We had originally planned to go further east from Yosemite to Mono Lake (saline lake, like the dead sea) but the road through the park was flooded so we decided to head straight to the coast and spend an extra day in Monterey. It actually turned out really well because the extra time let us do a whale watching trip which was really neat. We watched a pair of Humpback whales jump and splash around for about an hour and we also saw a few different kinds of dolphins and a huge albatross.
Monterey is a pretty small town so it didn't take too long to explore the majority of it. There is a wharf with some shops and restaurants that comes with an orchestra of ever present sea lions. I snapped a photo of a hyacinth macaw from a guy that had a cart full of parrots that kids could hold and take photos with. He was a pretty creepy dude and he wasn't the first man we saw doing this. I suppose I should mention that he expected you throw him a couple of dollars for his "service".
Monterey was one of the major sardine fishing hubs about 80 years ago. On the ocean side of the main street were all the fisheries and on the opposite side of the street were all the canneries. They built walkways overtop of the street to transport sardines over to the canneries and thus named the main street Cannery Row.
