Since we've been in LA, we have not really celebrated all holidays to the fullest. One of our resolutions for 2010 was to celebrate each and every holiday and birthday. Whether it is giving a gift, doing something nice for each other, throwing a party or taking a road trip--whatever. We just realized we needed to take more advantage of the days that were meant to be met with jubilation (thus, the Valentines Day whale watching tour).
Funny enough, whales are actually quite romantic mammals. Maybe seeking out these great beasts was more suiting for Valentines than we would have ever thought. I read an article about a book the other day that I really want to read. It's called: The Whale: 500 Days of Blubber. The article mentioned that a fin whale can be heard by its counterpart as far as 3,000 miles away! Whales also often choose one mate for life and (this is the part I really found interesting) they often partake in foreplay before doing the deed!
The whale watching tour was two hours long and we were promised to see some sort of sea creature, or money back guaranteed. The ride started off kind of slow. The first thirty minutes we didn't see much besides beautiful million dollar homes along the coast and the occasional yacht or sailboat. Then out of no where an entire school of dolphins appeared, it was incredible! They came right up to the boat. They must of enjoyed the wake the boat created because the followed us for quite some time. Unfortunately, it all happened so quick, I wasn't able to get any really good pictures of the school as a whole. Bryan and I joked that it would be funny if the group of dolphins was on a human watching tour. Hey, ya never know.
We were nearing the end of the tour and although the dolphins were amazing, we were getting pretty disappointed that we hadn't seen any whales. Just as we were probably less than a mile from the dock, the captain came on over the loud speaker and told us to look to our left. Immediately everyone aboard slung to the left side of the boat. There it was: the backside of an enormous Grey Whale. We watched as his back and blowhole barely skimmed the water, then back down he would go. The size of this guy was truly breathtaking. We followed the whale for awhile. Pretty soon other boats caught on that there was a whale in the area and before we knew it about ten other sail, motor and tour boats were hot on the trail of this whale. We were lucky enough to see him come up for air a couple of more times. He never raised his tail, but seeing the small portion of his back alone, really gave a clear picture of how big he was. HUGE.
The captain came on once more, this time to announce our two hour tour was coming to a close, but he did have one more treat for us. As if they had been told on cue, a group of sea lions sunbathing on a dingy lifted their heads to say hello. I've heard sea lions are really ferocious, looking at them cuddled all together, you would never guess it.
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