Lonesome George and the Bleep Bleep Kid....

Hello again All.


I must admit I am a little melancholy as I return to the land of blogging after taking a week off to play with my friend Jen. It was so amazing to have Jen and her mom, Wanda, here for seven whole days. I don't know how the time flew by so fast, but they are now safely home. I am now free to wish away the next three weeks until my folks arrive for Thanksgiving. These are the times when I most miss living near our beloved friends and family. Of course, that would now be impossible as you are all spread all over the globe.


Jen and I managed to prove that at thirty plus quite a few.... we have finally grown up, a little anyway. We did not get into any trouble and probably for the first time ever don't have to edit the tales of our week. We, alright I, had one minor "polite discussion of the finer points of customer service" with a manager (allegedly) at our Marshall's store. Suffice to say, the customer apparently is NOT always right and customer service is officially dead! But I am not bitter, just temporarily on strike from shopping at Marshall's. Where is TJ Maxx when you need one?

We hit all of the tourist highlights, Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, Asilomar, Pacific Grove, Big Sur Highway, Carmel by the Sea and last but certainly not least, the Ghirardelli chocolate store. There was one minor negative to our week. How can I put this nicely so as not to discourage future guests? Apparently Fall is conducive to an increase in different types of Kelp making their way to our beaches. This unfortunately brings with it a not so lovely aroma of rotting sea life. OK, so there is no way to sugarcoat it. The beach just stinks right now, literally. It makes the drive to Big Sur all the more beautiful because driving along the cliffs you can see the beautiful shoreline, but don't have to smell it. Jen and Wanda were real troopers. Smelly or not it is still the ocean, and for the three of us nothing in the world tops a beach!

So, with our immense love of all things water we planned a girls' day whale watching. This is where we met Lonesome George and the Bleep Bleep Kid. We chose a four hour morning trip out of Moss Landing. My hope was departing out of Moss Landing (where we had observed the whales on our first trip) earlier in the day would avoid some of the horrendous swells we experienced on L's infamous vomit cruise a few weeks earlier. That captain had assured us that although our trip was uncharacteristically rough, that morning cruises were always much smoother. Thanks so much for delaying that information to the parents of two small landlubbers. Happily, when we made it to the harbor, the water was flat like a pond. This would continue for the whole day. We never had the first swell or spray cross our bough. What's not to love? A parade of Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and Sea Otters escorted us through the Marina out toward the Bay and we were already content and thrilled with our choice.

This would be a decent shot if you were looking for a seagull, unfortunately I was trying to snap the otter underneath him....




These two sea lions on the pier were cussing each other up a storm. Lover's quarrel perhaps?




Before we even left the harbor, we had our first very rare siting for this area, we got two good looks at a Minke Whale before he took a dive and disappeared completely. Even Captain Noel was quite impressed! We rode through thousands of considerably impressive jellies. One more reason not to swim in our waters, as if Great Whites, Orcas, and arctic-like temperatures were not enough inspiration to stay dry.

Here is a decent example...



We ventured further out into the bay looking for other large mammals when the Captain got a radio transmission that a regular Fall visitor had made his annual appearance. Off we raced to get a glimpse of Lonesome George, a single male Orca, who had been spotted by another vessel. Apparently old George doesn't play well with others and has been ostracized from his pod. Every fall he returns here to fish and put on a show for the boaters. We were really quite lucky to get to see this majestic creature. His dorsal fin is estimated at six foot tall. Yes, you read that right. He made Shamu look like a porpoise. We stayed with George for about 20 minutes before our Captain decided a couple of other boats were stressing him and we moved on to search for humpbacks. I would show you some incredible pics if my battery had not died..... Shoot me now!





Before we go further, I will explain briefly and with as much PC as possible about the Bleep Bleep Kid. Our lone deckhand was a very nice and well-informed woman who happened to bring her son along on this trip. I think she is probably better with sea life than with humans....
Bleep Bleep is not my oh so affectionate nickname for this lovely child, although I could insert several colorful adjectives. This was the song/mantra he sang as he danced around the deck every few minutes stomping on my toe. Don't get me wrong. I love my kids and of course all of your kids... It's just that kids I am not emotionally attached to do not hold much charm for me. I admit it. Kindergarten teacher would be the last job in the world I would ever consider, EVER!
I would rather shovel manure, thank you. Now mind you, I don't think this child had any actual illness that a little discipline wouldn't cure. He could have been a poster child though, for whatever syndrome is in fashion this week. Pick your acronym, he fit. Charming little guy. So, although I intend to take my Dad on this same cruise during his visit, I will schedule it during the week hoping that the Bleep Bleep kid occasionally goes to school.





As we moved on from George we headed further south and were very quickly greeted by several sets of Humpback Whales. We actually had a hard time deciding which whales to follow. We ultimately settled on a HUGE pair who decided to play with our boat. They would dive down to about 50 feet on the depth finder and then come back up directly under the boat and surface just a few feet off our bough. They did this several times until they tired of us and moved on. Oh and by the way, you do learn something new everyday. Humpback whales have horrendous breath. How do I know this? When they clear their blowholes just feet from you, it becomes very apparent. Don't say you weren't warned! On our way back in we saw two other fairly uncommon mammals for our waters. We were glared at by a very large and not so pretty elephant seal who apparently was not so happy about sharing his ocean with us. We also got to see a Stellar Sea Lion not to be confused with our California Sea Lions. How do I know? Because Captain Noel told us. How can you tell them apart? No earthly idea. Maybe I am the one with attention deficit disorder....

All in all it was a fantastic week with some of our favorite people. Come and see us and we'll show you around too!