Old Monterey Foundation will hold the “Picnic in the Park” at Lower Presidio Historic Park on Saturday, June 22, 2019 from 11 am to 3 pm. Bring your friends and family to this fun event and enjoy great food, live entertainment, historic reenactments, walking tours, costume contests, scavenger hunt, prizes and much more. Don’t miss this free family-friendly event!

Enjoy spectacular views of the beautiful Monterey Bay, Old Fisherman’s Wharf and the Monterey Harbor at this park that is hidden in plain view. See the “before”, which is now, and what we envision the “after” to be! Old Monterey Foundation has raised funds to develop trails and interpretive sign for all of the monuments to enhance and restore this park which is considered “The Most Historically Significant Site on the West Coast”.

Download event schedule.

• Free attendance.
• Delicious food for your picnic — from hamburgers and hot dogs to sweet treats including wine and beer. (Food and beverages are for sale.)
• Live Musical Entertainment with several performances by The Del Montes: Jangle, Twang Rock ‘n Roll
• A local youth dance troupe performance
• Argentinian Privateer Hippolyte Bouchard (regarded by his victims as a pirate) and his loyal crew will reenact the capture of the Presidio of Monterey (El Castillo) in 1818.
• Kids and adults are welcome to dress as pirates and be part of the reenactment
• Costume contests with prizes for best dressed pirate-both kids and adult- there will be lots of pirate booty!
• Photo Ops with pirates and historic reenactors
• Scavenger Hunt with Prizes
• Be sure to bring your lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy the day!
• Visit the Presidio of Monterey Museum, also located on the site and operated by the City of Monterey, an excellent place to view exhibits, artifacts, and videos that lead visitors through Monterey’s various stages of military development from the indigenous period which highlights the area’s native populations; through the Spanish and Mexican periods; and up to present day.
• Free Lower Presidio Historic Park Walking Tours with historian Tim Thomas at 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm. Tim will share why Lower Presidio Historic Park is considered by many professional historians as “The Most Historically Significant Site on the West Coast”.
• Walk the trails and see the interpretive historic signs and trails
• Visit the restored Saint Serra statue
• Learn more about Old Monterey’s Foundation’s (a 501(c)3 non-profit) Lower Presidio Historic Park Project and its plans and architectural renderings for Phase 2. Find out how to get involved and become a Friend of the Lower Presidio.
• Ample on-site parking

Directions:

From Monterey, take Pacific Street past the First Theater to the end of Pacific where it forks, take the left fork. turn left at the stop sign onto Artillery Road. From Pacific Grove, take Lighthouse Avenue in New Monterey, bear right to go onto Pacific Street and then go to Artillery Road, turn right.

Lower Presidio Historic Park also features the Presidio of Monterey Museum located at Corporal Ewing Road, Bldg. 113.

Thank you to our valued media sponsors: KSBW 8 NBC, Central Coast ABC and Estrella TV Costa Central. Also, a big thank you to the City of Monterey, Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association and Peter B’s Brewpub.

About The Del Montes

Feel good, dance shakin’ tunes, including your favorite oldies music. Conceived of a longing to play the danceable American and British Invasion hits and B Sides, The Del Montes play R&R, Tex Mex, Country and Western and UK R&B. The Del Montes are a veteran bunch of honkytonking musicians with long and varied backgrounds recording and performing professionally.

About the Lower Presidio Historic Park

Old Monterey Foundation continues its popular season of free lectures sponsored by The Marcia F. Devoe Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County with State Park Interpreter Michael D. Green speaking on 30 Years in California State Parks.

Irvine Auditorium, McCone Building, MIIS
499 Pierce Street, Monterey

Free Admission – Reception to follow with wine and cheese.

At the end of his career, State Park Interpreter Michael D. Green highlights three decades as a Tour Guide, Supervisor, Academy Instructor and Monterey State Historic Park Interpreter.  A “behind the scenes look” at the often-humorous encounters between park employee and the exotic species known as the park visitor, Green will share memories and images at the virtual campfire ring.

Michael Green began his career in Parks in 1990 as a tour guide at Hearst Castle where he learned how to interpret historic sites, eventually sharing interpretive techniques with new Guide Trainee classes held each winter. An opportunity to promote to full time Supervisor led him to Sacramento’s State Capitol Museum where he coordinated the tour program for schools, Member constituents and the Governor’s Office. Frequent requests from the State Park Training Center at Asilomar to serve as a trainer for interpretation classes brought him back to the Central Coast. This eventually led to a position as the Department’s first full-time Interpretation Training Specialist at Asilomar. In 2007, he served as interim Academy Director and State Park Training Officer. In 2008, he became a true “Montereyan” when he came to Monterey State Historic Park where he has served as Interpretive Program Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for the last 11 years.

Bill Wojtkowski, President of the Old Monterey Foundation Board of Directors, will also present a brief overview of recent improvements accomplished and planned for the Lower Presidio Historic Park.

For more information about Old Monterey Foundation, call (831) 346-3030.

The lectures are very popular so attendees are urged to come early to secure a seat.

This lecture is suitable for ages 9 and up.

The event is hosted by Old Monterey Foundation and sponsored by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies