My daughter went to California State University Monterey Bay for a year and lived on the third floor of a dorm that faced Monterey Bay. But due to the marine layer, she could never see the bay a mile away......until the day we moved her out of the dorm!
She loved the weather, and having the beach a one mile bike ride away. The University is on the old Fort Ord Army base, and her dorm was the old officers quarters. The bike ride to the beach took you past blocks and blocks of abandoned army buildings. And the BEAUTIFUL beach, was Ford Ord's artillery range. A Superfund site that cost $100 million to clean up.