Monday, February 27, 2012

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.


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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!)


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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!


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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. DSC05616


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


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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.


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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.


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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!


Ice Plant collage


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!


DSC05624 The trail head ends & dumps you out here……


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Stunning!!!!!


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


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People just walking the beach & enjoying the beauty.


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


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


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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

11 comments:

Riki Schumacher said...

Oh pretty!! Those dunes and that park is how we ended up in the Central Coast! Aren't those Monarchs amazing? Loved seeing the pics! Riki

Debbie said...

Wow, just amazing, love those Monarchs!!
Thanks for sharing!!
xoxo
debbie

Jan Hennings said...

What beautiful Monarch's..can't wait to see them here in Iowa this Spring!

blossoms vintage chic said...

Hi Charlene,
Thank you so much for visiting!
I just love that you travel to such wonderful places...Pismo is
so incredible! Thanks for sharing...can't wait to see the rest of your trip!
xoxo
Debbie

Maggie said...

WOW! what a perfect day, indeed!!

Diane said...

Oh, what beautiful monarchs! I remember that scene looking down at the dunes, and all those beautiful flowers....I can smell it now =)

Alisa Noble said...

What a beautiful place! I love it here in October when the Monarchs are passing through on their migration paths.

Pansy Cottage Girl said...

Hi Charlene~
how nice of you to visit me! Yes, I will see you at Kim's event, what fun. Isnt Pismo the bomb? I LOVE the beach. See you soon.

Monica said...

Beautiful, Charlene. It sounds like the perfect day.
Love painting butterflies...
Hugs!

Lily's Lace said...

You always take the best photos!! I love the beach photos, it looks so peaceful there. You and Cynthia look like you had a great time but I'm glad you're back! xoxox-cindy

Sandy Navarro said...

I'm so glad Cynthia was able to come up for the day but bummed that we didn't get to see the beautiful butterflies w/you.

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