Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the
Great Tide Pool
outside the aquarium, where they are readied for reintroduction to the
wild.
Even new-agey music and the occasional infinity-mirror illusion don't detract from the
astounding beauty of jellyfish in the
Jellies Gallery
. To see marine creatures - including
hammerhead sharks, ocean sunfish and green sea turtles - that outweigh kids many times
over, ponder the awesome
Open Sea
tank. Upstairs and downstairs you'll find
touch
pools
, where you can get close to sea cucumbers, bat rays and tidepool creatures. Younger
kids love the interactive
Splash Zone
, with interactive bilingual exhibits and penguin
feedings at 10:30am and 3pm.
To avoid long lines in summer and on weekends and holidays, buy tickets in advance. A
visit can easily become a full-day affair, so get your hand stamped and break for lunch.
Metered on-street parking is limited. Parking lots offering daily rates are plentiful just up-
hill from Cannery Row.
Cannery Row
HISTORIC SITE
John Steinbeck's novel
Cannery Row
immortalized the sardine-canning business that was
Monterey's lifeblood for the first half of the 20th century. A bronze
bust
of the Pulitzer Pr-
ize-winning writer sits at the bottom of Prescott Ave, just steps from the unabashedly
touristy experience that the famous row has devolved into. The historical
Cannery Work-
sobering reminder of the hard lives led by Filipino, Japanese, Spanish and other immigrant
laborers.
Back in Steinbeck's day, Cannery Row was a stinky, hardscrabble, working-class melt-
ing pot, which the novelist described as 'a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light,
a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.' Sadly, there's precious little evidence of that era now,
as overfishing and climatic changes caused the sardine industry's collapse in the 1950s.
Monterey State Historic Park
HISTORIC SITE
Old Monterey is home to an extraordinary assemblage of 19th-century brick and adobe
buildings, administered as Monterey State Historic Park, all found along a 2-mile self-
