"The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay."

- from East of Eden

John Steinbeck claimed not to have much love for the places he wrote about. Yet in books like East of Eden, In Dubious Battle, Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck wrote sympathetically and movingly about the people of Monterey County who struggled to survive and find meaning in their own lives. In a photographic homage to Steinbeck, I traveled for a few days with a small group of friends, old and new, to make our visual impressions of Steinbeck Country, beginning our journey at the wonderful National Steinbeck Center, in the town of Salinas, and ending it at the impressive Monterey Aquarium.