Monterey/Marina del Rey, California

The most memorable part of Monterey was the butterfly reserve. Michael, Finn and I took the bus out to an area where monarch butterflies come for the winter. It's a protected area, and really, it's not much to look at, but it has the exact conditions to keep them returning each year. It was a bit early to see them actually hibernating. In fact, there weren't very many to be seen. But we got all excited and took pictures of one of the bushes that they were frolicking in and around. On the way back to the boat we had planned to stop at Pacific Grove's Natural History Museum, but found out it was closed on Sunday and Monday and we left on Tuesday. So we had to content ourselves with views of the pelicans, Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf!

We traveled for three days and two nights to get to Marina del Rey. It was a smooth

 passage, but we were glad to get in. That's a long time to be rocking and rolling around in that boat without a lot of good sleep. Since we missed the Natural H

istory Museum in Monterey, Michael, Finn and I decided to take the bus to the LA County Natural History Museum. We're getting pretty confident with our abilities to use mass transit, so gamely hopped on the bus and headed out. We only got on one wrong bus, but Michael quickly realized our peril and we exited at the next stop. Hey. It could happen to anyone.

The Natural History Museum is located near the USC campus, at what is called the Exposition Park, which besides the NHM, includes The Museum Of Science and Industry, The California African American Museum, The Coliseum and an Imax Theater. Big, busy place. Just outside the museum was an additional exhibit about spiders. So we bought dual admissions and went to spiders first. 

There were around 20 different spiders in little habitat cages. A few were rather exotic. Lots of tarantulas. One that was especially fun to see was the "bird eater" tarantula, which, the display explained, is named that because of its size, not because it actually eats birds. Which came as a surprise to me and I'm sure would be to many of past first and s

econd graders, who all learned from me that since it's so big it needs to hunt birds in order to get full. Ah, well! Needless to say, it was gigantic! Much bigger than my tarantula, Pinky. Also in the exhibit, in an adjoining room, were bushes and plants, with exquisite giant orb weaver spiders hanging in them.

Next we went into the museum, which was not as big as the one in New York but never the less, was very good sized. It was pretty typical, as Natural History Museums go.  There was a t-rex and a triceratops in the lobby, but the other dinosaur displays were closed, which was a disappointment. The rocks and minerals department was great. It was disillusioning, however, to discover that there was no entomology display. Again. I'd found the same situation when I visited the New York museum last March. What is with that? Don't they know that pound for pound there are more insects in the world than people? How can you have a natural history museum without an entomology exhibit?

We wandered around for a couple of hours and then reconnoitered for lunch at the museum cafe. We decided we were done with the museum and only needed to stop at the Museum Store. Before I went in, I mustered up the courage to ask one of the museum information people about the lack of an insect exhibit. She, of course, had no idea, and looked at me as if to say, "And you would like to see that because..." But to her credit, she pulled out her directory and called... wait for it... the entomology department! Then she handed the phone to me. I was speaking to a fellow named Wayping. I asked him if they had any insect specimens for public viewing.  We chatted for a while about why thee were no specimens on display. He explained that the museum's collection can be viewed on-line, which does not seem at all satisfying to me. Long story short, he said he had the time to show us specimens. I suppressed a whoop of joy and went to find Finn and Michael. Wayping (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right) came to meet us at the store, and took us upstairs to the entomology department. He asked us what we wanted to see, so we just said, "The big stuff!" They have drawer after drawer of specimens in these floor to ceiling rolling cars. He pulled out a bunch of drawers to let us see African beetles, rhinoceros beetles, giant atlas moths, luna moths, walking sticks, butterflies, grasshoppers, and the most colorful iridescent beetles I've ever seen! It was great! I was so excited that I forgot to take any pictures! After about 15 minutes  (I could have stayed there a lot longer), we felt like we had imposed on Wayping enough,  concocted some lame excuse about having to run along and did. 

The rest of our stay in Marina del Rey has been uneventful. It's a nice marina with a park right in the middle.  The weather has been sunny and warm, with some serious wind going on most days and nights. The rigging on the boat makes a perpetual gonging sound- day and night. Earplug central! Today is Marina del Rey Days at our marina, so the place is crawling with people, kids, games, food, music. You know the drill. Tomorrow we leave for Catalina for a couple days, then on to San Diego. We're monitoring the weather reports about the hurricane down in the Baja area, and are glad we've only come this far!

Until later...

Patty