Day Trip in Northern California

I had a day off and a visitor from abroad (hi Ohad!), so we took a trip to some of California's parks and nice places:

1. We started the day at Los Gatos, a nice town at the foot of the hills (recommended: apple cider at blendz).
2. We continued to Santa Cruz and to the Natural Bridges park. There we saw hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies on their seasonal vacationing spot, before continuing down to Mexico. I've also learned the importance of a zoom lens (or lack thereof) when I realized that every one of my pictures turned into a spot-the butterfly puzzle.
   
3. From there, on route 1 north, to the Ano Nuevo park, where we had hoped to see some elephant seals. Alas, none were around. I've seen them before - I guess they're out of season.
4. Onward to the Pigeon Point lighthouse - one of the oldest in the US. Just looking at the sea around it, you can understand why it was needed. Now, as it faces closure, people try to preserve it as a museum.
   
5. From there we continued to Half Moon Bay, one of the most wonderful natural bays in the area (again, no seals - where are they when you need them? oh well...).
6. Back inland along rt 92. We finished at Stanford Mall - a very chic (and expensive) mall, right by Stanford U in Palo Alto. Try Max's Reuben sandwich...

Rest of the pictures from the trip can be found here. A Google map of the route can be found here (I actually tried embedding the map in this post, but this caused such a delay, I opted for a link).