Whale Watch!

We (Grammy & Grampy T, my parents, Nick, Dianna, Angie, and the three of us) celebrated Grampy T's 86th birthday, by going whale-watching. When I realized a couple days before the trip that the boat ride was four hours long, I got a little nervous about how Emily would do on a boat for that long. When we arrived at the boat, we were told that the whales had moved further away, and it would be a 6 hour cruise. We took a deep breath and decided to consider it an adventure. After a long three hours (I've developed a bit of a motion sickness problem in my old age, so I was feeling not-so-great most of the time), we arrived at the spot the captain had promised us. The whales have been uncharacteristically social this summer - staying together in a large group... so we were treated to an amazing display. We saw dozens of whales, often in groups of 3-4 surfacing and diving right alongside the boat. From a bit more of a distance, one whale breached (came completely out of the water to flip) over and over. Another came up right next to the boat to slap his tail down on the water, splashing us as we watched from the railing, and then rolling over on his back & side and waving & slapping his flippers. Incredible, and worth the 7 hours asea! (Unfortunately, we managed not to get a group picture.)