Finding Santa in Santa Places

Every year on Christmas day, we seem to hit some place (usually a beach town) which starts with Santa!

Maybe it is our subconsious seeking out the old man with the beard in the white foam on the beaches, we do not know.

This year, it was a trip to Santa Cruz to visit the Natural Bridges and the Monarch Butterfly preserves. We were in two minds, what with the rain pouring down in occasional bursts all through Christmas eve, but we decided to do the drive anyways.

It was with mixed success. The storm had blown out most of the butterflies and the rest of them decided to close their wings and huddle together. When they do that, you cannot really distinguish them from the leaves on the tall eucalyptus trees. Save for the occasional lone butterfly that was fluttering aimlesslly, we did not catch any magnificent site. Well, we at least know where this place is and will make another visit next year.

On our way out, we went down to the beach to see the natural bridges. Oh, what a sight it was! The sun went behind the clouds and made the whole place look something out of this world. It was a photographers dream, for a full four minutes before the rain came down and forced us to run to our vehicles.







No photos of the butterflies, except this pink one!







The magnificence of the Natural bridge! There were two bridges, but one collapsed recently.




Playing with the lone gull that was scouring the foam











Jr.'s first photo using the Digital Rebel. Not bad!




Finally, the stitch shots...

From atop the Butterfly preserve, looking down to the beach..




6 shot stitch




16 shot stitch. If only I could get the sun shining through the hole under the bridge. Now that would be some shot!




Here is to Santa Cruz!


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