12-25-14 The Gift They Kept On Giving

Thursday, December 25th - Christmas Day
...just like Santa Claus J pod showed up in the night...

...and they were nowhere to be seen by daylight...

...a phone call came at about 9:00 a.m - whales on the west side!...I'm off and running again...
...not a sound be heard except for his blows...

...the peace of the morning went right down to my toes!
(Sorry, I can't seem to get out of this rhyming thing!)

...I had first seen them a short distance from shore...

...luckily they were eating and not in travel mode...

...after about 20 minutes they began to move on...

...the two youngest traveled closest to mom...

...I know one other had seen them from shore and others in their houses along the water may have looked out and received the gift as well...

...I hop in the car and down island I go...arrive at American Camp...take the hike out to Granny's Cove...running part way hoping, not to miss them!...on the big rock at Granny's Cove I scanned and waited...soon heard someone exclaim, "there's a whale!"...surfacing right in front of me! ...
...so two more received the gift...

...of course, now it's 'run' back up to the car...if you've ever been there you know what I'm talking about...

..to the car..(tired yet?...I sure am!)...and on down island to the last pullout before Cattle Pt. lighthouse...once again, within a couple minutes the whales surfaced right in front of me...I had to zoom out to get the bench in the picture...
...I glanced up the hill...two people stood still from their hike, watching the whales til they went out of sight...two more gifts received...

...one last pic before heading to the point...the people on the hill appeared to be fixed on the whales...

...at Cattle Pass two people were walking back to their car, so I mentioned their might be some whales coming this way...
...with her Santa hat on and her festive clothes, she and her honey went back to the rocks...we waited and waited but no whales could we see, until the 'Santa hat lady' saw their blows!...she gets the award for finding them again as they were moving away and out in the glare...two more received the gift from the whales today!...sweet!
...they didn't make it into Cattle Pass and continued to the east...

...now is that cool or what!?!?!