New 52 | Week 16: Whale(less) Watching

Wow, for a minute I didn't know what week we're on! It's amazing that it's already Week 16 in New 52 this year.

Todd and I took the day off last Friday to go whale-watching. We had purchased 2 whale-watching tickets on thedailysave.com for 50% off. Great deal! Now, we've gone whale-watching before, so that part is not new. But the last time we actually saw whales on a whale-watching trip was back in 2000, before digital cameras. Then we went again in 2006 and didn't see any whales. So, I was hoping this time we would SEE whales and capture it on digital camera for all to see!

We went to lunch first at JV's Mexican down on Morena Blvd. Todd had been there before, a long time ago, when he was recording an album with The Northstar Session down there. He remembered it being good. It was awesome and authentic! I had two homemade tamales and they were fabulous. Not all Mexican places make tamales.

Then, on to Seaforth to get on the whale-watching boat. A view of the marina.


Our boat was called the "Eclipse".


As soon as we left the marina, we saw this little sea lion. What a cutie.


Then, we caught sight of some bottlenose dolphins, inside the bay!




Like my windblown look? It was very windy out there on the water!

Another thing about being out there on the Pacific Ocean... even though it was a very warm day (80 degrees), it's chilly on the water. It's always the case, even in the summer.

Some sailboats were out.


Todd caught some seagulls and pelicans flying over the water. Pretty cool pics!


We even saw a Navy submarine surfaced. This was as close as we were allowed to get.


The inside cabin of the boat had tables and bench seating, along with books about whales, dolphins, etc.




Point Loma sticking out there, in the distance.


We had taken some anti-seasick pills and they made both of us drowsy. So periodically we went back inside the cabin to put our head down and rest. Better that than our neighbors who threw up into clear ziplock bags! Gross! :-|

Suddenly, the captain and the naturalist on board said over the intercom that there was some kind of ray out there. So we went out to look.

Ooo, it actually was pretty big!

We were out there, 9 miles from shore, when we came upon a large pod of dolphins. They were spectacular! Just dolphins everywhere, going in and out of the water, following the wake of our boat!










It was pretty hard to catch a good picture of the dolphins. They moved fast and we didn't know where they were going to pop out of the water next. I caught a little bit on video here.



Like Todd's windblown look? :p


We thought a three-hour trip was a little long. After a while I was ready to be on land again. We didn't catch sight of any whales this time. I was a little disappointed, but the overall experience was good. Not many people can say they took a day off work and went on a boat into the ocean to look for whales, and found a large amount of dolphins. So I'm very happy we went! :)



PS - I know some of you are leaving links, and that's great! But you could ALSO leave comments on this post if you're so inclined. I love reading all your comments on my blog, but lately there's been less of them. I know you're still out there, and I miss you! :)

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About This Project

New52 is a project started by Peppermint and I to encourage each other and others around us to try something new every week in 2011. The "new" each week doesn't have to be something big. It could be something as simple as ordering a new dish instead of old standbys at your favorite restaurant. It's simply opening your heart up to NEW possibilities.

Don't worry if you're late getting started on joining in. It's totally OK if you miss a week here or there. We encourage everyone to keep an open mind about trying something new. This is a life project, and a photography/blog and even scrap challenge if you wish. If you participate this week, please leave a link to your blog post in the link list below. You can also post images to our New 52 Flickr Group! We would love to see what you were inspired to do.