A Whale's Tail

Brett, Liz and St. John were visiting us here on the coast this weekend. We had a great visit with the one-man wrecking crew (SJ) and he discovered all sorts of new adventures at Grandma and Papa's house. There is a window seat that his cousin Dena told him about that can be closed off with curtains for a great escape and hiding place. The rocks on the beach are great for climbing and contain lots of critters. Small rocks on the beach are just right for throwing into the ocean. And, letting Mom and Dad go out by themselves can be a lot of fun when you are at the beach house, too.

The grown up people made one discovery, too. As the whales are migrating North, they decided this was the weekend to come close to shore and romp a little. The sunshine seemed to make us all pretty happy. But this was our first time seeing the whales so close to shore. They were right behind the breakers! One was huge and you could see it's dark shadow/shape in the water as it would swim along and then whoosh, it would break the surface and flip it's tail up or roll it's back out of the water. The most spectacular event was when the whale was swimming right in the breaker as it curled up and broke. At one point with the sun out, you could see the whole whale through the breaker. It was almost like looking at the whole body through a window. What a spectacular view!

I didn't get any perfect pictures because I was glued to watching it, but later on another one was close in and I did try to catch him/her on film. Above is my attempt but you can just barely see the back breaking the surface of the water. I am also posting a picture of the rocks outside our place and the first whale was just past the rocks and breakers in view. It was just another whale of a day.