Last month, when I was making plans for my mom's impending arrival, it occurred to me that this time two years ago we had gone whale watching and it was a great time. So I thought it would be fun to take her out and see some awesome whale action!
We decided to just drive to Seward for the whale watching tour, so it was a bit of a long day in the car. So the boys were pretty excited once we got on the boat and they didn't have to be strapped into their seats any longer. Plus they gave us a map of the route and Thomas loves maps these days. Nonni and the boys are checking out of path and what marine life we should be looking for.
Speaking of marine life - we got such nice views of the whales last time that I decided to rent a more powerful zoom lens from the photography store in town to play with and hopefully get some awesome photos. I had no idea how large this lens was going to be! Here's the comparison of my 18-200mm lens next to this 80-400mm. It even has a mount to attach it to the tripod instead of the camera! I didn't end up doing that, but I can see where it might have made life easier. I figured the boat wasn't exactly staying still either, so the gains would be minimal.
I packed the boys backpacks full of toys and snacks for the day. We were sitting down for about 2 minutes before they started pulling out all of their trains and construction vehicles. Apart from Henry trying to mimic a bulldozer backing up, it was a fairly quiet way to keep them entertained...!
Off we went into Resurrection Bay! There are pretty much always otters right outside the harbor and today was no exception. Except today, I could zoom in and see their adorable faces! This guy was grooming himself while keeping an eye on us. Apparently they have to groom themselves quite a bit to make sure their fur stays aligned to keep them warm.
Our boat captain stopped for us to get a closer look at a bald eagle. He was up hiding in a tree when we first spotted him, but he swooped down for us to get a better look.
Apparently some seagulls were mad about his appearance though, because they chased him away. Seagulls don't care if he's the national bird, they don't like eagles! But it was fun to watch him landing so majestically. I can see why such a gorgeous bird would have inspired our forefathers to make eagles a national icon.
Haha - or maybe not. He looks about as ridiculous soaking wet as I do. Well certainly as grumpy about it as I would be. :)
It was a pretty awful day weather-wise. It was sunny and bright yesterday, but we got none of that today. It was windy and rainy and just blah for photo taking. Though the sun nicely came out once we were on the drive back home. (Figures...)
The tour goes on through rain or shine, but there is no guarantee that you will actually see a whale on the Gray Whale Tour. Thankfully, there is plenty of marine life that make Resurrection Bay their home and don't just migrate through. And even the seagulls look more exciting when you can zoom in on them! This time I noticed that they are actually hanging out together in pairs, which just seems super endearing! (Even with all the bird poo on the rocks.)
The Stellar Sea Lions were hanging out on their usual rock. They were so happy to see us that they started yelling at us! The boat captain assured us that we weren't making them mad, it was just how they communicated.
I think the sea lion on the right is just as grumpy about the weather as I was. You know he would have preferred sunshine!
See the nice gentle seas? Yeah, me either. I see sea sickness in my future... We hadn't made it out to the mouth of the bay yet and last time that part made me a little queasy and it was super calm compared to today. It was about this time that I decided to go ahead and take another sea sickness while I was still feeling ok...
I wasn't the only one who wasn't feeling great - the captain started out into the bay and the waves were pretty rough. He explained that the height of the waves wasn't as much of a problem as the steepness. We hit one particular one and the people standing outside actually went up into the air when we dropped down the other side of the wave. Which is when the captain reminded everyone it would be a good idea to hold on!
After poking out into the bay, the captain decided everyone would be more comfortable if we just went to the other side of the bay instead of out into the ocean. No one disagreed!
Lucky for us, we found a Harbor Seal just chilling out when we made it safely across. Harbor Seals are apparently a lot less into boat visitors than the seal lions. She was giving us some serious side-eye when we passed by.
But we finally saw whales! Not the anticipated Gray Whales, but Killer Whales are pretty fun to see as well! The weather has obviously not improved at all, so the photos weren't terribly exciting, but I wanted to prove we *did* actually see some whales.
Mom seemed pretty happy about the Orcas! She hadn't ventured out for any of the other marine life, which was mostly because she was playing with the boys and they were currently both napping. In spite of the perfectly awful weather, we all had fun. It would have been more fun to see the Gray Whales, but it was fun to just hang out with some of my favorite people. :)