Along for the Ride: A Whale of a Tale

On our second day of cruising, Tim and I traveled into the world of whale watching. I was so excited to experience this since I have a fascination for dolphins, and have swam with those amazing creatures. So the possibility of a whale up close, I just couldn't wait.

When we got in the boat to start traveling, I was in awe of the many navy ships that were also ported at this harbor. They had helicopters a fighter jets, and were just an incredible site, especially for this patriotic family. This was the one point in our trip that I missed Griffin, because I knew that he would be speechless with the sites and sounds of the helicopters flying so close over us, as they went in and out of the harbor.

We kept traveling out into the ocean, the tour guide was explaining that the grey whales were traveling south to baja, so there may be a possibility that we would see one. Then about a mile away, they crew thought they may have seen a whale. So we began to track this whale, and sure enough we saw this whale come up to the surface to take a breath and then retreat back to the bottom of the ocean, but not before giving a little wave of his tale. After about 15 minutes, we saw two more whales on the other side of the boat, and started to follow them, again just breathtaking. I got lost in the lens of my camera as I was snapping pictures of these whales coming up to the surface and then back down. As we were slowing creeping to keep a distance but keep up, everyone on the boat saw what looked like a sea lion splashing in the water, the crew debated what it was for about 5 minutes because no one really was sure, as it seemed too large to be a sea lion. However, this creature solved the mystery for everyone as it began to approach the boat.

This was not a sea lion, it was a grey whale calf. Probably around a year old, thinking that the boat was another whale or just looked fun to play with. This whale stayed on the surface and began to swim around the boat not just once, but about 15 or so times. I felt my body fill with goosebumps, and stayed stationary with my camera as I realized that the whale would keep coming back around, and I would hopefully capture a great picture. Now I say this after realizing what was happening on the boat itself. Keep in mind there were probably only 4 kids on this tour, and the rest were adults, grown adults. As the whale began its first circle around the boat, I lowered my camera from my face to turn to tell Tim how excited I was. However, he wasn't standing there. He wasn't there because this boat full of adults were running in a circle around the boat with the whale, and yes my husband was right in the middle of the crowd. It was just as entertaining as the whale to see all these grown-ups so excited and running in circles. That is when I decided to stay were I was to try and get as many pictures as possible. The whale stayed with us for about an hour or so, and then began to turn south to catch up with the adult whales we had seen earlier. It was truly an incredible experience, even the crew on the boat was screaming and just as excited because this rarely happens.