Making a memory in the butterfly grove

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Today, I'm heading to Pismo. My husband's side of our family camps there each Thanksgiving week. Denny has to work, but I'm taking our three daughters over for a few hours. We'll spend some time visiting with our cousins, aunts and uncles who are still there, and some time visiting the monarchs that winter in the grove next to the campground.

If you've never seen the monarchs, it's pretty amazing. I had heard of the butterflies that winter every year in Pacific Grove, but before three years ago (when we camped there Thanksgiving week), I hadn't known about the grove in Pismo, which annually hosts up to 100,000 migrating Monarchs.

According to the Web site for the grove, the Pismo Beach Grove is one of the largest in the state.

Although we experienced it first-hand three years ago, my youngest daughter wasn't yet old enough to remember the experience. Now, at 4, she is. So I want us to go back and see it again, so she can have a memory of that special experience. And returning there will reinforce the memory for our older daughters.

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~Maya Angelou