Kicking the Bucket List

Ed: A local resident kindly sent in this story of an ambition achieved as he went through the West Coast of America.

Kicking the Bucket List

I had always imagined that "a bucket list" was an American phrase relating to things left to do before "kicking the bucket".

Last week I achieved a lifelong ambition which I suppose was on my personal "bucket list".

The Pacific Coast Highway is an iconic Road running the length of the Californian Coast and last week I travelled the Los Angeles to San Fransisco section (about 450 miles) via Santa Monica, Malibu, the Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey. In places, the road clings precariously to the coast and offers exciting views of surf (and surfers), elephant seals, mountains and hairpin bends ( not for nervous drivers!)

Monterey, about 2 hours south of San Fransisco, is home to Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck in his book written in 1945 about a group of characters working at a local sardine canning factory. The opening sentence describes the Street as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." Today, Cannery Row has been transformed into an up-market tourist attraction of hotels, bars and restaurants and sells everything except copies of the book which made it famous, or at least as far as I could see.

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