We love the SLO life

Last weekend, my parents were kind enough to offer to keep the kids a couple nights, so we jumped in the car and took a SLO trip. No, we didn't drive slowly, it stands for San Luis Obispo, and it's a little slice of heaven. Besides being a beautiful area, it's where the two of us met, fell in love, and lived the first year of married life, so it holds a lot of special memories. We make the trip as often as we can, especially since McLintocks has the best food I've ever tasted in my life.

We stayed in Pismo Beach at the Sandcastle Inn. It was ok for the price and on such short notice. However, we both decided that we much prefer the nearby SeaVenture for their fluffy beds, yummy breakfast delivered to the room, and the personal spa on every balcony. Next time. :)

Here's a view of the hotel from the beach; it's the one with the blue canopies

We had a pier-view room, and as advertised, here's the view of the pier from our room

"Man's Best Friend"

This was the best composition I could come up with for this yellow airplane giving scenic rides. Click the picture to make it a little larger.

Here's Brian in a cool tree at the North Beach Campground . A short walk through this well-maintained state campground leads to the monarch grove (pictures below!)

Trail to the grove

I think this guy was stalking the monarchs

Here's an example of what you can see at the monarch grove. There are huge clusters of monarchs hanging everywhere from the eucalyptus trees. Look closely at the center of the picture; they look like leaves at first glance.

The monarchs come to the beach to spend the winter

Strangely missing from this collection is the photo I *didn't* take. If anyone who was there that morning were to post a blog, I'm sure they would have this picture posted. It was a shot easily captured by those having trouble getting their lenses to reach the top of the trees where most of the clusters were located. Two monarchs were on the ground doing the twitterpated tango, if you get my drift. About 15 people were hovered around in a huge circle taking pictures. I think this is what reality TV has done to our culture; have they no sense of decency?? Give the happy couple some privacy, for goodness sake!