We had heard from a number of people that conditions in Monterey Bay were highly favorable to krill, and there were record quantities. As a result, somewhat rare sightings of blue whales (the largest animal to ever live on earth) and less-rare humpback whales were pretty common this summer. So we decided to be spontaneous and get a potentially once-in-a-lifetime glimpse of blue whales.
We first went to Santa Cruz, crashed with Megan's old college friend Liz & family and had a great time there. Dahrius & Jai had fun sleeping together on the top bunk, and Ranier and Aoiffe really wanted to sleep together on the bottom bunk, but that didn't happen since they couldn't settle down.
We got up early the next morning and got on a small boat in Monterey. Conditions were calm and cloudy--good for boating.
Sea lions & harbor seals were abundant on the way out.
A first glimpse of a pod of humpbacks. We actually got really close to them, but we were too busy watching to take photos.
We also did get a few good looks of blue whales!! Amazing. Hard to get a sense of how big there were though when you only get a partial body view. The kids were also impressed, but unfortunately we all get a little queasy.
The blue whale is the REALLY big one. The image does a good job of capturing what you really see from the surface (a small fraction of the animal).
We had fun running around the wharf in Monterey afterwards. A trip worth taking!
