Whales

Our house has been obsessed with maritime mammals for the past couple of weeks. This could have something to do with the amazing whale watching trip we took though the New England Aquarium. The trip was organized though Jason's school and had the benefit of a chartered bus, so we didn't even have to drive to Boston.

We spent about 4.5 hours on the boat. Fortunately, Nora and I loved it, unfortunately, Jason got a little seasick. Both Jason and Nora were wearing sea bands, so I'm not really sure if they work or not, but given that Nora usually vomits at the drop of a hat, I suspect that they worked for her.

We saw a lot of whales. In the middle of Jason's worse moments, Nora decided we needed to climb up to the top deck. I was more than happy to desert Jason since he looked pretty green, but I wasn't thrilled about climbing up three decks with Nora since the sea was pretty rough. She must have some sort of whale sonar though, since just after we got up there the first whale was spotted. It breached and we got a very clear look since the top deck was a little less populated. I was pretty much amazed and Nora was super excited. I thought that would be as good as it got, but a little while later we slowed down and stopped in the middle of a pod of about 8-10 humpback whales. It included a calf that gave us a big show with lots of diving and tail flipping.

I don't have great pictures - holding on to Nora in the middle of some largish whales while operating a camera was sort of challenging. But I do have a short video. Despite Jason's illness, he did rally around the time we reached the pod and got to join in all the sightings. We had a wonderful trip and we would love to do it again sometime, should any of you want to join us. Be sure to bring Dramamine!

This was taken out in front of the aquarium, they were had an educational fair on whales and it included this inflatable of a right whale.


This was on our way back to Boston, we were in the harbor so Jason was feeling much better.

From whale watch

Click on the Thumbnail to watch the video of the humpback whale calf!