Butterflies

What a gorgeous day yesterday was! The spouse had yet another meeting down in Carmel, so I went along for the ride. I dropped him off at the office and then drove to Pacific Grove. This is the view towards the ocean through my windshield, and you can see the ocean and the fog bank behind it.I walked around a bit, investigating several antique shops, then I went into the (free!) natural history museum. While there, I went into the museum shop and bought small gifts for the girls and began a conversation with the nice lady behind the counter. She told me that this is the time of year that the monarchs come back to the area. Somehow I always thought that would be in the spring, not at Christmastime. She told me where the butterfly sanctuary was so I decided to try to find it. I promptly got lost, well, as lost as you can get in a small town, and turned in at the municipal golf course. I asked the cute guy at the golf shop where the butterfly sanctuary was, and he gave me excellent directions. I had only overdriven by about two blocks. I found the location and parked next to the adult school. Monarchs were flying around over my head and hovering over the ivy wall.

Access to the grove is a pathway between two lots.

My goodness, what a beautiful day it was. It is a little sad that butterflies are so hard to photograph unless you are a professional like these two guys with the biggest cameras I have ever seen (not only as big as their head, but as big as their head and an arm too). The following picture shows a flock of butterflies feeding on the grass.

The grove had pathways to walk on, and as you walked the lovely orange butterflies would buzz your head and swirl around you. They would land in the trees.

The lady park ranger person was holding a butterfly that she was trying to warm up by blowing on it, so she posed it for me on the ground:

What a lovely experience. Now that I know what time of year to go there, I will have to take the spouse with me next year.

After that, I drove down Lighthouse Avenue and went to Olio, my favorite store in the area. She had a very good selection of vintage sewing stuff. I may have purchased some items, including a wonderful pattern for a man's sport shirt from the late 40's in just the right size for the spouse. I see some Hawaiian shirts in his future.