Whale Watching

From December till about March, grey whales make the journey back from Mexico to Alaska. They migrate each year to Mexico to breed, returning home with the babies to Alaska when it gets warmer there in spring. They pass the coast of LA, so with a short boat trip off the coast and a little bit of luck, you can see these water giants. Together with Yesenia and Weiwei, I went down to the port of Long Beach, catching a ferry there that would bring us out on the ocean for a couple of hours. The ocean was quite rough, giving those which were already predetermed to get seasick the worst experience. The boat rocked pretty scary at times, and though it could just have well have happened to myself, I couldnt help but laugh at a young lad sliding down on the deck. The ferry company cannot guarantee you will see whales, certainly not up close, but after an hour of hopeful staring at the ocean surface, we spotted our whales. They turned out to be 2 adult males heading for home. My estimate is they were about 10 to 15 meters long, weighing definetely about 20 tons, big guys! Regulations are that as soon as whales are spotted, the engine has to go off. The whales will stay on the surface for about a minute, expelling air and water, to then go on a deep dive of about 6 minutes. The guide made us count from as soon as they went below the ocean surface, and surprisingly, each time they indeed came up again after 5 to 6 minutes. However, you dont know where they will come up, so its a wild guess each time, and you hope they dont reappear too far from the boat. We saw them a few times quite close up, amazing!!










As time flew by, soon we had to get going back to the port. On our way back, a group of dolphins approached the boat. They are such curious animals! And fun, showing off their tricks. Back in the port we decided to go for a little walk first. My stomach was not too happy from the wild ocean ride. The port of Long Beach harbors the famous Queen Mary. Its permanently under anchor, rebuilt to a hotel. Story goes its a ghost ship, I have my doubts about all of it, but it is an impressive ship, and I love stories with a little suspense to it. Once we recovered from the bumpy sea ride, we headed for some food. My favorite actor is Tom Hanks so I managed to convince the other two to go to Bubba Gump and eat delicious shrimp! Tom was not there sadly, given there are also restaurants in Chicage, Houston, New York and even Tokio, I figured the chance was small Mr Gump would have time to eat shrimp with me. Or maybe he was still running....