About

I can’t remember the first time I visited the Monterey Peninsula. But in the early 1980s, my parents purchased a small house on 12th and Casanova in Carmel. I called it the Gingerbread House.

Like anyone who visits the area for the first time, I was immediately enamored. I remember walking in the fog from my parents’ home into downtown Carmel, and I remember early morning and late afternoon training runs behind Monterey Peninsula College for the Big Sur International Marathon in 1986.

I worked as sports writer and columnist for the Monterey Country Herald for a year around the same time, and I’ve since returned to the Monterey Peninsula several times a year on assignment or for vacation. I’ve reported on the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for nearly 25 years. I’ve covered the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach twice, and I look forward to reporting in it again in 2010 at Pebble Beach.

In recent years, I’ve also traveled to the Monterey Peninsula many times for the Sea Otter Classic, Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational and other events — Cooking For Solutions (the sustainable food conference) to the Big Sur International Marathon and the Monterey Jazz Festival to the WalMart First Tee Open.

Traveling to the Monterey Peninsula for me is an easy decision: Any reason is a good reason.

I enjoy the cafes and running in Pacific Grove, and I appreciate driving into Carmel Valley as well as frequenting the brewpubs and old movie houses in Monterey.

As owner, editor and publisher of MontereyPeninsula.org, I hope to provide a comprehensive guide to one of the world’s great locales. It’s a destination I enjoy every time I have the privilege to visit.

The site feature reviews of accommodations in Carmel, Monterey and Pacific as well has travel features, lifestyle articles and blogs and commentary all from the varied, appealing nature of the Monterey Peninsula.

Readers’ comments are always welcomed. Banner advertising is accepted.

Cheers, James Raia
E-mail: James@ByJamesRaia.com