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. 

2014 Review in Pictures

Okay, even though I don’t usually like “year in review” news stories, I couldn’t resist the latest blogging trend of putting a review of the year using pictures.  Thank you, Merikay and Craig , for starting this trend.  Here goes:

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Pismo Beach!

Yes, Dave and I are here in beautiful Pismo Beach, California, for a few months.  We arrived a week ago after an uneventful trip south.  We stayed at Seven Feathers Casino RV Park in Canyonville, Oregon, the first night, and Rolling Hills Casino RV Park in Corning, California, the second night.  Our final night on the road was spent at Sommerville Almond Tree RV Park in Coalinga, CA, chosen because it was only a couple of hours from Pismo Beach which made for an early arrival at Pismo Beach last Thursday.

Mount Shasta had more snow this year than last year when we drove down I-5.

We quickly settled into our spot at Pismo Coast Village RV Park.  We’ll move to an even better spot on January 4, but for now this is home.  The park is festive with the park and many RVs decorated for Christmas. 

Pismo Beach street view

Pismo Beach Pier with the Christmas tree of lights at the end of the pier.

The weather has been in the low-70s for a few days, but today it’s barely 60 degrees, with the sunshine making it feel warmer.

Last night we drove around looking at Christmas lights, and saw a house that had rigged up a snow-making machine, with the “snow” being bubbles.  That arctic-themed house looked a little out of place here at the beach, but it was fun to see their creativity.

View from Spyglass Park—those dots in the water are surfers!

Today we went for a walk at a park that was new to us, Spyglass Park, located at the north end of Shell Beach.  This small gem of a park afforded us wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean.

Before we left home for Pismo Beach, we had some excitement at home when a windstorm on Veteran’s Day knocked down about ten of our Leland Cypress trees and with them, took out the fences between us and three of our neighbors.  The trees are gone now and the fence repair will have to wait until we get back home in March.  Luckily, our neighbors were very understanding. 

We celebrated an early Christmas with Tim, Kiersten, and our granddaughters, Sophie and Anya, before we left for the winter.  And a couple of weeks before that we celebrated with Jonathan and his fiancee, Brittany.

Anya, 1 1/2,  Sophie,  3 1/2

I may not blog as often as I used to, but I still enjoy reading the blogs of others and occasionally putting in my two cents worth.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015!

2014 Cranberry Festival, Long Beach, WA

Once again, I am about a month late with this post.  The annual Cranberry Festival was held in mid-October.  There were cranberry sales, a craft show, cranberry food items for sale, and my favorite event, a cranberry harvest demonstration.

Washington State University maintains cranberry test fields in Long Beach and this is where the demonstration took place.  All throughout the Long Beach peninsula there are cranberry fields owned and harvested by farmers who are members of a cranberry co-op which is connected with Ocean Spray.

At the museum, the demonstration showed wet harvesting of cranberries.  First, the cranberry field is flooded with water.

That loosens the cranberries from their vines so that they can be harvested.

The cranberries are pushed up and onto a conveyor belt where they are loaded into a truck.

The debris goes into a big pile by the side of the conveyor.

Here’s a picture of one of the test fields.

The cranberry museum and gift shop is open year-round.

The first time I ever saw cranberry bogs was when I visited Cape Cod in 1976.  Little did I know that I would eventually be spending a lot of time on the Pacific Northwest coast where cranberries are a big business!

South Bend, WA

I visited South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame University, in 1975, but yesterday’s day trip was to South Bend, Washington, located on Highway 101 about forty miles northeast of Ilwaco’s Safari Park.  Dave and I have zipped through the area numerous times, but this time we stopped, went for an hour-long walk, and had lunch before heading back to our cabin.

This small town is the county seat.  The historic Pacific County Courthouse was built in 1910.  We didn’t take time to go inside the building, but we enjoyed the view peaceful view of the courthouse and the view back down the hill to the river.

This is a fishing village.  The Willapa River flows into Willapa Bay which flows into the Pacific Ocean.  We saw several boats taking in and putting out their nets across the river.  Oysters are also big business in this area. 

We ate outside on the patio at the Highway 101 Public House.  No oysters for us, though.  I had clam chowder and Dave had his usual hamburger.  The weather cooperated for our outing.  When we left Ilwaco the weather was cool and foggy, but half-way to South Bend, the sun came out and the temperature reached the low 70s.  It was almost too hot during our walk, but perfect as we sat on the shady patio enjoying our lunch.

There’s a walking/biking path between South Bend and Raymond which was our intended destination, but we stopped before we got to the path and walked along the river and around South Bend instead.  We never did get to Raymond—we’ll save that for another outing.

World’s Largest Oyster, according to South Bend, WA

Dave is available by phone wherever we go!

September Highlights

I had better hurry and write about our September activities before we turn the page on the calendar.  On September 20, Dave celebrated his 66th birthday.  We celebrated by going out for lunch and dinner that day. 

Fall is officially here and so is fall weather.  We’ve had some sunshine but also some rain, and there’s a crispness in the air that always reminds me of fall and football season.

Dave and I spent a good part of September enjoying our time at our cabin at Safari Park.  When at home,  Dave has been evaluating and observing high school varsity football games on Fridays and some Thursdays and Saturdays, and playing golf on all the nice-weather Friday mornings. I have caught up on appointments, grocery shopping, and tasks around the house. 

Earlier in September, the annual “Rod Run to the End of the World” was held on the Peninsula. While Dave was at home at his football game,  I wandered down to the Ilwaco Port and took some pictures of the “Slow Drag at the Port”.  I wasn’t able to stay long, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed seeing the variety of cars.  Here are pictures of some of my favorite cars.

Next year we’ll have to pay more attention to the Rod Run and all the festivities involved!

Our son, Tim, wife, Kiersten, and our granddaughters, Sophie and Anya, came out to the Long Beach Peninsula to visit us one Saturday afternoon.  We showed them our new place and then went out for lunch with them at Chico’s Pizza Parlor.  We always enjoy seeing them and spending time with them!

Sophie started her first day of 3-days-a-week preschool earlier this month.  Last year she went two days a week.  She has grown up a lot now that she is three!