California Love

As part of the Valentine weekend, my mom and I took my niece and nephew whale watching in the Santa Barbara Channel.  It was a truly gorgeous Southern California day.  We stood up in the front of the boat as we sped through the waves.  From the distance, you could see the islands through the haze.  This is the Anacapa arch as we left the harbor.

 Best day of wildlife I have ever seen on a whale watching trip in SoCal.  We caught two pods (one of three and one of seven) of gray whales, many dolphins, birds, sea lions.  The first friends to visit the boat was a pod of dolphins.  They were so excited to see us, they raced around and under the boat.  These were right beneath my feet.

 The first sign of whales: the spout. I learned on this trip that gray whales have a heart shaped spout.

 I love pelicans.  I have been trying to take pictures of them in flight forever, from the boat, I got some without even trying.

I caught quite a few waves from the whales.

 My niece says that these birds were a decoy. I was trying to snap a picture of them as we waited for the small pod of whales to surface again.  And, of course, I missed the chance to take the picture of the short breach... ah well.  I saw the whale fall back into the ocean and my niece got a video of it on her phone!

 Beautiful rainbow spout from the larger pod.  I didn't think I could catch it, but with seven of them spouting in succession, I had time to shoot several pictures -- one with the rainbow!

more whale tails

I ran out of battery on my camera as we rounded Anacapa Island right before we headed back for the harbor.

I will share more photos with some poetry Thursday in the future.