Each year, the homeschool school we go to has a whale watching field trip. I took Summer and Rachel about a decade ago. We didn't see whales, but we saw two or three kinds of dolphins and had a wonderful time.
About five years ago, Stan took Heather and Gwen. They didn't see whales, but they had a blast anyway and came home with what seemed like hours of video of dolphins swimming by the boat.
It was Kelly's turn, so we headed to the coast last week and I expected a lovely trip, but didn't have my hopes too high that we would see whales, but of course I was still hoping, because doesn't that spring eternally in the human heart?
Kelly was a little nervous as the boat hit the choppy water outside the harbor, but I promised her that it was safe and she calmed down, while I wondered if I should have been more honest and told her that it was 98% safe instead of 100% safe!
If you look, you can see lots of coots, two pelicans and a sea lion on the rocks we went past.
A school of common dolphins came right up to the boat and swan around and under us for a while. It was fun to watch them bowriding. I almost wanted to jump in and swim :)
And then, we saw whales! How exciting! There were two, an adult male and a juvenile gray whale. At one point, one of their tails came up all the way out of the water, dripping and shining in the sun, but of course my timing was off and my picture is kind of lame. Oh well.
Instead of a fishing boat, we went with scientists from the Ocean Institute. It was great, because they did so much teaching along the way. They collected plankton with this net...
...put it in a jar...
...and we looked at it under a microscope!
They also scooped some mud up from the ocean floor...
...rinsed it out over screens...
...and gave the kids tweezers to pick up and catalog the creatures they found.
Kelly and I had so much fun. It was great to be together and an all around amazing day.
About five years ago, Stan took Heather and Gwen. They didn't see whales, but they had a blast anyway and came home with what seemed like hours of video of dolphins swimming by the boat.
It was Kelly's turn, so we headed to the coast last week and I expected a lovely trip, but didn't have my hopes too high that we would see whales, but of course I was still hoping, because doesn't that spring eternally in the human heart?
Kelly was a little nervous as the boat hit the choppy water outside the harbor, but I promised her that it was safe and she calmed down, while I wondered if I should have been more honest and told her that it was 98% safe instead of 100% safe!
If you look, you can see lots of coots, two pelicans and a sea lion on the rocks we went past.
A school of common dolphins came right up to the boat and swan around and under us for a while. It was fun to watch them bowriding. I almost wanted to jump in and swim :)
And then, we saw whales! How exciting! There were two, an adult male and a juvenile gray whale. At one point, one of their tails came up all the way out of the water, dripping and shining in the sun, but of course my timing was off and my picture is kind of lame. Oh well.
Instead of a fishing boat, we went with scientists from the Ocean Institute. It was great, because they did so much teaching along the way. They collected plankton with this net...
...put it in a jar...
...and we looked at it under a microscope!
They also scooped some mud up from the ocean floor...
...rinsed it out over screens...
...and gave the kids tweezers to pick up and catalog the creatures they found.
Kelly and I had so much fun. It was great to be together and an all around amazing day.
3 comments:
It sounds like a lot of fun! I would love to do something like that!
Maybe next time you visit California!
How fun! I love whale watching. It's been a while, but going out on the ocean is so much fun!
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