Its A Whale of a Tail

The first time I went to California was 25-years ago. I was there for just four days and the only thing I wanted to do was get nose-to-nose with the ocean. I did get to tour Long Beach in December (truly, you cannot experience the true meaning of Christmas until you see Santa in red velvet shorts leaning against a palm tree.), I got to see the Spruce Goose and the Queen Mary. 

Rather than take me to the ocean though, my aunt's friends took me to a German village for lunch. Yes...that is right, they took a girl from Iowa to a German village. OK, it was probably pretentious to order my meal in German, but really...a German village????

Still, I was in southern California in December where my cousins kept apologizing because the temperature was down in the 60s and the Long Beach airport ticket agent had never heard of freezing drizzle. As we flew out over the ocean the pilot said, "If you look out the right side of the plane you will see a pod of whales." Yeah, sure I would. We were already like hundreds of feet in the ai...oh my god!!!! I could...I could see them. Five of them swimming right below us. I was hooked.

CaDiva and I first got to go whale watching in Newport Oregon. I loved it. Being out on the ocean is so different, so much MORE than just watching it. And CaDiva got to say, "Kyptain, der be beasties down here." several times. When we started to plan this trip, I really wanted to go whale watching again.

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CaDiva went on-line and did her magic thing. She found Monterey Bay Whale Watching tours. The biologists have been featured on Discovery and Nat Geo, not to mention the tour is four hours and they give AAA discount. We had our reservation before we even printed boarding passes. What can I say, CaDiva is the tour planning Empress.

We got up early and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. The dock was at the far end of the little cluster of touristy gift shops, penny squishers, and chowder hawkers. The crew were informative and very excited about their little corner of the water, which always makes it more fun for me. I adore being shown around by a native who loves her hometown.

The wind was cold and HRH was in sandals and a light slacks. She huddled on the sunny side of the boat and toughed it out. The narrator pointed out the pod of ordinary dolphins, puffins, black footed albatross, sea lions, seals and other wildlife. The miles and hours slipped past us and you could tell the crew was getting worried they wouldn't be able to meet the guarantee of a whale or your next cruise free.

By this time the sun had warmed the air and HRH was getting her sea legs. She worked her way forward with me and we stood in the bow riding the waves and reveling in each new experience. I had to agree with HRH, even if we didn't get to sight a whale this was still a great trip. We watched the trough of waves fall away from the boat knowing we were going to feel the drop moments later. It beat the heck out of roller coasters.

We heard one passenger ask CaDiva after one of our gales of giggles and exuberant squeals as the bow fell to the bottom of the wave, "Don't you have water in Iowa?" CaDiva was too busy reveling in our sheer joy of the ride to do more than one of those long slow up and down looks and say, "Not any oceans, no."

Then about three hours in, a passenger saw a spout. We were all watching for them. We thought it was only one juvenile, but no. It was a mother and her calf. Two humpback whales. We watched for the spout first (which my niece insists is whale snot) then an arched back ...at which point HRH started to shout encouraging phrases such as, "Come on, I want to see tail. Give me some tail." and of course my favorite, "SLAP IT!" OK, we probably should have pointed out to her what she was saying, but...really, it was too funny.

Well as soon as the pair were spotted. all the cruises alerted each other and soon there were three boats sitting quietly on either side of the giant wonders. These were professionals, adhering not only to the letter but the spirit of the rules protecting the whales. There was one small private boat with its motor still running and the narrator warned us this was probably stressing the mom and she was working her way away from the disruptions.

Then the pilot of the little skiff started to steer right down the corridor created by the tour boats. Our captain, a professional marine biologist and a consummate gentleman hailed the private vessel. Once he had confirmed the man on board could hear him, the captain pointed out, not too gently, he may not want to drive between a group of whale watching boats, since that was usually WHERE THE WHALE WAS. The tiny boat ducked its little propeller between its stern and slunk away.

Since our cruise was four hours, longer than any of the other companies, we were able to stay out another hour after the other cruise boats turned back towards the wharf. It was a wonderful day. When we docked again we were filled with the excitement of the day and the beauty of the weather. We wandered the shops and did a little souvenir shopping and squished some pennies. One manual machine blanked our pennies without printing the selected image. But we persevered and came away with several new pennies for our passport.

Finally we decided it was time for a meal. But that is a story for our favorite meals chapter. I will tell you all about it tomorrow.