More Exploring Around Santa Cruz

This is such a beautiful area--the beaches and coastline, the forests, the cool vibe of the town (people in the grocery checkout line talk about surf spots and the current wave conditions).  We took Tucker to the dog beach and visited the butterfly's at Natrual Bridges State Park.  I got up before sunrise one day and went to world-renowned surf spot, Steamer Lane, and took some shots of the surfers waiting for waves.  Then we visited with my old work buddy, Dave Thomas, and went to a mountain winery for some tasting during the solar eclipse.  Having a great week!

Every year the monarch butterfly's return to the same grotto in Natural Bridges SP for the winter. These insects are the fourth generation descendents of the prior years' butterflies whose offpring traveled all the way to Idaho and back, with each generation only living a few weeks or months.  By December there will be many times more of them here in Santa Cruz, as they have just started to arrive.  My neck was sore from looking up at them hanging from the eucalyptus trees!

Burrell School Winery is located way up in the mountains between Santa Cruz and San Jose.  The views were beautiful (and the wine was good!)

We didn't know it, but a partial solar eclipse was going on when we arrived at the winery. Conveniently, they had a welder's mask to look through and I got this shot by awkwardly shooting through the mask.  Notice the sunspots.

The vineyards were gorgeous and the last of the grapes were still hanging on the vines while the leaves are starting to change color.