Saturday, April 23, 2016

Pacific Grove Natural History Museum

I'm a sucker for museums, natural history museums in particular.

So it's no surprise that one of the places I wanted to see on my next trip to the Monterey Peninsula was the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum.

Pacific Grove, aka "Butterfly Town USA," is the little city (population 15,500 or so) where Monarch butterflies gather en masse during their annual winter migration down south. Like by the millions.

It was the wrong time of year to see them, but that’s okay. Two places I’d had on a “To See” bucket list were the Point Pinos Lighthouse and the Pacific Gove Natural History Museum. I finally got a chance to see them last month.

Built in 1883, the museum is about the same size as the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. Most of its display area consists of birds, more than 400 specimens are displayed, including the formidable-looking California condor, and an extinct passenger pigeon.

‘Nuff talk. It’s time for photographs, a few of the many I took.











The Back Yard

It’s also got a back yard with more than 100 plants native to Monterey County, and a huge piece of jade:





Cross this one off my bucket list!

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