If you get stuck in Monterey for accomodation I'd try a bit further north, there is a Holiday Inn in Watsonville which is about 45 minutes away up that I use when I'm working in northern CA . Monterey has its own airport, America West or South West both fly into their AIR, you can also fly into San Jose to avoid hacking out of SF depending upon when and where you arrive in US and how long you wat to hire a car for. Its about 5 - 6 hours north of LA if you want to drive up from there.
Crowds will be much more reserved than UK.
Wharf is nice without the bikes too, we did our race team launch at the Aquarium during the Sea Otter MTB festival in 2001.
I was amazed when i ran out of cash one day at the circuit, found an ATM in the middle of a field
