blue.

Best weekend ever, and by far the busiest since I've been here.

Friday: After classes, I meandered off to work, where I found I wasn't needed for the day. So instead, I hopped on my bike to explore. Upon my return home, I stumbled upon a care package from Aunt Ann, full of goodies. Excellent timing.

Saturday: Earlier in the week, I'd been invited to volunteer for a nonprofit just getting underway, the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute. Eventually, the organization will rehabilitate injured marine mammals (and has already worked with and released a few injured sea lions), but the facility still needs a goodish amount of preparation, so the day was spent taping, painting, power-washing, cleaning, with an excellent bbq midday. It was good to have a day of honest work, to meet some great new people, to learn more about the organization.

Sunday: In appreciation for volunteering, Eric invited a few of us out on the Condor Express, for whale-watching in the Channel. Even though the Vikes were playing the Bears, I decided to take him up on the offer. Our first wildlife encounter was in the harbor, a docile Harbor Seal. Not too far out of the harbor, we ran into a few large groups of sea lions feeding, frolicking, and flipping on the waves; beyond that, multiple pods of dolphins. And then... our first whales.

To be quite honest, I hadn't anticipated seeing anything. And truly, it would have been enough for me to be on the boat, on the water, on such a beautiful sunny day as Sunday was. I was happy to ride the swell, facing into the wind, under a clear blue sky... But we saw whales, and multiple whales, and multiple whales of 2 different species.

The first we saw were Minke whales, wee little things in the scheme of things. They kept at a distance, and we watched them surfacing every now and then, flashing a little tail fluke in our direction, until finally they left their last *footprint on the water's surface, and were gone.

As we got back underway, more whales were spotted on the horizon. We headed off in that direction, and were greeted by one-two-three humpback whales. Humpback whales. Can you imagine that I live in a place where humpback whales can be found mere miles offshore? Can you imagine that?

Three. Humpback. Whales. At 11am on a Sunday.

I digress. Basically, the captain brought the boat near the whales, and maneuvered around a bit, but mainly just stayed in one spot, and the whales just hung out near, around, under and right damn next to! the boat. We stayed for about a half hour on the way out, and for another half hour on the way back in, when we spotted 2 of the same Humpback. Whales. Amazing. (and very lucky, apparently. Sunday was not a typical whale-watching day.)

A sampling of what we saw:

Sea Lion in mid-water flip.

Common Dolphins at the bow.

Wee Minke Whale.

Humpback head.

Alternate view, Humpback head.

Humpback tail fluke, directly off the bow.

How a Humpback waves goodbye.