AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am
It's Pebble Beach Pro- Am time again this will be an opportunity to come out and see your favorite golf legends playing side by side with your favorite TV stars and Sports personalities. There will be 156 pros playing with 156 amateurs which is always an interesting mix. This event has been running annually since 1937. This event generated over 10 million dollars for charity in 2012 alone and over 100 million dollars for charity since 1937.
Courses
The courses for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am are truly some beautiful world class golf venues. Pebble Beach Golf Course, Spyglass Hill, and the MPCC Shore course. So there is a great mix of courses in this tournament.
Tickets
There are several ticket options available to everyone.
Practice Rounds Tickets cost $50.00 until 2/2 then $60.00 and they are good for all three days.
Tournament Rounds cost daily ticket for Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. $50.00 or $60.00 after 2/2
Season Badge cost $125.00 advance and $150.00 after 2/2
This event usually sells out so buy your tickets in advance and I recommend the Season Badge or the Tournament Rounds that has always been the best for me. You get to see the stars hamming it up and a different side of the golf pros. Where if you go to the practice rounds it's more real practice and there is not as much going on. I guess there is not as much on the line. This is a family event so by all means bring the family they will have a blast and I know maybe your wife or husband or kids aren't golf fanatics but there is so much other stuff to do on the Monterey Peninsula they will have a blast.
Hole Seven, a photo by ghz on Flickr.
The Best Way To Get To Monterey
There are several ways to get to Monterey. It just depends on where you are coming from and whether you want to take a nice scenic drive or you just want to get here. That all depends I suppose on the time you have the people you are riding with and whether the goal of the trip is to get here or the goal of the trip is simply the trip itself. Sometimes a nice long road trip is the best thing between friends or family or whatever. But, there are other times when you are just like let's get there so we can enjoy ourselves. Especially if the little one in the back is asking over and over are we their yet just like you did to your mom and dad.
If You Are Coming From the South
If you are coming from the South then the fastest route to Monterey would be to take I-5 and then take the 46 Paso Robles exit and stay on the 46 until you come to Hwy. 101 and take 101 North until you get passed Soledad and Chualar then take the Abbot st. Exit off the left side of 101 and follow the signs through the small town of Spreckels. After you pass through Spreckels you will take HWY 68 W. towards Monterey. Congratulations you are here.
That was the fast way now if you want to take the long scenic route just drive up hwy 1. Not too many people go that route however it is very beautiful and it will take you a very long time. So only do this if you are prepared for a long drive but one that will be worth it in the scenery you pass or in the time you pass with whoever you are riding with.
If You Are Coming From The North
From 880 S. San Jose merge onto 101 S. towards Los Angeles. Merge onto Ca 156 towards Monterey Peninsula. CA 156 W. becomes CA 1 S. Take the Exit towards Monterey.
Once again that was the fast way and the slow way again is HWY 1. All the same things apply it is very slow but very beautiful.
Monterey Peninsula Airport
The best way to come to Monterey is to fly into Monterey Peninsula Airport. They serve all the major hubs in California so you can pretty much fly in here from anywhere if you are okay with getting a connecting flight at a hub. But if you are flying out of a hub then it's a direct flight. There is now even service from Monterey to Hawaii for pretty low cost.
bigsur018, a photo by mlhradio on Flickr.
Fish Hopper Restaurant Monterey
Recently friends came into town for the weekend and when the inevitable question came up of where are we having dinner? We all went back and forth, what kind of food do you want etc. etc. etc. My friends wife was like hey we are in Monterey we have to have fish for dinner. So I took them to one of my favorite seafood restaurants The Fish Hopper. One of the things I like about the Hopper is the view, the restaurant sits at the end of one of the old cannery piers so the whole back wall of the restaurant is glass and during the day you can see sailboats and fisherman coming in with their daily catch along with the shorebirds flying around. At night if their is a moon out and your eyesight adjusts to the darkness you can see the waves rolling in. So it's a wonderful view probably one of the best in Monterey. The service here is pretty great most times you can always find your waiter or waitress and they are always happy to help with anything you need. The food is wonderful, my friends wife had crab which is what she was craving and I had the salmon which is one of my favorites at the hopper. The nautical themed artwork on the walls of the restaurant is just beautiful from the bent steel undersea scenes which are some of my favorite I could actually see these on a wall in someones home to the Jellyfish light fixtures. I know it almost sounds tacky but they are indeed very beautiful. their nautical themed artwork. So go to the Fish Hopper Monterey for the food and the service but enjoy the view and the artwork while you are there. Another great thing is just outside the door of the restaurant is a stairway down to the beach so if as we did you bring kids along after dinner they can work off some of their energy playing at the beach and getting chased by the waves.
Fish Hopper HDR, a photo by Monica's Dad on Flickr.
Read All About It Great Books About Monterey.
This is my list of books about Monterey. This list is by no means totally complete as there are so many titles for you to enjoy. There is everything from Monterey wildlife, to Monterey History and hiking and wine tasting. So I hope you enjoy my first list of books about Monterey. This is something that readers keep asking me to put up so here it is.
Books About Monterey
The Monterey Bay Shoreline Guide- by Jerry Emory and Frank Balthis What can I say about this book it has more than I expected when I picked it up in a bookstore. It's a guide to the Santa Cruz Coast all the way through Monerey to the Big Sur Coast. This book has everything. Just when you think you know everything about this fabulous place you pick up this book and find a fabulous secret beach or a new trail that you never knew existed. The Monterey Bay Shoreline Guide is the only book that I know that explores all the parks and beaches as well as trails of the Monterey Bay Area in one large book. I definitely recommend this one.
A Perfect Haze The Illustrated History of The Monterey Inernational Pop Festival
by Harvey and Kenneth Kubernick
From June 16 through the 18 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds an amazing thing happened. Thousands of people came to the Monterey Pop Festival during the summer of love to celebrate music and listen to some fabulous music by Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Otis Redding and many others. What they didn't know is that they were in the middle of a cultural revolution and this was the beginning. The Monterey Pop Festival happened before Woodstock and it is seen as the beginning. So if you were there or just want to see what happened and read about it this is the book for you.
The Death And Life Of Monterey Bay by Stephen R. Palumbi and Carolyn Sotka is a very nice book. The title tells the story of this book pretty well. It's about how the Monterey Bay is this beautiful place teaming with wildlife and sea life until the fisherman and whalers discover it. Then what happens to the Monterey Bay after that. Then it also tells the story of the end of the canneries and the rebirth of the Monterey Bay as a place to come and just see wildlife and whale and not take them. A great read. It's amazing to see this change over just a few generations.
Day Hikes Around Monterey And Carmel 77 Great Hikes by Robert Stone.
This book is sitting on my desk as we speak. It's a great book to take on that long drive when you don't know where you will end up. With this book you can always find a trail you haven't hiked near by. Robert Stone has hiked all of these trails so his directions and difficulty levels are spot on so there is no problem finding your route or knowing what the trail will be like when you get there. So if you are going to do some hiking when you come to Monterey or even some trail running this is a must have book for you.
Wineries of California's Central Coast by William A. Ausmus
This author profiles nearly 300 wineries that he personally visited. There are ratings for each winery as well as contact information for each of the different wineries. So there is sure to be something for everyone. The California Central Coast produces some of the best wines around and this is definitely a comprehensive guide to the wines and wineries of the Central Coast. If you are going wine tasting while you are in the Monterey or Santa Barbara area this is the book for you.
