Day 7: Whale Watching

Our whale watching excursion was all the way in Ventura, 2 hours away from our hotel in Anaheim.  We woke up at 6 am, left about 15 minutes behind schedule, then drove through LA and the worst traffic imaginable.  The ship sails at 9am, so of course we made it there by 9:04.  Our boat had already pulled out, but we made pouty faces and they radioed it back for us.

We immediately saw some sea lions crowded on top of a buoy, and some dolphins playing in the surf.  "I saw a whale!" William exclaimed as the first dolphin leapt past. This is going to be great, thought I.  Then the boat picked up speed, I began to feel nautious.  Jadzia started crying.  I took a swig of children's gravol and tried not to think about it. While Adam wrangled the children, I puked over the side of the boat and felt instantly better.  One of the crew brought me water and some gorn-awful ginger candies, which I ate just in case they would help. I stood at the railing and enjoyed the cold wind for a while.

Then Adam had to use the head so I was back to Mommy duties.  The instant Jadzia was on my lap, she vomited all over me.  The helpful crewmember brought me paper towels and wipes.  A few minutes later, Jadzia got cranky again and I thought she would puke but instead she fell asleep in my arms.  At that moment, the ship started to slow down for our first whale.

The whales we saw were humpbacks, just like the ones in Star Trek IV. And we didn't just see them in the distance, either.  Some swam right up to the boat (the Captain said that this is called "mugging"). They splashed and rolled around in the water.

We also saw two types of dolphins, both of which swam up to the boat.  The bigger ones (which I forget the name of now) were swimming under the boat and jumping right beside us.  Every once in a while, a seal or sea lion would poke its head out too.

Jadzia slept through the whales, and woke up as we were approaching Chanel Islands.  There she enjoyed the pelicans. Those goofy-looking birds really look amazing when they dive, straight down like an arrow.  The Captain drove the boat right into a large sea cave.  As we approached, William got nervous of the dark so he lay down on the deck.  I couldn't help but laugh.

On the way back the waves weren't as bad so noone got sick.  William fell asleep on my lap and I had to wake him when the boat docked.  The crew member apologized that we had had such a rough start, but I told him it was worth it.  We bought Jadzia a stuffed dolphin and William a stuffed whale at the gift shop on the way out.