take a walk on the white side

After a day in Monterey aquarium, we drove up to Sequoia National Park today.
"Do you have any ranger led programs today?"
"Oh sure", says the ranger in the visitor center. "We have a snowshoe walk at 2. Just that it's for children 10 and up, so... I don't know... Why don't you go to the Giant Forest museum and talk to the ranger over there. The snowshoes might be too big for your young son."
With little hope and big desire we continued to the museum.

We started to go higher and higher in elevation and the snow became thicker and thicker. The road was icy but we didn't need chains. Snow tires were enough.
And then we arrived to the museum and to the big sequoia trees near by. Those trees are BIG!

At the museum Adi tried on the shoes that were about his height and somehow they fit! What a relief, we can join the hike! We got an old fashioned snowshoes (Maine style) that look like tennis rackets and off we went
We explored animal footprints and learned how they survive in the winter low temperatures.


By the end of the walk we were very cold, unable to feel our toes.
They have a strange habit to name the sequoias after generals. We went to see the biggest tree in the world (we believed), named General Sherman(-:
On the way out of the park we saw this beautiful coyote

Hwy 1

Hwy 1 is always spectacular and breathtaking. At Morro Bay, we camped in the same campground as our very first night of the trip in July, when we met Stacey. We liked climbing the rocks in the playground


and the small botanical garden near by
After 2 relaxing days we continued on hwy 1 until we saw this:
Hundreds of elephant seals lying on the beach! As we got closer we could see (and smell) the moms and babies. They keep covering themselves with sand to protect from the sun. They're very noisy - they scream, burp, snarl and sneeze while sand is blowing out of their mouth.
The elephant seals come here every year to have their babies and mate. They will leave in March and come back next January. The males (bulls) have a funny snout
They fight among themselves on territory. They fight so hard that they bleed and have many scars on their necks.


Some more pictures from the way

Pismo Beach

Along the coast we stopped for the night at Pismo Beach. Dagan and I spent here a night maybe 10 years ago and we wanted to stay here again.
In the state park campground we saw signs of butterflies along the road so we took our bikes and went to check what it's all about. We arrived to a place called monarch butterfly grove. We saw three telescopes pointed at eucalyptus trees and few butterflies in the air. When we approached closer and looked through the telescope we saw thousands of butterflied arranged in clusters up on the trees.

More and more people gathered to see this wonder and then we heard a short talk about the monarchs. They travel all the way from south Canada to mate and lay eggs in warm California. There are about 23,000 butterflies visiting this year.

We have a new embellishment for the rv - a "for sale" sign. Isn't it sad...?

Back in California

Well... actually we entered to California few days ago (Death Valley) but during the last couple of days we really felt California.
From Death Valley we had a long drive, crossing mountains and slowly exchanging the brown desert to green landscape. We spent the night at Flying J gas station (it is not as bad as it sounds) and by the morning got into the beautiful Los Padres National Forest. Slow drive with some snow by the road and a fantastic landscape.



By the afternoon we got to Ojai, where we found a nice county campground next to the river, surrounded by green mountains. After getting some tips and hints from our camping neighbors, we continued to Santa Barbara with not too much of an expectation. They have a film festival and the streets are packed with people (and dogs). We LOVED it!



We continued just few miles to spend the next night by Lake Cachuma. One of the best things traveling off-season is that there are plenty of spaces in all the best campgrounds.



We saw many birds all around. Look at this nice Acorn-Woodpecker - he drills small holes in the bark of the tree and then he hides acorns in it (its squeezed in so hard that even the squirrels can't get it). Enlarge the photo to get better view of the acorn bank.
On the way from Santa Barbara area we passed through the green hills and miles of vineyards of the wine country. We stopped for brunch at Solvang, where we couldn't resist the yummy Danish Pancakes.

on the way the sun and the rain made this full rainbow specially for us
Tonight We are staying in a campground in Pismo Beach and tomorrow we will start driving on hwy 1, along the coast.