown salinas is looking better. the steinbeck museum is nice too.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. Both places look alright. For some reason I thought that Salinas was a resort town and I was expecting it to be lusher. I guess I just don't know much about the West. I've never heard of Watsonville but being in Delaware I'm not going to know about every place.

[sopas ej]

Salinas was always an agricultural town; as mentioned before, John Steinbeck was born and raised there, and some of his novels are set in Salinas, or at least the Salinas Valley, most notably the Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

[ColDayMan]

Thanks for the tour!

[ChrisLA]

Nice photos, I've been to Salinas before and like visiting. Never been to Watsonville and quite surprised since my only knowledge was 2nd hand from a colleague who said it was full of potheads.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Enjoyable tours of a couple of cities I don't remember seeing before. Some wonderful buildings there, and great landscaping too. Thanks for the pics stepper.

[arbeiter]

very nice, if not a bit placid. I will have so much to explore when I arrive in California next week.

[OhioGuy]

I have two really good friends that live in Salinas. They're desperate to move to NYC, but can't do so because their home is valued well below what they paid for it. They'd be stuck taking an immense loss, so they have to stay put until losses are at least somewhat lessened. I've never actually made it out to Salinas for a visit, but it looks reasonably nice. Certainly not the cosmopolitan city I would want, but it still looks decent. Thanks for the photos!

[stepper77]

Thanks, as always, for all the comments!

Originally Posted by glowrock

Gorgeous photos! I'm sad to say that I've never actually been through Downtown Salinas as many times as I've traveled from L.A. to Monterey! Shame on Glowrock, shame on Glowrock!

Aaron (Glowrock)

I don't know how many times I've been to Monterey and never even considered stopping in Salinas other than for a bathroom break, so, I definitely think it is a common sentiment.

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Wow that was a lot nicer than I expected either Watsonville or Salinas to be. Those are some very well-preserved downtowns. If you ever go back I'd be interested to see what the neighborhoods look like. This might be the first thread of either of these two cities on this site. Great photos

I would have like to have explored some of the neighborhoods myself, especially Salinas. It changes quickly to a less polished city once you leave downtown, particularly towards the Amtrak station, not that it is a bad thing per se. Unfortunately, though, I was limited on time.

Originally Posted by jg6544

Beautiful parts of California and practically every kind of fruit or vegetable we eat grows locally.

This is true and I rarely stop to think how prolific the agriculture is in California. We stopped in a nearby town, Castroville, for some fried artichokes which is the self proclaimed world capital of that vegetable.

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Great photos, stepper77! I drove through downtown Watsonville myself, some years ago, but I never stopped and took pictures.

Around the same time, I also went into Salinas and actually stopped there for the very first time (Salinas was always a place that I would drive THROUGH without stopping). I went specifically to go to the Steinbeck Center, which is a very interesting place, totally worth the visit. It made me appreciate John Steinbeck more. I went to the Steinbeck house but it was closed. As I recall, it's now a restaurant, or at least contains a restaurant, correct? I also went on a Sunday, and downtown Salinas looked just like that, with very few people walking around, it seemed.

Again, great photos.

The fact most stores were closed on Sunday made little sense to me as there were a decent number of people around, frequenting the open restaurants and theatre. I wish I had time to go to the museum. But, I'm sure I'll be back.

Originally Posted by Expat

Stepper, these are great pictures. I am pleased to get a peek at both of these towns and pleasantly suprised at the well preserved & charming buildings.

Also glad to get a peek of your dog. I am a dog lover and have two myself.

Thanks, I have two dogs myself, but, my other dog is much more hyper and hard to manage walking on city streets, so, he stayed at home with my roommate.

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures. Both places look alright. For some reason I thought that Salinas was a resort town and I was expecting it to be lusher. I guess I just don't know much about the West. I've never heard of Watsonville but being in Delaware I'm not going to know about every place.

As sopas ej mentioned, Salinas is definitely not a resort town. The city itself is completely surrounded by agriculture fields, though it is about 15 minutes from the ocean and 30 minutes from downtown Monterey.

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

Nice photos, I've been to Salinas before and like visiting. Never been to Watsonville and quite surprised since my only knowledge was 2nd hand from a colleague who said it was full of potheads.

I think that is the stereotype of most of Santa Cruz County. I had never really been myself, but, decided to take a different route into Monterey which tooks us through Watsonville and I decided why not take a look.

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

I have two really good friends that live in Salinas. They're desperate to move to NYC, but can't do so because their home is valued well below what they paid for it. They'd be stuck taking an immense loss, so they have to stay put until losses are at least somewhat lessened. I've never actually made it out to Salinas for a visit, but it looks reasonably nice. Certainly not the cosmopolitan city I would want, but it still looks decent. Thanks for the photos!

Unfortunately, that is such a common thing in California (as, of course, other areas too). I was lucky to get out of my townhouse with not too big of a loss. But, I won't be buying again anytime soon. As to Salinas, definitely not "cosmopolitan" and probably not a place I'd settle either. If I were to move to Monterey, I'd probably try to find something more in Pacific Grove which I'll be doing a thread on soon.

[Thundertubs]

Cool! Both downtowns are better than I was expecting. I'd been curious about Salinas, and didn't have much of an impression of Watsonville, so it was neat to see both.

[peanut gallery]

Salinas, I was expecting as I was in downtown a few years ago. It has an excellent core. I didn't realize Watsonville's is also in such good shape. Not that I thought it was poor; never really gave it a thought, to be honest.

Originally Posted by stepper77

Pacific Grove which I'll be doing a thread on soon.

Awesome! When I opened this, I was thinking I'd like to see a thread on PG and then thought, you know stepper probably did one at some point. Must be prescient. Can't wait for your next excellent thread!

[acatalanb]

Just love these northern california towns. So picturesque! Next time I go up there, I'll stop by Salinas and Watsonville.