Whale Watching!

On Thursday we signed up for a 3-hour tour.  Sounded ominous if anyone still remembers Gilligan!

We have always wanted to go whale watching and we found a good place in Morro Bay that takes you out for 3 hours.  

This is the 53 foot boat we went on.  It holds up to 40 people but we only had 12 people which made it nice for moving around.

 We will go past Morro Rock which we learned was the core of an old volcano.  I wondered if we would see any rock climbers but found out that is not allowed as it is a bird sanctuary.

We passed these resting seals.  They rest from 2 weeks to 2 months!

Here are some resting on buoy which our guide called a Great White Snack Shack!

We got to see some otters!  And Grandpa got some good pictures of them:

Sea otters are very smart.  They have learned to use a rock as a tool.  They also have the densest fur in the animal kingdom at 1 million strands of hair per square inch!

And to me they always look like they are having such a relaxing time!

We're getting further away from the shore:

Grandpa stayed outside the whole time for picture taking.

I stayed inside quite a bit and visited with a woman from Dallas Texas.  Her husband apologized for his scruffy hair and beard but said they were preparing to be in a movie.  She was wearing  a Chosen sweatshirt so I asked if that was the movie.  Sure enough, they will be in the feeding of the 5,000, and they were in California at her sister's because she is a seamstress and they have to provide their own costumes.  I believe they said the shooting was in April.

Finally we saw a spout and the boat will head in that direction.

These are California Gray whales heading north to Alaska.

They can be 45 feet in length and weigh between 17 and 44 TONS!

We felt lucky to see them!

Finally it was time to say good by to the whales!

We headed back...

...and got a close up of the rock.

The city of Morro Bay is just ahead.

Still time later in the day for a sunset walk.

  What a great trip!!