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Pacific Grove
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A few miles north of Monterey along the peninsula,
PACIFIC GROVE
- or "Butterfly Town USA," as it likes to call itself - began as a campground and Methodist retreat in 1875, where Christian revivalists prohibited booze, bare skin and reading the Sunday newspapers, and which still holds ornate wooden
cottages
from those long-forgotten days. One of the few other reminders of that pious period is the Gothic Revival church
St Mary's by the Sea
, Central Ave at 12th Street, an 1887 redwood marvel with a signed Tiffany window near the altar.
Ocean View Boulevard
circles the coast around the town, passing the headland of
Lovers Point
- originally called Lovers of Jesus Point - where preachers used to hold sunrise services. Surrounded in early summer by the colorful red-and-purple cloaks of blooming ice plant, it's one of the peninsula's best
beaches
. Every year, from November through early March, hundreds of thousands of golden Monarch
butterflies
come to Pacific Grove to escape the winter chill, forming orange and black blankets on the
Butterfly Trees
, on Ridge Road, a block west of Lighthouse Avenue. At the end of the avenue, near the tip of Monterey Peninsula, stands the 150-year-old
Point Pinos
lighthouse (Thurs-Sun 1-4pm; free), the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the California coast and, perhaps contrary to grander expectation, is basically a charming little farmhouse with a revolving light poking out from its roof. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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United States,
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