5 things to do with 24-hours in Monterey, California
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is home to over 35,000 animals and more than 550 species.
When you’re only spending 1 night in Monterey, California, you know darn well you can’t accomplish everything there is to do in the city. So, we didn’t even try!
Known for its diversity of marine life, including sea lions, sea otters, bat rays, kelp forests and dolphins, we decided the first place to visit was the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row. The aquarium is one of the largest in North America, and it has been over 25 years since Dathan, our California-born native, stepped foot inside.
The volume of the largest tank inside the aquarium is 1.2 million gallons, or 4.5 million liters.
Piece of advice: if you know the day you plan on visiting, buy your tickets in advance and bypass the line that can build up on David Avenue.
From the kelp forest at a whopping 28-foot tall exhibit to the awe-inspiring jellyfish, you can literally spend hours inside the aquarium checking out all it has to offer. We must have picked a bad day because it was hard to move around as families crisscrossed one another at every single move one made.
One of our favorite animals is the loving penguin, but the exhibit that day left us with lasting impressions that will live with us forever. The flightless birds had many people admiring their cuteness from one end of the exhibit to the next, and then we heard one kid cry … “They’re fighting!” Except they weren’t fighting; they were being amorous right there for all to see. The dad says …
“They’re not fighting. They’re just keeping each other warm.”
That’s a nice way of putting it.
Once we stepped outside of the aquarium, it was time to experience Cannery Row—or at least what we could do in a few hours. From fine dining to wine tastings, this strip, which lies right beside the Monterey Harbor, can leave you wishing you had more time here. On Cannery Row, you can find tasting rooms serving up local wine.
We selected A Taste of Monterey Wine Market & Bistro for a quick appetizer and to sample some local area wines. After a plate of Yucatán Chicken Nachos, we took part in an ocean-view wine tasting. The tasting was $20 each, and we both selected 6 wines from the extensive list of Monterey Bay winemakers.
Some of the wines we sampled were Marin’s Vineyard 2016 Viognier, 2014 red blend from De Tierra, 2013 Malbec from Heller Estate, and Petite Sirah from Stokes’ Ghost.
After our tour of Monterey wines, we decided to take in some local beer and went to Fieldwork Brewing Company. Based in Berkeley, the brewery has several other establishments across the state, including Napa, Sacramento, San Mateo, San Ramon and Monterey. We’re used to back home in North Carolina, a majority of flights consist of only four samples, but at Fieldwork, it was six samples of 4-ounces each. At least we were splitting this one!
Jen’s favorites were the Party Cove and Blackberry Parfait sour beers.
As you can see above, our flight consisted of the Zest to Kill (Grapefruit Gose), Party Cove (Tropical Sour Ale), Blackberry Parfait (Kettle Sour Ale), Haunting Mansions (IPA), Pulp (IPA), and Loser’s Club Vol. 1 (Double IPA).
We enjoyed the tiny beer garden by Fieldwork, where beer was poured from inside an intermodal container. It would be nice if more breweries did that here in N.C. We later visited Alvarado Street Brewery for a couple of beers and a few cans to bring home with us.
It wouldn’t be us if we didn’t bring up the good with the bad in our adventures. While at Alvarado Street Brewery, we happened to see a guy sporting a Wilmington Brewing Company shirt and handing out beer to some of the employees. Dathan went to say hello since it’s not often you see one of your state breweries handing out beer 2,800 miles away. Upon saying hey and that we’re from Raleigh, the Wilmington guy just turned his back to Dathan and ignored him. Way to go, Wilmington Brewing! It won’t be easy to forget that act of rudeness.
17 mile drive of beauty
We drove the picturesque 17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach during our stay in Monterey. Filled with coastal cliffs, pristine beaches and of course the iconic golf course, we paid our admission and began our trek in our car – and a few pit-stops to take in the beauty.
Be sure to use your map once you enter Pebble Beach to find all the points of interest. From the Restless Sea and China Rock to Seal Rock and the Cypress Point Lookout, everything along this stretch was breathtaking. Too bad we left our clubs at home—playing 18 holes at Pebble Beach would have only added to the visit.
A view from one of the holes at the famous Pebble Beach outside of Monterey, California.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Before returning to Dathan’s hometown of Atwater, we wanted to make one last stop – to see the memorial to the late Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (aka, John Denver). An avid pilot, Denver’s plane crashed into Monterey Bay on October 12, 1997. We drove over to Pacific Grove and found the memorial – which we thought would be much larger than it was. The marker was a small plaque engraved into a rock overlooking the Pacific Ocean. If you are using GPS, it will take you into the general area, but it isn’t marked – we accidentally stumbled upon it while walking around the general area. We just thought he’d get a little more than what was there … maybe a statue of him with his guitar looking out into the sea.
“Country roads, take me home, To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama, Take me home, country roads”
John Denver’s memorial in Pacific Grove is located outside of Monterey, California.