The Monterey Bay Aquarium may be one of the few changes to Cannery Row that would be deemed an improvement by Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. Built on the bones of Hovden’s, one of the largest and earliest canneries along the Row, with more than 1 million visitors annually the aquarium is Monterey’s major tourist attraction and a world class marine...

Point Pinos Lighthouse beacon has flashed a warning to shipping at the dangerous southern entrance to Monterey Bay since February 1855. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Steinbeck used the lighthouse and its setting overlooking rugged Point Pinos (Point of the Pines) in several novels and...

The National Steinbeck Center is located in a distinctive building owned by California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) at the head of Main Street. The Center comprises a museum and archives that celebrates the writer’s life, works, characters, and region in an informative and entertaining manner. Highlights of his best loved stories are recreated through dioramas, interactive exhibits, videos, public...