Uncanny Valley

This area is a combination of the public Coronado Butterfly Preserve and the private Ellwood Main Monarch Butterfly Grove. The butterflies are in the latter (because that’s where the trees are), but the best way to get there is through the former. I’m not sure why they made a public preserve that isn’t a good habitat, but it’s a start. The private part is doing OK for now, as it’s still free and open, and it has the eucalyptus trees the caterpillars like to eat. I had heard the young ones only ate milkweed because its what has the toxins the butterflies need for defense, but I guess once they encountered the non-native and fragrant trees they decided they worked just as well.

So you may be thinking this is not that amazing. You’ll walk through the wood and see a few butterflies and they’re pretty and all. Then you see a few more. You look up and they are fluttering between the top branches like they are relaying messages between trees. That’s when you see a huge clump of animals huddled together for warmth. They look like dead leaves at first, but then you realise, those are all butterflies. You look around and see more and more: They’re everywhere. When you stop moving, you can actually hear them. It sounds like leaves rustling, but there is no wind. Truly a spectacle. I tried to get audio of the flapping, but it was to soft to record. I did get some other animals near the marshy bit.

You have to go in the winter, and December through February is best. It was a bit chilly when I went, but the critters didn’t seem to mind. A neat thing about their huge migration is not that they are one of the few insect species to migrate, but that each butterfly only makes it part way. They only live a few weeks from egg to adult, and so a caterpillar that hatches in winter never sees the summer home. How then, do the butterflies keep coming back to the same spot every year when noone alive remembers being there? That is indeed the mystery.

This is a 5 inch gauge railway in the Oakland hills. Each car is big enough for two adults to sit next to each other. The views getting there and on the ride are great. The ride is pretty much a there-and-back trip of about 2 km or 12 minutes. Most of the riders will children and families but my sister and I enjoyed it anyways. Though one mom was so eager to ride that she threw her kid on before the train stopped. Note that the train waits at the station for about 5 minutes between trips. Anyway, here’s a sound snapshot of the trip.

While you wait to board, you can walk down the trail and see a smaller-gauge railyard run by Golden Gate Live Steamers. You can also see much of the track from the ride.

I had heard there was a memorial to the members of the rail club who died in WWII near the tunnel, but I didn’t see it. If you know anything about it, let me know.

Back in the day, I X-ed my hands up like a good straightedger. I still keep my edge (thought I hardly proselytize), so I have to admit that I am one of the few who thinks this is not a bad idea. Oktoberfest has become so one-dimensional (especially in the U.S.), being reduced to yet another excuse to drink. Oktoberfest is not a celebration of beer, Bavarians just like beer. The fest should be about more, especially when it is celebrated outside of Germany.

Cullman County is a dry county, so this event was not meant as a thumb-on-the-nose for drinkers. Its intention is mainly to celebrate German heritage. The town’s founder in fact was a German refugee. Not that I think that making a family-friendly alternative to things would be a bad motive, but that may help explain what sounds like an oxymoron to many of you.

Ok, so now that that’s out of the way, you are asking, so what happens in an eight-day Oktoberfest without beer? Well, there is German food, live polka music, and polka dancing. There are also tours of the local graveyard, dirndl and lederhosen fashion show, and a wiener dog race. I think the last one almost deserves its own page. And to wash it all down, the festbrau is a sparkling (soft) apple cider called OktoberZest.

I hear there are other dry Oktoberfests out there, like at the dry campus of the University of Utah, but I don’t have much real info on that.

A petrified troll lurks under the North end of the George Washington/Aurora Bridge in Seattle, still clutching a car in its huge hand. The car apparently used to have a time capsule in it, but that since has been removed. One can walk on and around the beast with no signs to dissuade you, nor is there any great danger in doing so. The sculpture is a public art project created in 1990 by Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead.