Cetacean bulletin
Just so you don’t think I’m ignoring you – I’m at my employer’s other place, on the Monterey Peninsula, doing strenuous employee activity like taking a puppy out for walks. The internet connection is slow as frozen molasses in Greenland, so posting may be a bit sparse for a couple more days.
This morning while puppy was sleeping off the first morning walk I zoomed off to Asilomar State Beach, and there staring out at the ocean I saw little white puffs in the distance so I looked harder and you know what, I think they were whales blowing. I’ve never seen THAT before. I watched and watched, and there were a couple that just had to be that, so the others – not quite as distinct or high or emphatic – must have been too. Whales do hang around here, so it’s not a supernatural claim.
Sounds great! I went out on a charter tour in Monterey Bay about 15 years ago, and there was no guarantee, but we did end up seeing a couple of whales and many, many dolphins. Good to know they’re still hanging around there! Coincidentally I was in Tacoma for Thanksgiving, then the skies opened up Friday and you could see the Olympics from the tree farm we went to out on the peninsula. :) The dreary weather must take some getting used to, There was 1 clear day, and 2 halfway sunny days in the dozen days I was there.
My old stamping grounds, lucky you!
Highly recommend Point Lobos, hiring a kayak at Lover’s Point and/or Red’s Donuts in Monterey. The kayaking is less trouble than it may seem and teeming with otters etc. Have fun and thanks for putting Hank Williams in my head first thing this morning!
And yes, very likely migrating humpbacks. Just the right time of year.
I wish I lived closer to whales. The closest to me would be in James and Hudson Bay to the north, or in the Saint Lawrence River and Gulf of Saint Lawrence. I hope to visit somewhere that I can see some, some day. Lucky you! Go whales!
How wonderful!
A decade ago I was in San Francisco, visiting my then-husband, whose job at Apple required him to spend months-long stretches in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. We had a couple of days and a rented convertible to get out of the city. I started out in a bit of a snit because I wanted to go north to Napa and wine country (wino that I am), but he insisted the drive south would be prettier.
How right he was. Carmel, Monterey, Big Sur. Such an extraordinarily beautiful part of the world. The colours are what I remember most. Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, seeing a semi-arid landscape of alien shrubs and grasses and succulents and such, in mustard yellow, deep purple, every imaginable shade of blue and blue-green and blue-violet, and little shocks of magenta and orange — perhaps wildflowers or berries or even citrus fruits, I don’t know. Overhead, the sky was a clear, endless blue, and with the top down we felt the cool ocean breeze, the sun-warmed hills, and the sharp, scrubby smells of the coast. Alongside us, the Pacific stretched out: another blue, this one so deep you could almost feel the depth of it just by looking. Darker than the Atlantic, darker than the Great Lakes, close to the Mediterranean azure I’d marvelled at off the coast of France, but a blue all its own — one that I’d never seen before or since. I loved the colours more than anything. I’m something of a collector of colour memories from my travels, and this one is especially treasured — a prized crown, studded with tiny jewels, each one a colour I can still feel and hold in my mind, even if I can’t see it.
But whales! Wow! They don’t have those anywhere near these parts! California is almost an alien world, isn’t it.
Oof, that’s beautiful, Arty.
And yes, it is. Fascinatingly alien.
Mel – I LOVE Point Lobos.
twiliter – the weather’s not always dreary! Often rainy Seattle is beautiful while rainy – dramatic cloud action and so on. Sometimes it is dreary as in solid pale grey with no drama, but by no means always. Anyway I’m weird in not liking endless cloudless sun.
Cetacean needed…
Ophelia, I share your weirdness but I didn’t know it for a long time. When I lived in the East Bay we had on average 9 months of endless sunshine each year. Then when I moved to the South and I experienced regular rain in all the seasons I realized what I had been missing. I’m sure I’d like the PNW if I was there more often, as I’ve only had a few samples. Rainforesty environments are much more to my liking.
Yay whales! Feel free to share some puppy pictures as well :D
Day trip from Seattle. If you drive south along 101 just south of Lincoln City OR, you’ll come to the Boiler Bay lookout (about 2 miles N of Depoe Bay OR – home of the Sea Hag diner which serves the best Monte Cristo sandwich imaginable – permitted moi but once per year…). Excellent viewing during the migration periods but there are almost always a few Grays in the area. (about 400 are reported to live year round along our coast.) They sometimes come within 30 yds of the cliff face to feed in the kelp beds. It is also not unusual to see a Blue or a Finback go by.
Seattle boasts resident Orcas. I haven’t seen them, but I see news bulletins about them on social meeja.