pacific grove.

The week before last was my birthday week. I say birthday week, because it really was an entire week! I can absolutely say that this was my favorite birthday yet. My girlfriends kidnapped me to dance at a club in the Castro one night, Sam treated me to dinner at Chez Pennise in Berkeley, I'm getting a season package for the San Francisco Ballet- basically I was treated all week long by the best family and friends a girl could ask for. Thank you!

The cherry on top of a stellar week, was our weekend down in the Monterey Bay. A friend of ours invited us to use her family's condo in Pacific Grove, where we stayed for 4 days last weekend. It was right on the coast, and a perfect location to get to everything we've been dreaming of doing down there. With four days, we didn't feel rushed or anything, and yet we somehow made it all happen.

We spent the first day exploring this cute town. Pacific Grove is right up next to Monterey. There were some cute shops, and an amazing bakery that we stumbled upon. Well, more like, we saw a huge line and decided it must be good. Wow. Sam decided it was his favorite bakery. Ever. That's saying a lot.

We took our baked goods down to the beach to hang out, and had to chase off some pretty aggressive seagulls- one of which literally picked up a bag with an entire loaf of bread and dragged it away from me. Even as I was screaming and waving my arms, he wasn't about to let go. It was a good bread, so I don't blame him.

Pacific Grove is a stop for the monarch butterfly migration. They are super proud of this, and you can see butterfly symbols and art on every street corner. We got to visit the butterfly sanctuary, that is filled with eucalyptus trees, which the butterflies prefer. We went in the morning, so we didn't actually get the full effect. When the sun is not warm, the butterflies are sleeping. But, it was still pretty amazing to see so many sleepy butterflies, clinging to the branches like leaves. Every once in awhile one would fall off and flutter in a lazy circle before finding a new spot to rest.

We also went down to the tidepools at low tide to let Eliza play. She was a little wary, but curious enough if we held her hand. She liked sticking her fingers in the sea anemones, and picking up the hermit crabs. No worries, I taught her to be gentle. But, she did collect quite a few treasures to put in her tiny pockets- pebbles and seashells. The past few days, at home, her face lights up when she realizes that they are still in there. 

The sand there was like brown sugar, the way it fell apart in your hands. Eliza would ask to have her little feet buried, and then pop! them out to watch us act surprised. Then she would giggle and say "mo?" (more) and I would bury them again. We sat and watched the sun go down with our feet dug into the sand.