Our Perfect Valentine's

Last week, Aaron, Riley & I went away for a few days to visit a place I have been wanting to go for some time now. It seemed like the perfect place to spend Valentine's day. There is a little place in Pismo Beach where thousands come to mate for 4 whole months! And hundreds come to watch. No, there is not much privacy for them, but it is a beautiful quiet place to spend with your own mate. I am not talking about humans, but Monarch Butterflies.

You may not be able to see them, but there are a bunch there. It is like, Where's Waldo?

Every year from February through March, thousands of Monarch Butterflies come to this small park, called Monarch Gardens on the coast of California, in Pismo Beach. I really wanted to visit this place, but we had to go before February was over in order to see the butterflies. So, last week, we went.

Here is a close up... & yes, there are 2 there.

We enjoyed a great walk amongst the big tall butterfly filled trees, & then discovered the beach hiding behind them. We had a great time with Riley, beach combing & looking for Sand Dollars. We even saw the neatest thing - this guy was riding this chariot-type thing with 2 horses pulling him on the sand & through the ocean. It was pretty cool.

It was a beautiful day

Cool, huh?

Our Beach Day in February

We stayed at a lovely place in Solvang, a quaint Danish town just north of Santa Barbara. It is a nice small town, with lots of cute shops, wine tasting, danishes or fudge at every other store, & a place that truly embraces its Danish roots. Once we returned from Pismo, we went for a walk & visited the Hans Christian Anderson Museum (which I was excited about because he was the original author of The Little Mermaid before it was Disneyfied - which I liked too, but it was not the same). After that we visited a place called The Olive House. They gave us a tasting of this amazing Balsamic Vinegar, aged 12 years. We ended up picking out our Valentine's gifts there - Mediterranean Olives for Aaron & Balsamic Vinegar for me. Yum! We returned to our room & made a wonderful dinner together. We enjoyed bacon wrapped jalepenos, balsamic vinegar marinated steak :-) , garlic mashed potatoes, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Delicious!

Our room with a view

The source of Baslamic goodness.

Just an odd name for a farm...

We found out that there was a short little hike nearby & decided to check it out before we headed home. We were so glad we did. We enjoyed the easy walk in the woods & were excited to discover the jewel of the hike - The Nojoqui Falls, a 100ft. waterfall in a lush Sylvan Canyon , surrounded by ferns, found in a secluded rarely visited county park. It was awesome!

We had a very happy Valentine's Day & we hope you did too!