And they all had a whale of a time!

Today was our long awaited whale watch!  The weather was lovely--chilly but lovely.  Seas were mostly calm. Dramamine also works well!  LOL  Actually no one seemed to have any ill effects so I don't know if we even needed the medical aid but I figured I wasn't going to get half way into a 5 hour boat trip and find out we should have done it.

K graciously drove us the hour and 45 minutes to the boat launch and planned quiet things to do until our return.  She brought her kindle and read by the ocean, took a walk,had a nap,  found a nice restaurant for a leisurely lunch.  She enjoyed it.

But back to the real thing--the whale watch!  Did we ever luck out!  We saw fin back whales and hump backed whales.  They didn't just swim around for us.  They breached their heads out of the water.  The banged their flippers on the water (which is amazingly loud incidently!) They breached their tails and one did a full body jump thing.  Absolutely amazing. 

It was neat to watch the kids experience this.  The two younger kids are pretty fearless around water.  Rob has always been less happy with water.  He can swim but only because it is my personal family rule that all people must learn to swim.  I could tell that when we got far enough out that there was no land in sight, that he was not in a comfortable place.  He just sat in his seat, while we got up to go to the rails and look out.  I would invite him, but he would decline.  That was okay with me.  I just wanted him to know I would love to have him with us if he could do it.  I also put him in charge of the camera, figuring that would take his mind off thinking about the Titanic, or whatever other gloomy castastrophe was running through his head. 

It worked. Gradually he began to take pictures and by the time the whales were breaching, he too was at the rails. I am glad that he could ultimately relax into the experience.  He thanked me tonight at bed for bringing him and said he would like to go again some day so it was not just a great day for whale watching, but for Rob's development as well.

A long day though, as we left the house at 9 a.m. and didn't get home till 7:30 this evening.  Tired children have been showered and I am chugging down hot tea with the desperation borne of many hours without tea or coffee.  Because both littles were in my arms or on my lap or otherwise draped across my body all day, I had no safe way to injest hot beverages.  So I am seriously glugging tea right now.  But it was an amazing, magical day and  I am so glad we had this to share together.