Today was fabulous! We made our way to Gloucester, MA (more long driving but better as it was Saturday’s traffic) to see whales! We had brunch at this cute but really overrun place called Sugar Magnolias, and even though our order got forgotten and we were there much longer than we planned, it was delicious. However, it was beyond enormous! If you go there, just share a meal, I ended up having to throw half of it because we had no way to refrigerate the leftovers. John had the Lobster Benedict and I had the Salmon Cakes & Eggs, both excellent! It completely changed my mind about lobster, which I previously avoided because it always feels too chewy to me, but this was fabulous!
Then it was off to catch our boat trip to go spot some whales! It was about an hour’s ride out to their feeding grounds off the Gulf of Maine, Stellwagen Bank, and the refreshing sea air and feeling of utter freedom that the ocean brings the soul was wonderful. It really brings back my desire to live in a little coastal town. Incredibly, we ended up seeing 12 humpback whales, all told! They were amazing to see up close. You could see the scars on their skin from orca attacks and even all the little barnacles attached to their fins. They almost all did the “dorsal slapping” that looks like they are waving to us which delighted everyone, and their quintessential blow, curved hump, then tail dive when they go down for their deep dives. I felt like the captain would sometimes take off way too soon and when the whales were so close to the boat that I worried for their safety but I guess they do this all day, so trust that they know what they are doing. It was cute because at each stop, there would be many little boats all surrounding the area and each time there was a sighting, all the boats would zip off in that direction and then make a little ring around the whales. I really wanted to sing to them, but the boat was pretty busy with tourists and it felt too personal of a thing to share with that many ears. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story!
No comments:
Post a Comment