Other Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove. West coast Monarch butterflies over-winter on the central coast where the temps are mild...not too cold, not too hot. Here is a link about the migration. We've been there a couple of times, but both times only saw a few butterflies. This time it was amazing.


This is a pic of a cluster of monarchs up in the Eucalyptus trees. If you look closely, the "dried leaves" are butterflies,also. (You can click on the picture to get a bigger version) Most of the clusters of butterflies were fairly high up, so we didn't get great pics, but this one isn't too bad.

While we were there we ran into a lady that I grew up with. Last time I saw her was when I was pregnant with Meg, so it's been a long time. She still lives in AZ, but her daughter apparently lives in the Monterey ward. It was fun to see her, but a little bizarre to run into someone from home in such an out of the way place.

We had heard that a big storm in Alaska was pushing huge waves down here, so when we finished at the sanctuary we went to check it out. We took the first couple of pics in Pacific Grove, then we drove down to Carmel Highlands (on the way to Big Sur) and climbed out on the bluffs to watch the sun go down. It was spectacular in both places. The big wave/big rock combo is better than fireworks in my book.