Point Lobos

November 27th

We thought we might still need to work off some of Thanksgiving dinner, so we went to Point Lobos to check it out.

Point Lobos is considered the "crown jewel" of the California State Parks system. 

It has lots of areas where waves can crash against the rocks.

Also, sometimes there are lots of kelp bladders washed up on the shore.   

They make a satisfying pop-crunch sound when you step on them.

It's a really beautiful park.

The park owes its origins to Alexander Allan, who purchased the land in 1933 to prevent it from being developed into housing.

We stopped for a bit on the hike to enjoy the view.

A map of Point Lobos trails.  It's got a bit of glare. 

The park is also a marine reserve and conservation area.

We were there!

It was a beautiful day, too.

This tree is orangey because of some sort of fungus.

Fungus!

"The greatest meeting of land and water in the world"  - Francis McComas (landscape artist).

Scenery!

Scenery, now with Justices.

Moss, moss, moss.

Sherrie got a nice photo of the sunlight coming through the trees.

We left the park and went to the Pacific Grove Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary.

I found one!

It turns out most of the butterflies were hanging out in this tree on private property next to the sanctuary.   It's that big blobby clump in the middle of the photo.

A blurry photo of a wintering cluster of butterflies.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Whale Watching

November 26th

Today we did a whale watching tour.

It was a little grey out but we were told it would be a good day for whales.  

The breaker here is a favorite spot for sea lions.

 Sooooo many sea lions!

This whole breaker is covered in like 700 sea lions.

There wasn't enough room on the breaker so there is a flotilla of sea lions in the water.   

They leave one flipper out to help stay warm.

A little while later we got out deeper and saw a lot of spouts from blowholes. 

And a few arching backs.   I think this is a humpback whale.

 Flukes!  We saw a few, but this was the best photo.

Dan and his mom and about half of the boat all got seasick.  It was pretty unpleasant for them.  Once we got back everyone perked up a bit, but we took the rest of the day pretty slowly.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Aquarium

November 25th

We didn't know what to do today, so we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was PACKED.

At least the octopus was out and exploring.

And this one was trying to block out the window.

Dan had fun making his own fish to go in the digital aquarium.

Sherrie found her favorite animal, the seahorse.

This crab is wearing a fish as a hat.  It was my favorite, after the octopodi.

The aquarium is really cool and I would probably like it more if it wasn't so full of people.  I shall have to return on a less busy day.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Thanksgiving

November 24th

With Jim & Sherrie in town and our Bulgarian friends, we hosted Thanksgiving.   It was very endearing to see how excited Angel and Orlin were about getting to experience a real American Thanksgiving.  I was afraid we wouldn't meet their expectations.  Orlin's niece came to visit (from Chicago) with her boyfriend and we invited them along to Thanksgiving as well.  The more the merrier!

So much food!  Rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pickled veggies, mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy!  There was also cheesecake and pecan pie.

Dan, Angel, Jim & Sherrie.  Orlin, Maggie, Antoin, and Me!

I know I ate too much,  but it was worth it.  I think it was a great Thanksgiving.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Dan's Parents Visit

November 21st

WOOOOOOoooooOOOOO!  300th post!

Anyway.  Dan's parents came to visit. Hurray!  Sometime around here or a little earlier, my DSLR gave up and decided it didn't want to work anymore.  So, right now I only have my phone for photos and I took some of Sherrie's photos.

This is Lover's Point looking towards Monterey.

Some lovers at Lover's point.

Otter head!

 Otter noms!

We had a great walk along bike trail on the waterfront.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Pinnacles National Park

November 18th

If you didn't know, there are approximately 28 National Parks (monuments, memorials, etc) in California.  Today we went to explore the youngest National Park, Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles are the remains of a volcanic field that moved 195 miles away from the San Andreas fault.  

We decided to do the Juniper Canyon trail.

There was a lot of going up over the course of at least dozen switchbacks.

We found a Western Fence lizard.  (There is an Eastern Fence lizard, sometimes known as the Northern Fence lizard, but there is no Southern Fence lizard.)

We got a small break from going up and switchbacks.

The park was created in 1908 by Roosevelt and made a National Park in 2013 by Obama.

It's very jagged.

The park covers about 26,000 acres. 

Around here we switched from the Juniper Canyon trail and started on the High Peaks trail.

Bright green moss!

Rocks!

In the 1880's the Pinnacles were known as the Palisades.

Dan has conquered this part of the park.

Here is where the High Peaks trail started to get interesting.

Steps carved into the rock.

A snake!  It's a Striped Racer aka California whipsnake.  

He was on our stairs so we waited for him to scoot.

We made it into the High Peaks!

We were there!

Green and orange lichen.

The path goes through/under this rock.

It was a little tight.

Oh good, steps going down.

The view on this side is nice too.  

I think our car is down near that white-ish spot in the middle-right.

I don't know what's happening with this tree and its bark.

Apparently this is a type of Manzanita shrub. 

Crazy lichen.

There are 293 species of lichen at Pinnacles.  Someone counted.

Ooooh, a bridge!

And a tunnel?  What?!

Right before the relatively flat trail back to our car, we found a tarantula.

I think the hike took us about 4 hours and covered almost 4.5 miles.  It might have been a little bit too strenuous for our first big hike in a long while.  We were both exhausted at the end.

This concludes our adventures for today.