Sea filled days and Fog filled nights

Yesterday Jeff and I drove south to Pismo Beach because....well, it's Pismo Beach. Actually pretty unimpressive. Guess you have to be a kid on Spring Break to get the full Pismo effect.





We then drove a little further down Hwy 1 and ended up in Arroyo Grande which was a really cute village.
Doubling back toward Pismo we found the Butterfly Sanctuary which had just opened the day before. As we were told, the Monarchs from up north run out of food (milkweed) in the fall so they travel south, find a mild place to rest until February or so when they become "sexually active" and begin mating and trekking back north. Typically Monarchs only live for 8-10 weeks but the fall "babies" slow their metabolism down so much during this resting period that they live up to 6 months, and only die after reproducing in the early spring.

 

There were so many monarchs clumped together, it appeared to be just a bunch of dead leaves. They prefer to rest on Eucalyptus Trees but they don't eat the leaves, or for that matter, anything during their rest.

After returning to the BP and having dinner, we went to a theatre in downtown San Luis Obispo to see Paranormal Activity 3. Yeah, it was totally my idea. The movie sucked but going downtown was fun. It again impressed me how clean, attractive and (presumably) safe it was. Quite a few people sitting at coffee shops, bars, restaurants. All in shorts and tee's on November 1....awesome!

Today we started out our day with a plan to hike in Montana De Oro State Park to a 1250 ft peak (one of the Morro's). It was a beautiful hike but the trail was quite loose with rock and sand and I did have one good face plant. We got about 1/2 way up (to the same spot as a sixth grade class on a class hike!) before deciding to abort and hike along the shore. I'm pretty sure it was a completely mutual decision!

So we hiked back down the trail, I washed up a bit (literally bit the dust) and we hiked down a seaside/cliffside trail. The fog was rolling in and around the shore and the waves crashing on the cliffs and rocks was phenomenal.

Thank God I have finally reached the age, or at least learned my lesson, and I did not attempt any stupid rock jumping exploits or for that matter, disobey any barricades warning me of the impending doom of cliff diving! Yup, I was good and stayed squarely on the provided path!

After exploring a bit more we drove back to Morro Bay in search of the elusive Sea Otter! And we found them. Turns out the live quite happily year round in a little bay on the north face of Morro Rock. There were only five adults that we could see but they are just so freaking adorable.

They would dive down and retrieve a couple clams, then surface, float on their backs and clang the clams together until they opened to reveal their treat. All you would hear is "clang clang clang" from 3 of the 5. The other 2 were snuggled up and seemed to be snoozing.

At one point a seagull decided he was either going to get the remains of Otters treat or just out and out steal it. This brave guy followed Otter around for quite awhile and almost jumped right up on his tummy. Otter eventually ate his clams, then dove to get more and lost Mr. Gull.

The shore was also full of these critters...

I don't know what they are. Not a squirrel. Not a rat. Not a gopher. And definitely not shy. They were  walking right up to us. And there were dozens clambering over the rocks. Also quite a few of these (I know they are filthy but I like 'em!)...

After our little wildlife tour of Morro Rock (we also had our fill of seals), we drove to the next town north, Cayugas. Another little "shore" town that caters to surfers and teenagers. Sat on the beach and had a coffee and pondered at the fact that it was November 2 and we were sunburned, warm and happily watching kids play on the beach as Denver attempted to shovel out of today's snow storm.

Cayugas Kids