Central Marina, Marina, CA

Central Marina wraps around Downtown Marina and runs west to the dunes, which makes it the widest part of the city of Marina. Reservation Road is the thread through it, linking the library, the Sunday market and the state beach on one line. Fort Ord, the Army base next door until 1994, left the town a practical, no-frills layout. Homes in Central Marina are mostly detached single-story houses on regular blocks, with duplexes, apartment complexes and a few mobile home parks mixed in. Cypress Cove II, a subdivision of detached houses beside the Highway 1 interchange, is one of the easier pockets to point to. Locke-Paddon Park is the green anchor, a 17-acre wetland of freshwater vernal ponds next to the Marina Branch Library. A floating boardwalk and signed paths wind through it, picnic tables sit under the trees, and birders have logged well over a hundred species. The park also is the northern trailhead for the coastal path. Marina State Beach lies where Reservation Road ends, a wide and windy stretch of sand where hang gliders and kite flyers work the dunes, and the coast carries on south into the old Fort Ord shoreline, now a state park. For dinner, Salt Wood Kitchen and Oysterette on Dunes Drive does oysters and smoked chicken, with a big bar and a patio. Wild Thyme Deli and Baker's Bacon share the 445 Reservation Road address. The deli does sandwiches and prepared dinners, and the bacon shop sells slab bacon that is smoked twice and cured dry, along with other cured meats. Coffee Mia Brew Bar, just across the line in Downtown Marina, is the coffee stop, known for egg volcanos and crisp paninis. Marina's Certified Farmers' Market runs Sundays from 10 to 2 at Marina Village Shopping Center. Errands mean driving. Lucky Supermarkets in Downtown Marina covers most groceries, and MST buses on routes 18 and 20 use the Marina Transit Exchange. Highway 1, reached off Reservation Road, is the way to Monterey and Salinas, and it is the only real commute route, so a slow day on it becomes everyone's problem. Follow Reservation Road west far enough in Central Marina and the shopping center parking lots give way to sand and the bay, a change most people here make on an ordinary afternoon.