Every week, we'll be featuring a guest post from the travel writers behind Worth the Drive, a blog featuring nearby getaways, festivals, and sweet travel deals on NBC Bay Area.

It heartens us when we see families load up the ol' wood-paneled wagon – or, nowadays, we suppose, the hybrid SUV – and find the last remaining drive-in theaters still showing summertime movies. But those classic thrillers can be harder to find nowadays, at least at the drive-ins – which are in themselves hard to find – so we have to take our creature features elsewhere. It is best, we think, when we can admire the creatures in-person, if possible, and learn something factual about them, too. Nope, giant Pacific octopuses don't swallow major metropolises whole, but they are very smart and gorgeous sea-deep creatures with their own riveting backstory. And if you'd like to see a big one – and we mean 16-feet-long big – you can, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Click here for the details on this newcomer to the Aquarium!