FAQ's
Moderate. It rarely gets super hot (above 80) or super cold (below 40). During the summer months we usually have fog in the morning, which clears up about mid-day and sometimes returns in the evenings. Rainy season is about Dec through March-April. Not a lot of rain, mind you, just rain-ier than usual, with occasional showers or thunderstorms. The rest of the year there might be a light sprinkle during the night, but rarely during the day. My favorite time is October-November, with gorgeous warm, sunny days in the 60s and 70s.
The City of Monterey itself is about 12 square miles, wrapped around the Monterey Bay. Population according to the 2010 census was just under 28,000. There are multiple cities on the Peninsula, including Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, as well as the resort community of Pebble Beach. The "metro area" also includes cities extending up along the north side of the Bay (not technically on the Peninsula) including Seaside, Del Rey Oaks, Sand City, and Marina. The population of Monterey County is about 415,000.
Awesome.
- Sea lions have ear flaps, while seals do not.
- Sea lions have larger hind flippers that they can rotate to the sides to propel themselves on land.Seals' tail flippers always face back.
I remember this by thinking that sea lions are more similar to actual lions, in that they have ears and can "walk" on all fours, while seals are more "fish-like" with no ears and rigid tails. There's plenty of more scientific explanations of the differences on the internet -- I'll leave it to you to research that.
Yes! Monterey Jack cheese originated in this area, though it is no longer produced here. It's generally agreed that it was brought here in the 1700s by the Franciscan monks who hung around this area. After that, the history gets a little murky. One story is that it was created by businessman David Jack, who may have been one of the first to sell it commercially. Customers referred to it as Jack's Cheese, and then Monterey Jack. More likely is that the monk's recipe evolved over the next hundred years into the current product, and that David Jack, being a shrewd businessman, marketed it with his name attached. Another theory is that the production process requires that some pressure be applied to the curds, such as with a house jack, and that's why it is called "jack cheese."
In any case, the Food and Drug Administration officially granted the name Monterey Jack to this type of cheese in 1955.
So far, so good ("knock wood"). Since I've been here, only two that could be felt here in Monterey, and they were very very minor shakes -- like someone slammed a door really hard. As you know, it's not just the magnitude of the quake, but how far away it is, how deep it is, and what kind of soil is around. So it hasn't been even noticeable really. According to the Working Group for California Earthquake Probability there's a 21% probability that the San Andreas Fault will produce a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years. (Source: www.earthquake.usgs.gov).
The bigger risk, because we're on the coast I'm told, is tsunami. Some places around town you'll see Tsunami Evacuation Route warning signs. So an earthquake halfway around the world is actually the bigger concern.
But every place has something...tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, killer bees, plagues of locusts. You just can't think about it too much.
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