Patrick flew me to California for Thanksgiving. His parents were there too. He is living in Monterey, which is a nice little coastal town with an amazing sea life population. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel on the shore. The ocean wav
es lulled us to sleep at night. We woke up to the sound of seals and sea lions barking.On Thanksgiving day we took a beautiful drive down the California coast. We started in Pacific Grove at Blubber Beach to see the seals. Next we climbed around on
some rocks by the shore. Then we ended up around Big Sur and got to see some of the smaller (but still enormous) Redwood trees. We ended the night with a lovely dinner in Carmel and some Yahtzee.
Friday was our whale watching tour. We knew it would be hit or miss because it wasn't a major migration period for the whales, at least not in Monterey Bay. After about an hours ride we stopped and bobbed around like a cor
k but got to see a pod of Orca's, commonly known as "Killer Whales". At this point the rocking of the boat was making me feel a little green. After about 20 minutes the driver heard a report of Humpback Whales in another area of the bay so off we went. At this point I was getting a little sea-sick. This was quickly forgotten as we came upon a ship that was being bopped around by some curious Humpback Whales. Th
ey were really being rocked. The whales at one point turned toward another boat that was much smaller but thankfully didn't use it 
as a toy. I was amazed to witness such an amazing moment. After what seemed to be a half hour the whales started to move away and we headed back. Suddenly that green feeling came back and it was almost overwhelming. We had an hour ride back! Lucky there 
were some fun distractions on the way bay starting with a feeding frenzie; where close to 1000 Sea Lions had surrounded a school of s
ardines and were in full hunting mode.
