My buddy Pete from Boston was visiting San Francisco for two back-to-back trade shows. He had the weekend to himself in CA and was interested in doing some kind of road trip. I suggested Montrey & Big Sur as places we could go overnight, see some sights and see some nightlife, too.
My 'Lonely Planet' travel guide for California describes Monterey as having a cool downtown area and a 'Tourist Ghetto' of Cannery Row, made famous by Steinbeck.
The cannery Row area has an unfortunate touristy tackiness to it, complete with a 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company" restaurant. It felt like Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco. (Not a compliment)
However, since it was raining when we showed up, we had to find some sort of indoor activity, so we hit the much-talked about Aquarium. It was quite a sight. Lot of sharks plus bird habitats, a 40' high kelp forest, sea otter habitats, all focused on the local marine life.
That night we hit the town and met up with Suzanne, who was a travelling consultant. She hung out with us until about 1 AM, when we called it a night.
The next day we lucked out. It was pouring in the morning, but it cleared up by 11 AM, totally blue skies. Pete and I drove around '17 Mile Drive' towards Pebble Beach Golf Resort and onto Carmel. Yes, that place that Clint Eastwood was Mayor of in the 80's.
We stopped by the famous 'Lone Cypress' of Pebble Beach with multi-million-dollar mansions on 5 arce lots. We also saw the 1.2 million-dollar gold-plated cottages in Carmel on 1/16 acre lots.it was a nice overnight. next time i'll budget enough time to get to big sur.
