Pacific Park, Salinas, CA

Pacific Park sits just west of downtown Salinas along Central Avenue, and it keeps some of the older houses in the city. The Steinbeck House at 132 Central Avenue, the Queen Anne Victorian where the author grew up, is the best known of them. A group of local cooks, the Valley Guild, bought the house in 1973 and opened it as a restaurant the next year, with the family story told alongside the menu. Pacific Park homes skew old, with Victorian-era houses standing among later buildings. The National Steinbeck Center and the storefronts of Oldtown are two blocks east, and Hartnell College's main campus carries on along the avenue to the west, and with roots going back to 1920 the college is as much a part of the street as the old houses. Central Park, at 420 Central Avenue, works as the neighborhood's front yard. Beyond the lawns there is a tree trail, a rose garden, courts for tennis and basketball and a horseshoe pit, and dog walkers and strollers share the paths. The Steinbeck House is a lunch place only, open Tuesday through Saturday. For breakfast, Taqueria 3 Hermanos at 154 West Market Street opens at 7 and turns out burritos, huaraches and fresh tortillas, and Villa Rivera Café on West Alisal Street pours the coffee, a locally owned shop run by sisters. Walking links the neighborhood to Oldtown's restaurants, the Saturday market and the Amtrak station, and city buses serve downtown. The cost of that position is groceries, since the nearest full supermarkets are Grocery Outlet up North Main and Nob Hill Foods down South Main, and most people drive to them. Mornings here start with the college crowd and a line at the Steinbeck House door. The street reads as a small piece of old Salinas that happens to sit beside the busy center.