11/24-26/10 – Monterey Peninsula

After Yosemite, the next 1000 Trails resort we stayed at was Morgan Hill.  It’s nestled among vineyards, and there are wild turkeys all around the campground.  Since it was Thanksgiving week, George thought that was pretty handy, but I talked him out of his original idea. 

On Wednesday, we took a drive down through the Watsonville valley to Monterey.  We wandered around Cannery Row for a while, taking pictures of each other with the Steinbeck bust and the bay.   

I’ve always wanted to see the Monarch Butterflies that winter in Cypress Grove.  It was a little late in the afternoon when we got there, but some other people pointed out where they were clustered up in the branches of the eucalyptus trees.  I thought they would be on the tree trunks, but apparently they like to pretend they’re leaves.  Too dark to see much, so we didn’t hang around very long.

The day after Thanksgiving we went back to Monterey.  First thing we did was head back to the Monarch Grove Sanctuary.  It was sunny but still hard to really see the butterflies up in the trees.  George really needs a BIG telephoto lens for his new camera….(sigh)

Next stop was Point Pinos Lighthouse right there in Cypress Grove, and then on to the 17-Mile Drive.  I’d been there before, when they didn’t charge to go on the drive.  George wasn’t convinced it was worth the money—at least at first.  There are, of course, golf courses all over the place, and George was more interested in them than the ocean.  Eventually you couldn’t see the golf courses, so he started taking pictures of blue water and rocks.  We stopped at Seal Rock, Cypress Point, Ghost Tree, and all the other stops along the way.  Lots of people and sometimes it was hard to find a place to stick that big truck.

Eventually we came to the Pebble Beach Golf Course.  You’re probably not surprised that we stopped.  George got souvenirs at the Pro Shop, and we walked down to the 18^th hole.  I really do think he took a lot more pictures than I did.  Hmmm... 

More pictures from Monterey:  Monterey Peninsula