Monarchs with Cynthia

I borrowed a photo from Pinterest because it is the PERFECT one to show what I saw while I was in California.

That beauty is my friend Cynthia Vartanian & she had the most perfect day planned for me on Monday (President’s Day has never been so much fun!)

She took me out to Pismo Beach State Park to see the amazingly tall Eucalyptus Trees which are the wintering habitat for these stunning beauties. Click HERE to learn more. The official count on February 6, 2012 was 23,000 PLUS butterflies!

Look closely & you’ll see them fluttering high up in that pine tree. HUNDREDS of them but, the lens on my camera just couldn’t capture the magnitude of the numbers.

See them WAY UP THERE against the sky (on the left side of this photo).

To give you perspective of the size of these trees, this environment… there is Cynthia trying to zoom in on some with her camera & in the background (across the road) is an Amtrack train whizzing by.

Eucalyptus Trees are so foreign looking to me. We have nothing like them back in Texas. The peeling bark is so strange but, this is the PERFECT habitat for the monarchs. The perfect food source & climate makes this their winter home.

A walk along the parks path shows a wonderful RV park that I hope to interest “HONEY” in for the summer. And you can see the rolling hills/mountains are beginning to green. Again… this doesn’t look like Texas!

On the trail taking us toward the beach & along the path (photo to the left) you see the surf in the distance but, look at the greenish cast on the right side of that photo. It’s a total covering on the hillside of the ice plant which is the close up in the photos to the right. It’s a succulent & comes in all different colors with this one being PINK. Again… NOT IN TEXAS!

The trail head ends & dumps you out here……

Stunning!!!!!

With the town of Pismo Beach just climbing up that mountain & the water trickling from a little tributary.

People just walking the beach & enjoying the beauty.

A mother & child flying their Monarch Butterfly Kite in the breeze.

A happy Texas girl wishing this was her full time life!

And that’s the view from my log where I’m sitting… that’s the climb up to those trees. As that’s the trail head back to the park & the car. And my visit with Cynthia is about to end. I’m sad about that but, looking forward to the next visit which will be when I come back for An Affaire At Tiffany’s in May.

I hope you’ll come back to see more of my California trip. See you soon.

HUGS! Charlene