Leilani and I went whale watching in Newport with her biology class. We had to be there by 8:45 am, so we left our house about 6:30 am. Once we all got there, we got on the boat and went out on the ocean.
It was a pretty calm day on the ocean - only 2-4 foot swells - but I still had some motion sickness. I took a pill, but I should have taken two. Leilani wasn't bothered at all.
We were able to see some whales. We watched a mother and her calf for a while. I couldn't get any pictures - it was too hard to anticipate where they were going to come up, and snap a picture fast enough. I did get a little bit of the whales on video, though.
We also saw sea lions, seals - see above - and dolphins.
The kids also got to dissect squids. Leilani watched, but she refused to touch it.
They also caught crabs and learned about them. Apparently you can tell male and female crabs apart by the markings on their abdomen. Male crabs have marking that looks like a lighthouse, and female crabs have a marking that looks like a beehive.
Leilani was willing to hold a crab, and she helped throw them back in the water after they were done studying them.
They finished up the ocean cruise by studying some plankton. Leilani helped pull in some ocean water, and then they looked at it under a microscope. It was interesting to see all the things in the water sample that were not easily seen with just our eyes. It was a fun field trip! We both really enjoyed it, and we learned a lot too!
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