Monterey & Carmel book release party goes big at CRBC.

Breaking news: There are a lot of things to recommend the Monterey Bay area.

After spending a couple of decades here, I thought I knew most of the best.

Not so.

It took a transplant from Virginia to turn me onto my favorite hike, snorkel spot and beach.

So it was a natural match when the man behind those recommendations, longtime Weekly contributor Stuart Thornton, embarked on a career writing guide books.

As I wrote in "Marina’s Stuart Thornton taps a ton of adventures with Moon Coastal California," after he published his first:

Before Stuart Thornton was a travel-book author, he was the Weekly music writer. Before that, a Big Sur park official. Before that, a Vail Mountain ski bum. In every incarnation, though, he’s been an explorer.

“Once I hear about a place I think I’ll like,” he says, “it kinda becomes a minor obsession to get there and experience it.”

At the Weekly, he guinea-pigged iPods before they were everywhere and studied biodiesel before it was big.

He watched Carmel-bred cellist Rushad Eggleston hang from scaffolding at SXSW and studied local late shifters at truck stops.

For other stories he tempted fate as a young single at a “cougars” convention and as a giant Quiznos soda cup in 93-degree heat.

He challenged Flavor Flav to freestyle and talked loyalty and betrayal with actor Gary Oldman.

He helped pioneer Weekly travel coverage at spots within geographic and budgetary striking distance.

Now that his latest book focuses on the Monterey Bay region, which he's called home since the mid-'90s, two very fun things are happening:

1) As he tells Walter Ryce in a piece out today, "Stuart Thornton racks up adventures so you can too": 

“[This] book made me visit attractions I had never been to, like the San Carlos Cathedral, the River Road Wine Trail… the Monterey Movie Tour bus or viewing whales from Fast Raft Ocean Safaris.

“All of the work I did on this book made my love for this region deepen.”

2) He's throwing a Moon Monterey & Carmel book release party 7-11pm today, Jan. 14, at Cannery Row Brewing Company.

It will include Monterey trivia, book signings, free food (!?), a raffle benefitting the Ventana Wildlife Society and a cash bar.

Music comes courtesy Burnt Palms, along with a psychedelic light show courtesy of Lumiere Alchemical.

Experimental rocker Wild Boy also performs.

In short, adventure awaits.

Stuart Thornton book launch party with Burnt Palms and Wild Boy happens 7-11pm Thursday, Jan. 14, at Cannery Row Brewing Company, 95 Prescott Ave., Monterey. Free to attend; cash bar available.  643-2722, www.moon.com/books/moon-monterey-carmel.