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"Sun, surf and seafood drew large crowds to the Monterey Bay for the Independence Day weekend.Ivy Yang and her husband are driving down the coast from San Francisco. They stopped by the visitors' center in Monterey for advice on what to see while they are in town.\"This is actually a last-minute plan with my husband,\" Yang said. \"We are just looking for something close to our home and so Monterey Bay came to our mind.\"Local guide Ken Aced said the visitors' center sees about 50 people an hour walking through its doors.\"They want to see the same thing. They want to see Cannery Row and they want to see 17 Mile Drive and Carmel. A lot want to go to Big Sur,\" he said.Most follow the water, like Antonette Jomawan Suan and her family. They enjoyed a picnic at Del Monte Beach.\"It's so hot in Stockton. We love it here,\" Jonawan Suan said.Sean Furley is the manager of Monterey Bay Kayaks and said so far the holiday weekend seems to be a little slower than previous years.\"The last two years were probably the busiest we've ever seen. A big part of that was the fact that it was so much warmer in the summer than we usually get in Monterey,\" Furley said.Furley said for businesses along the water, the weather plays a role in bringing in customers.\"Over the last couple of years, we did have that drought, so we had a lot less rainfall, a lot less snow in the mountains, and so I think instead of taking their trips to Tahoe, people were coming here instead. This year we had more snow, so I think people took their Tahoe trips instead,\" he said.Old Fisherman's Wharf was packed with visitors Saturday.\"This a big, big, big weekend for all of us so yea I gotta prep for it,\" said Nicholas Higuera, manager of Liberty Fish Company, a small mom-and-pop restaurant on the wharf. \"I prep for it a week in advance. I probably bought about a hundred pounds and I'm probably down to 50 with the season ending.\"Big crowds means more business.\"It should easily double it, easily double with over like a million people being around,\" Higuera said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.ksbw.com/article/fourth-of-july-weekend-attracts-crowds-to-monterey-bay/1297553>