Saturday, December 28, 2013
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Santa Cruz
What was everyone looking at?
The monarch butterflies!
We were in Santa Cruz! We went to see the monarch butterflies, who winter here, in the eucalyptus forest.
Shh… be very quiet as you walk into the forest.
We saw the butterflies through a telescope. My camera didn't have enough zoom to capture them, but you can see clusters of them hanging from the branches. Those dark clusters are actually monarchs, all clinging together.
Believe it or not, there are actually some butterflies in these photos. You can see little spots of color here and there… those are the monarchs.
We had two 8-year old girls with us, our granddaughter and her best friend:
Then we walked over to the beach:
The rocks were inhabited by pelicans. I have never seen so many pelicans in one place before.
Putting our shoes back on after walking on the beach:
Mom's friend is teasing her…
Finally, we had lunch at a place on the beach. The next day we flew home, back to winter!
If you want to read more about monarch butterflies and their migration, you could read a book called Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a novel, but it contains a lot of research about monarchs. I learned a lot from reading it.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
It Was Sunny in Sunnyvale
We were in California, visiting our daughter and granddaughter, who live in Sunnyvale.
I took this photo at sunrise.
This is our granddaughter by the Christmas tree. That evening, we went to the Christmas musical at her school. There she is, on the left in the red dress.
There she is again. We're not TOO proud, are we?
The pre-school children were adorable, playing out the nativity story.
The older students put on a musical play, "Dr. Newhart". The moral of the story: You need a "new heart" for Christmas. They were so cute and so funny.
The "disorderly" orderlys rap:
The chorus reacts:
The band plays:
Everyone sings:
It was quite a good show; they did a great job!
More of our trip tomorrow.
I took this photo at sunrise.
This is our granddaughter by the Christmas tree. That evening, we went to the Christmas musical at her school. There she is, on the left in the red dress.
There she is again. We're not TOO proud, are we?
The pre-school children were adorable, playing out the nativity story.
The older students put on a musical play, "Dr. Newhart". The moral of the story: You need a "new heart" for Christmas. They were so cute and so funny.
The "disorderly" orderlys rap:
The band plays:
Everyone sings:
It was quite a good show; they did a great job!
More of our trip tomorrow.