Mountains to Coast

 

You just gotta love living in California!  After the snow got bad, because it had rained on the mountain and turned the slopes into a huge ice field, we just took off and headed back for the coast.  Some days in January seriously felt like it was summer time, Swiss summer temperatures in any case.  Should I call it global warming or just luck?  Anyhow, we did enjoy ourselves at the beach, watching beautiful sunsets, hiking up hills and surfing.

 Reno is only an hour and a half from South Lake Tahoe.  We took a daytrip there, checked out some casinos and unfortunately didn't win any money playing the penny machines.  However, we did see this futuristic bus take off into the air.

 100 miles per gallon for half an hour straight while driving on curvy roads downhill fom Tahoe.

 Beach art in Santa Cruz.

Coffee art in San Luis Obispo.  Mmmmoca!

 Amy and I on Valencia Peak in Montana de Oro.

It wasn't just us who enjoyed the nice, warm weather. The animals got into the spring feeling as well, especially the elephant-seals and the monarch butterflies.

A huge cluster of Monarch Butterflies in Grover Beach.

And yes, they are mating.  But it looks a little like one big butterfly.

 Visiting with an Elephant Seal in San Simeon.

 There are hundreds of Elephant Seals at San Simeon at the moment, all different sizes from newborn babies to the big old bulls.

I can sense a fight coming on...

 Sunset from Hwy 50 on our way back up to South Lake Tahoe.

It finally snowed again a few days ago and we made our way back up into the mountains.  It didn't exactly dump as much as we were hoping for, but the freshly groomed runs in the morning are great fun.  When it gets too busy or tracked up on the slopes, we go for a little hike to find some untracked powder, or we just go home for lunch.

Heavenly