Catching Up

Obviously, my blog isn’t a priority these days.  But once in a while, when I have pictures to share, I will post a blog.

We’ve been busy since we got home from spending three months in Pismo Beach.  Since Dave is now the financial director of our place at the beach, Safari Park, we’ve been visiting our park model “cabin” quite often.

We made a trip to Bothell to visit our younger son Jonathan and meet his fiancee’s parents.  Then we drove on to Wenatchee to celebrate my birthday.  We visited Ohme Gardens for the first time and were surprised by how much  climbing up and down was needed to see the gardens.  Our clue should have been when we saw that the park offered free hiking poles to use while there.  The gardens were beautiful, but I doubt we’ll be back since I had to look at my footsteps instead of the beautiful surroundings.

When in Wenatchee, we always stay at Wenatchee Confluence State Park, one of our favorite Washington State Parks.  The park grass is always green because they do a lot of watering there.   Wenatchee’s Apple Loop Trail runs through the park, giving us an 11-mile loop for walking or riding our bikes. 

One of the many pools at Ohme Gardens

Dave fits right in with the green surroundings.

Ohme Gardens Waterfall

View of the Columbia River from Ohme Gardens

Another pool

One of the less steep paths in the Gardens

During one of our stays at our cabin in Ilwaco, we visited Cape Disappointment State Park.  We walked up to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center so we could see the view from the top of the hill. 

View of North Jetty at Cape Disappointment

Cape Disappointment (Cape D) Lighthouse

We visited our son Tim and his wife Kiersten at their house and also had dinner with them at Old Chicago in Portland.  We always enjoy seeing them and our precious granddaughters, Sophie and Anya.

In between our trips, Dave has played golf several times and I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting.  My friend, Betsy, convinced me to join Pinterest, and those boards have used up a fair amount of my time, mostly with recipes and crochet patterns!

Our Time in Pismo Beach is Winding Down

I still have a few pictures from Pismo Beach to share.  We’ll be back home before we know it.

The following pictures were taken at Dinosaur Cave Park in Shell Beach, just north of the city of Pismo Beach.

We made our annual day trip to Morro Bay and were lucky to see the sea otters while we were there.

Sunsets in Pismo Beach are a joy to behold.

Looking to the east during sunset, we saw the moon.

And last but least, our granddaughter, Anya, celebrated her second birthday while we were away.  We look forward to seeing her in person soon, along with her big sister, Sophie!

Elephant Seals, Piedras Blancas, CA

Dave and I, along with our friends, Greg and Betsy, who are staying in Pismo Beach for a month, took a day trip to see the elephant seals.  The rookery is located four miles north of Hearst Castle and fourteen miles north of Cambria on California Highway 1.

The entire Piedras Blancas population of 23,000 elephant seals is never in the rookery at the same time.  The number of seals on the beach ranges from hundreds in July and August to thousands from January through May. 

In late November and early December the adult male seals, weighing over two tons, arrive at the rookery and fight for dominance over a portion of the beach.  A dominant or alpha bull emerges from this competition along with a few beta males that are lower in the hierarchy. 

The pregnant females begin arriving about mid-December forming harems around the alphas, apparently choosing the beach rather than the alpha.  Birthing takes place within a week of arrival and usually takes less than an hour.   The new pup is born either head first or tail first and weighs around 70 pounds.  Right after the birth the mother vocalizes to her pup, bonding so that they can keep track of each other on the beach.

Pups nurse for four weeks.  After the four weeks of nursing the pup’s weight has quadrupled and the fasting mother has lost twice as much as the pup has gained.   Mother seals abandon their pups after they are weaned and return to the ocean.  The newly weaned pups have to make their way to the coastal tide pools, learning to swim and shedding their fat content.  When they feel ready, the pups go to sea and begin a foraging trip that will bring them back to the rookery in October or November.

The elephant seals have been coming to Piedras Blancas only since 1990.  Most of their rookeries are on islands along California and Baja, Mexico.  Heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for the oil from their blubber, their numbers were reduced to fewer than 50.  The development of kerosene and refined petroleum left them with no commercial value and their population has grown to over 200,000.  A free brochure at the rookery contained these details as more details about the molting of the males.  A seal cam may be viewed at http://elephantseal.org.

Betsy and Greg

The Piedras Blancas Lighthouse

After viewing the elephant seals, we drove south to Cambria and went for a walk and then lunch at Moonstone Beach.

Greg and Betsy on the boardwalk at Moonstone Beach

Unfortunately, this elephant seal didn’t make it back to the rookery and died along Moonstone Beach.

Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach, CA

One of the things I enjoy seeing in Pismo Beach each winter is the Monarch Butterfly Grove just south of Pismo Beach and a short walk from Pismo Coast RV Resort where we are staying.

The butterflies arrive in November and depart again in February.  They attract a lot of attention, especially on warm days when they are out flying rather than huddled into bunches.

One fact that I learned this year about the migrating Monarchs is that they eat milkweed, a plant that is considered poisonous to some other species. 

It was hard to get pictures of all the butterflies flying around.

Thousands of butterflies were huddling in clumps.

Dave and I go on lots of walks while we are in Pismo Beach, and our favorite place to walk is along the beach.  One of the coastal walks that we do every year gives us a view of a natural bridge in the rock on the south side of Avila Beach.

And usually we can see people hiking in that area.

I think these are bougainvillea flowers.  We used to have bougainvillea bushes in our yard when we lived in Riverside, CA. 

Pretty flowers, but thorny leaves.