On Saturday, I went on an adventure of a lifetime. We took the
Condor Express out of Santa Barbara for 2.5 hours of whale watching. They guarantee that if you don't see any whales, they'll give you a coupon to come back another day. So I figured I couldn't lose. 2.5 hours on the ocean and the worst that could happen is that I'd get another 2.5 hours on the ocean. Well, the tour did not disappoint. We weren't more than 3 minutes out of our slip when the watchout spotted our first gray whale. It turned out to be a pair of gray whales migrating from Baja up to the Bering Sea, near Alaska. They would dive to the bottom for 3-5 minutes, come to the surface, blow their spout, swim on the surface for a few seconds, then dive down deep, splashing their tails on the way down for more food. After an hour of following this migrating pair, we went deeper out into the ocean, about halfway to the Channel Islands. We came up near a fog bank and all of the sudden we saw
a mating pod -- two mature males and one female in a mating dance of swirls and dives and floating. They swam sideways, upside down and gently rolled. Surrounding them were
three Dalls porpoises seemingly protecting and circling them at about 30 mph. Dalls porpoises look like mini Orca's but are referred to as the Ferrari's of the sea because of their speed. With the fog and the mating dance and the Dalls, the whole experience was surreal. The whales were as long as our boat and looked like something from the days of the dinosaurs. What an incredible adventure, not to be forgotten.
On Saturday, I went on an adventure of a lifetime. We took the Condor Express out of Santa Barbara for 2.5 hours of whale watching. They guarantee that if you don't see any whales, they'll give you a coupon to come back another day. So I figured I couldn't lose. 2.5 hours on the ocean and the worst that could happen is that I'd get another 2.5 hours on the ocean. Well, the tour did not disappoint. We weren't more than 3 minutes out of our slip when the watchout spotted our first gray whale. It turned out to be a pair of gray whales migrating from Baja up to the Bering Sea, near Alaska. They would dive to the bottom for 3-5 minutes, come to the surface, blow their spout, swim on the surface for a few seconds, then dive down deep, splashing their tails on the way down for more food. After an hour of following this migrating pair, we went deeper out into the ocean, about halfway to the Channel Islands. We came up near a fog bank and all of the sudden we saw 
a mating pod -- two mature males and one female in a mating dance of swirls and dives and floating. They swam sideways, upside down and gently rolled. Surrounding them were
three Dalls porpoises seemingly protecting and circling them at about 30 mph. Dalls porpoises look like mini Orca's but are referred to as the Ferrari's of the sea because of their speed. With the fog and the mating dance and the Dalls, the whole experience was surreal. The whales were as long as our boat and looked like something from the days of the dinosaurs. What an incredible adventure, not to be forgotten.
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