Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum — Attraction in California

We took my 4 grandsons, aged 7 to 20 years. We had no idea what the park was like as none of us had ever been there. We were meeting the 7 year old to celebrate his birthday. He was coming from Los Osos and we are from Santa Cruz. What a wonderful surprise! This is a very well kept park with lots of shade, play equipment and tables. There are museums, which we will have to explore next time. We will definately be returning. There is a small entrance fee. You can check the web page. We loved it! It was 1 1/2 hrs from Santa Cruz. And the same...

We stopped to picnic in San Lorenzo County Park so the 2 year old could eat, play, then nap in the car on the 101 ride north. We wandered over to a very larger barn. What an amazing museum. The exhibits were world class. A phenomenal history of Steinbeck Country. Then Mr Rist came by. The most impressive museum docent. He knew an extraordinary amount about the agricultural history, and as a big bonus Mr Rist could relate Steinbeck's family history in the Salinas Valley through a deep knowledge of his books, and the Valley. The whole experience was...

This place has a lot of potential and could be a great stop for families. Unfortunately, our experience was overshadowed by how the staff handled a moment with our 2-year-old, who poured some water out of the bucket near the multilingual cow station. While we understand that wasn’t ideal behavior, being told it was inappropriate and that we needed to leave felt like an extreme reaction. It left us feeling unwelcome, which was disappointing for what could have been an...