As a child growing up in Carmel, one of my favorite past times was my family’s  tradition of taking long walks in the Carmel area, the Golden Rectangle, the beaches, or the walking paths. With four children all within five years of each other, my parents realized the value of tiring out us kids out with long walks. We would always stop at one of the many benches found on the Peninsula and rest for a moment or two. We kids enjoyed numbering the benches and called them “Rest Stop number 5” or “Rest Stop number 8”, or whatever number they added up to that day.

There are the basic bus stop benches, and we appreciated them too but there are some benches on the Monterey Peninsula that are true treasures, amazing gifts that are situated in some of the most stunning and incredibly scenic locations. Some of the bench locations are super easy to get to, as easy as stepping out of the car, and some have to be earned, seemingly as rewards, for trekking out along any of the myriad of walking or hiking paths that the Peninsula has to offer.

I have always wanted to share these discoveries with others which is what I will do in this and future blogs.

The featured Bench of this Month is the Carmel River Beach bench, known as the McGinnis Bench. This bench has a dedicated stair case that leads nowhere else but the bench. It is located on the North side of Carmel River beach and just to the East of the stair case that leads down to the beach. Access to this bench is from Scenic Road around Carmel Point and it is best to park along Ocean View Ave or Isabella Ave by any residence and stroll across Scenic to the staircase. Bolted under the bench is a mail box. Inside the mail box are a bunch of journals and pens. Should someone else be sitting on the bench, it is always ok to ask if you may grab a journal from the mailbox and sit on the stairs until the bench is vacated.

Some of the journals are fairly weathered and damp and some fairly new. It is a treat to stop the clock and sit on this bench, open any of the journals and read a snippet or two. The prevailing theme seems to be gratitude, and in the stories one will find all kinds of emotions like grief or heartbreak and love or romance to name a few. I always write a little something and feel pure calm and gratitude for the effort.

One thing consistently rings true with the benches on the Monterey Peninsula, the Theory of Relativity is real. Time slows down when one is sitting on a bench.