Kick off your Thanksgiving festivities at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Feathered Friends event—you’ll meet birds of prey making a special visit for the occasion, and see old friends like our blackfooted penguins, common murres, and “Makana,” the Laysan albatross.

November 22-23, Sat.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

All activities are included with Aquarium admission!

Saddle up and ride to Old Monterey, where the West really began, for the 10th Annual Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, December 5-7! The poetry round-up includes nine great shows over three days, a first rate western art and gear sale, Cowboy Church - a Saturday night western dance featuring Stardust Cowboys- and a super silent auction. Plus, this year, a Salvation Army benefit showing of the documentary entitled Houlihan. Maybe you’ll spot Prairie Home Companion’s Dusty and Lefty!

Celebrate the splendor of harvest at Monterey Wine Country’s 12th Annual Great Wine Escape Weekend, Nov 7-9, 2008. There’s something for everyone at this event! The highlights of the weekend include wine and food integration seminars, open houses at the wineries, guided wine country tours, winemaker dinners and the Grand Finale Evening.

Speical rates are available at the Inns of Monterey especially for the Great Wine Escape. For more information and tickets, please visit www.montereywines.org.

Harvest Festival - October 18 - Free Admission!
Bring the whole family to Earthbound Farm’s grand harvest celebration. The bountiful Farm Stand becomes a pumpkin-packed wonderland for a great fun-filled day on the farm, with games, pumpkin carving demos, squash and pumpkin tastings, music, farm tours, train and hay rides, and more! 11am–3pm.

Every Saturday in October, Earthbound Farms offers lots of family fun – bug walks, flower walks, corn husk doll making and more. The Farm is just a short drive from Monterey.

Short of taking a trip to France, the best way to see the high-speed, high-tech Le Mans Prototypes and GT cars of the American Le Mans Series, patterned after the famed 24 hours of Le Mans, is in this four-hour endurance challenge at Laguna Seca Raceway, October 17- 19.

The Saturday afternoon race into the darkness race concludes the Laguna Seca season with Le Mans Prototypes from Audi, Porsche, Mazda, Acura, Dodge and Ford battling on the same track with production-based GT cars from Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari and Panoz.

Laguna Seca is a quick (within the speed limits!) drive from Monterey.

Our beloved Jazz Fest - now in its 51st year - is nearly sold out…so hop to it and make your reservations now.  With the ghosts of the world’s jazz legends surrounding them, this year’s line up includes Cassandra Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Nancy Wilson, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and much more.