Butterflies, Whale Bones and Dolphins

Such a beautiful day out and Erich and I decided to see if there were still some Monarch butterflies at the resting area.

The sign says:
Starting early in October, the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) arrives in this area on its yearly migration from the colder northern nesting grounds. It gathers in clusters on Eucalyptus trees from which it flies in search of food on days when the temperature is above 55 degrees. At temperatures below this a dislodged Monarch may fall victim to insects or field mice since it cannot fly. The Monarchs may remain here until March when the warmer days trigger a Northeasterly return migration.
We didn't see any clusters, I guess it was too warm, but there were a few fluttering about the place.


After that we drove to a place where Erich did some work while he was at University studying marine biology.
A Blue Whale. All the bones are wired with lights so it can be lit up at night.

Extra bones

Erich helped put this guy together.

Elephant seal statue (and Erich and Alfie of course)

We walked around a little more and found the dolphins. squee!



On the way home we spotted a surfing competition. You wouldn't think this was winter would you!

Wait, who's that driving the car?

Local building fire

Erich and I heard a LOT of sirens so we looked out and could smell smoke, so we decided to grab the dog and take a walk to see what the commotion was all about. Turns out a business was on fire. We didn't know which one at first, but it turned out to be a furniture store which had its warehousing between the street-side stores and a lumber yard.
I took a couple of photos on my phone but we didn't want to get much closer from that way, so we walked back home, grabbed the camera and drove around to taco bell which was across the road from the fire.
Clearly I need to take lessons in night photography.






The firemen had quite an audience. They did a really good job at keeping it away from the surrounding buildings. The big flames were over by the time we got there with the proper camera, but we stuck around till about 3am, by which time we were really starting to feel the cold

First Christmas with my Husband!

Erich and I decided to have Christmas as a family and wanted to have a quiet one together. Didn't take any photos, but we had a really nice day.
He got me a digital photo frame, and I got him a figurine he'd been wanting. Alfie got a doggie seatbelt.

Flight home, and Family Christmas party

A super early morning this morning, what with having to catch a flight out of the Seattle/Tahoma airport at 8.30am. Wendy is fine with driving again, and even though there is still snow on the ground, it is pretty clear. We took a small car ferry across instead of driving around the freeway, SO COLD!

For the first time I saw a plane I was traveling in get de-iced before takeoff. That was kinda cool, if disconcerting.

Arriving back in California was great, I missed Erich a LOT.

In the afternoon we headed up to San Francisco to Erich's aunts place for the family Christmas party. SO LOUD! everyone talked so very loud a couple of times my ears rang.
After the kids opened all their gifts, the adults played a game of White Elephant, which is similar to my family's $2 pressie game. In White Elephant each person brings an item from their own home that they no longer want (new stuff!) and people take turns to "steal" or open a new gift.
it was a fun night. :-)

Washington - Friday

A nice bright cold day, and Wendy was feeling up to driving in the snow a little, just up the road enough to find a slope to let the kids sled down.
The first spot we picked wasn't quite sloped enough
So we moved to a slightly steeper part and the kids were off! Wendy was even feeling good enough to slide down once or twice
After all that fun, it was time to sleep