My sister and her family came all the way from Idaho to visit us. Naturally we had to take them to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a typical July day, foggy, freezing, windy and crowded. We battled people on bikes and with strollers and the wind to walk onto the bridge. We had just made it to the first tower when we noticed a whale watching tour boat and joked about how cool it would be if there was suddenly a whale that came out of the water. About ten seconds later, A WHALE CAME OUT OF THE WATER! It didn't ever do the complete National Geographic flip over or show it's tail, but there was a Humpback Whale feeding, and it kept coming up to eat. It was amazing. AMAZING.
We spent almost 40 minutes watching the whale, possibly whales at the time. There was one in particular that came over, right below us the kids could all see it, and it was so close we could see the barnacles on the mouth, and it rolled and was putting on quite the show for us. It was an amazing sight and we adults were pretty dumbstruck even as the children froze and whined and grabbed onto us because the wind on the bridge was intense and blowed them around, but we still made them stand there watching the whale until he swam off somewhere else.
Later, as we walked back to our cars, we noticed a few sail boats hovering in this one spot, and sure enough, right as we looked over there were two whales coming up out of the water and feeding. It wasn't as impressive as the first whale we noticed, and we weren't sure it wasn't the same whale we had already seen, but it was really cool to see them again, even if the kids were much less impressed this time as they had been promised snacks if we just would made it back to the car.
After the bridge we ended up at Fort Point, where we saw dolphins swimming around, really it was a great animal viewing day. As we watched the dolphins, we chatted with these two ocean research men who travel the Bay and take count of marine life that they see and track the creatures. We told them we had seen a whale under the bridge and asked if they had seen whales this morning. They did confirm there had been at least two humpback whales, two bottle nosed dolphins and plenty of harbor seals swimming around the area. They said we possibly saw a third whale by the bridge but it was most likely that the one we saw was one of the two they had counted. It was nice to be validated by some experts, and they gave us some tips on where to see marine life in the future.
I know the odds of ever seeing a whale off the Bridge again, at the exact moment while we are there are slim to none, but I am so glad my sister and her family got to experience that with us. While we stood there watching the whale pop up and down, I noticed all the people getting frustrated that we were stopped and in the way and only about one out of every 20 people stopped to even look over the side to see what we were pointing at. Sometimes I am glad that my kids make me slow down and notice things, and I'm glad that I was raised to be an animal spotter. I was also unimpressed by the people who did ask us what we saw, looked over for about 10 seconds and walked away. This whale popped up about every 3-5 minutes, and I think that would have been considered a good waste of 3-5 minutes. Because we took so long on the bridge watching nature, the whole rest of our day was rushed and insane, but totally worth it. It is often the unexpected that brings the greatest joy. Unless it is unexpected traffic, then it just ruins your whole day.
Also, I know the pictures are from really far away, all I had was my phone and did the best I could. I'm pretty sure if you click on them, they get bigger, but seeing as how I had to reset my password because it had been so long since I signed into Blogger, I could be wrong.
We spent almost 40 minutes watching the whale, possibly whales at the time. There was one in particular that came over, right below us the kids could all see it, and it was so close we could see the barnacles on the mouth, and it rolled and was putting on quite the show for us. It was an amazing sight and we adults were pretty dumbstruck even as the children froze and whined and grabbed onto us because the wind on the bridge was intense and blowed them around, but we still made them stand there watching the whale until he swam off somewhere else.
Later, as we walked back to our cars, we noticed a few sail boats hovering in this one spot, and sure enough, right as we looked over there were two whales coming up out of the water and feeding. It wasn't as impressive as the first whale we noticed, and we weren't sure it wasn't the same whale we had already seen, but it was really cool to see them again, even if the kids were much less impressed this time as they had been promised snacks if we just would made it back to the car.
After the bridge we ended up at Fort Point, where we saw dolphins swimming around, really it was a great animal viewing day. As we watched the dolphins, we chatted with these two ocean research men who travel the Bay and take count of marine life that they see and track the creatures. We told them we had seen a whale under the bridge and asked if they had seen whales this morning. They did confirm there had been at least two humpback whales, two bottle nosed dolphins and plenty of harbor seals swimming around the area. They said we possibly saw a third whale by the bridge but it was most likely that the one we saw was one of the two they had counted. It was nice to be validated by some experts, and they gave us some tips on where to see marine life in the future.
I know the odds of ever seeing a whale off the Bridge again, at the exact moment while we are there are slim to none, but I am so glad my sister and her family got to experience that with us. While we stood there watching the whale pop up and down, I noticed all the people getting frustrated that we were stopped and in the way and only about one out of every 20 people stopped to even look over the side to see what we were pointing at. Sometimes I am glad that my kids make me slow down and notice things, and I'm glad that I was raised to be an animal spotter. I was also unimpressed by the people who did ask us what we saw, looked over for about 10 seconds and walked away. This whale popped up about every 3-5 minutes, and I think that would have been considered a good waste of 3-5 minutes. Because we took so long on the bridge watching nature, the whole rest of our day was rushed and insane, but totally worth it. It is often the unexpected that brings the greatest joy. Unless it is unexpected traffic, then it just ruins your whole day.
Also, I know the pictures are from really far away, all I had was my phone and did the best I could. I'm pretty sure if you click on them, they get bigger, but seeing as how I had to reset my password because it had been so long since I signed into Blogger, I could be wrong.
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