This morning, we decided to check out those "clusters" of ladybugs that many friends reported sightings of. We had the choice between several locations and we chose Purisma Creek Redwoods OSP. Even though it was not the closest place from home, we thought we could spend the whole day around Half Moon Bay after having walked to the ladybugs gathering point. After all, today was Superbowl day and the whole country would be watching, which means "no traffic". Yay!We started following the main trail along the Purisma Creek and saw a lot of banana slugs. They were just about everywhere. I don't remember having seen that many at once. We were not sure ladybugs would still be around but other hikers confirmed they had seen them. We finally reached our destination less than a mile into the hike. Lucie noticed them first. They were everywhere, and yet, not so obvious as they were blending surprisingly well. It was a very interesting sigthing. The kids could take a good look at them (Lucie even collected a few that she later released) and we took too many pictures.
The total hike was about 1.6 miles and about 200 feet of elevation gain. Easy for kids.
We then went to downtown Half Moon Bay, had lunch at "Chez Shea", which was yummy, and headed to the beach for some wading and kite flying. The weather at the beach was awesome, although I wouldn't have minded a little bit of wind (for the kite).
We then went South, with a first stop at Pescadero for a couple of oven-hot Artichoke-Garlic bread from the Country Bakery - yummy again, and a quick stop for coffee in Davenport before checking out the Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. While we were there, we continued driving down the Santa Cruz coast down to the lighthouse where we stopped to watch Monarch butterflies and the sunset.
What a day!
My photos are here.
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