Whale Hunting

Before I tell the tale our week-long hunt for humpback whales, I would like to give thanks to the millions of tiny fish who brought an incredible number of birds and mammals to our part of the California coast to feed.  You rocked our world.

Our story begins last Sunday night when I saw several posts on facebook about whales feeding in Avila Bay.  I went to bed feeling disappointed because we spend so many weekends at the beach and had missed a perfect day to see a whale.  The next morning as I picked up Oliver from school, my sister showed me a video she took of the whales that morning.  We dropped all of our plans and headed straight for the beach.

Whale Hunting Day One:

I threw the kids in the car and sped out to the beach.  My heart was beating rapidly and my hands were shaking a little.  Yes, the prospect of seeing a wild animal makes me quite crazy.  Oliver and I were laughing and singing about whales.  Life was going to be so good at the pier.  We pulled up to the pier and jumped out of the car.  A woman told Oliver, "There is a mommy and baby whale out there right now."  I almost died of happiness.  We ran out to the end of the pier.  I asked a woman if she had seen a whale.  She replied, "There are whales here?"  My excitement began to wane.  Pearl and I smiled at seals and Oliver spent time with fishermen.

Watching pelicans dive over and over was interesting, but we wanted whales...badly.  We waited for hours before we finally threw in the towel.

That night I photographed two spiders killing a fly and told myself, "This is just as cool as watching humpback whales, only on a smaller scale."

Whale Hunting Day Two:

It's a really good thing I have a husband who loves animals almost as much as I do.  Glenn, Pearl and I headed out the next morning after dropping Oliver off at school.  The seal lions were putting on a great show, but no whale could be found in the bay.  Can you see the disappointment in my eyes?  I was putting on a brave face for Pearl (Although Pearl thought she was seeing whales the whole time.  She saw at least twenty).  

We drove away from the pier certain the whales were gone for good.  Glenn noticed a pod of dolphins on the drive home and we stopped to watch a spectacular show.  I finally felt satisfied.  The dolphin show was more than good enough.

Whale Hunting Day Three:

My husband is a pretty great guy.  He still wanted to see some whales, so he agreed to pick me up after work for another go at it.  Day three was our lucky day, because I spotted a whale swimming away from the pier just as we arrived.  

We drove to the closest bait ball and waited.  Glenn had the camera when the whale rocketed out of the water to grab a mouth-full of fish.  Everyone watching cheered.  It was glorious.  

Whale Hunting Day Four:

The kids and Glenn had a few hours to kill until I got off work.  They decided to drive to Avila one last time to look for sea life.  Glenn called me when I got off work.  He said, "We are tired and hungry, but I think you should drive out here right now."  Glenn, Oliver and Pearl had seen a whale at the end of the pier and were watching another pod of dolphins play.  

Glenn scraped together some Cheerios from the floor of the car for the kids and we dressed them in whatever old sweaters we could find.  Our car isn't dirty because we are lazy, we do it for survival purposes.   The four of us headed out to the pier once more.  I looked up and saw a whale swimming toward the pier.  "RUN!"  

We were hoping we would be faster than the whale.  We were almost to a bait ball when Glenn said, "You should have your camera ready."  Just then a huge mouth surged out of the water not more than 50 feet from us.  I missed the shot.  This is what my picture could have looked like.  It is a photo taken by my friend, Todd Gaily, at the same pier.

I'm happy I got to see it without looking through a lens.  I have the best mental picture.  All of us were on a serious nature high for the rest of the evening.  Oliver said it was the best day of his whole life.

Christmas Card Outtakes

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is dress my kids in nice clothes and take them outside to try and get the perfect Christmas card picture.  The hardest part is picking out just one picture.  Generally all of the "no" pictures go into a folder never to be seen again.  This year I decided to publish the cute, funny and imperfect pictures from this year's sessions (Glenn didn't like my favorites from session one so we had two!).

So many of the pictures captured the love that Oliver and Pearl have for each other.  I nixed these sweet pictures because the kids weren't facing the camera.

Glenn thought we should have one of the pets in the card this year.  Pumpkin was featured in our card a couple of years ago, so we thought it would be nice to include Lotta.  Lotta really wants to eat our cat, Otter.    Otter decided to tease Lotta and walk by the photo shoot meowing.  Here we almost got a good shot, then Otter caused Lotta to jump up and knock the kids off of her.

Again, Otter disrupted this perfect scene.  All eyes are on him!

Not Christmas card worthy, but sometimes I love the "set up" pictures when I am checking the light.  Pearl is having a nice talk with Lotta in this picture.

Here are a few more of my favorites.  I hope those of you who receive our card this year agree with our final pick.  And if you are not on our list, but would like to be, please send me your address!  

My Camera Sickness

I've been on call all week, so instead of getting tipsy on the 31st, I stayed sober enough to answer compelling questions like, "Is my fallopian tube coming out of my vagina?" Don't worry, it wasn't. I also spent the week taking hundreds of pictures. I have been a little sick about having my camera available for pictures. Driving home from work (without my camera), watching the blue moon rise, was agonizing. I also tried not to have a fit when I learned that we drove right by a golden eagle devouring its prey. I'm sure those "once in a blue moon" opportunities will present themselves again.

So what to do with the hundreds of pictures? I decided to pick my favorites and publish them here. I'm hoping to blog about something a little more exciting tomorrow. We will have to see how things turn out.

Slender Salamander


I took this picture for our new lip balm display.


Pumpkin Smiling


Blue Moon Behind a Tree


The neighbor's puppy stole Oliver's sword.


Frozen Bee

My New (Slightly Used) Christmas Toy

I wasn't expecting anything for Christmas this year. After I crashed the car, I figured I had used up any extra Christmas money. My wonderful husband really surprised me this time. He got my parents and his parents involved and bought me a beautiful new camera. Now he is going to be faced with even more annoying pleas to stop the car. Stop the car, I have to take a picture of that long-horned cattle nursing her calf! Stop the car, I need to get a shot of that herd of elk!

Christmas was exciting for Oliver as well. He received great toys, books, clothes, a Mac Truck (the highlight of the morning) and a bike. And to think I actually worried he wouldn't have enough to open. After he put all of his new toys into a box (to save for later), he spent the rest of the morning playing with a wrapping paper roll, his trampoline and dirt. I know what I'm getting him for Christmas next year!



We finally pried him away from his cheap/environmentally friendly toys and forced him to try out his bike.

I convinced Glenn this morning that we needed to drive to the coast to practice taking pictures with the new camera. We bundled up and headed north of San Simeon to take pictures of the elephant seals. My new camera is a bit more difficult than my trusty old Olympus. I think I need to spend more time reading the manual and possibly take a class to get some better pictures. Here are some of our highlights from the photo shoot today.

Jessica:

Oliver, in his usual fashion, made friends with a cool couple from Santa Barbara. He sat with them and ate their picnic. Making friends with complete strangers is a piece of cake with Oli.

Some seal shots:


Glenn:

Glenn got this cute picture of Oliver holding my old camera. He looks like a little photojournalist.

Yikes-attack shots!


Oliver:

Oliver took this great pic of my camera from Glenn's shoulders. Isn't it pretty?

Here are Oli's seal shots:

Manzanita Bees

I planned on not blogging this weekend to give myself a break. Oli and I went on a hike and took our cameras along in the hopes of spotting a bear. Instead we found this beautiful Manzanita in bloom with dozens of bees collecting its pollen. I can't resist sharing some of our pretty pictures.

Jessica's Pics (Olympus Camedia camera):




Oliver's Pics (V-tech Kidizoom camera):