Grad school for physics is typically a PhD, and the good news is that they pay you. 
Standalone masters programs in physics are typically a year and do tend to be $$. A lot of the people you find doing the masters are building up their background to apply for a PhD program; a lot of the people that you find with masters in physics “mastered out” of a PhD program (ie, started out planning to get a PhD and for whatever reason decided to stop at that point).
This is exactly right: there are more places that you can than that you can’t. Especially in CA you are spoilt for choice.