Whale Watching

Jenn already shared the story of the lemonade stand a few days ago, but really there's a bigger story involved. To get the whole story, you've got to go back to last May, when Henry announced that he wanted to go whale watching. As it happens, Boston is near one of the premier whale watching locations in the world, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. I was thrilled with the idea of going whale watching; it was something I had wanted to do since we moved here. So, I made a deal with Henry that if he saved up $25 of his own money to pay for his ticket, then we could go. This would be no easy task. We only give him a meager allowance of $8 per month, and we make him save half of that in addition to 10% for tithing, so he only ends up with $3.20 per month to spend. I wasn't sure he'd be able to do it, but I wanted him to try.

Being the kind of kid that Henry is, he came up with the brilliant idea of making a chart to help him remember not to spend his money. Jenn helped him make one (making charts is her department) with 25 bubbles that he could fill in as he saved his dollars. Slowly but surely, those bubbles filled up between his allowance and the occasional extra chore here and there. Finally, he got fed up with how long it was taking and decided to take matters in to his own hands by having a lemonade stand. As you know, he totally made bank selling lemonade and cookies, and this pushed him well over the $25 threshold. It was time to go whale watching.

After waiting for Hurricane Earl to pass by, the stars aligned on Tuesday for us to go. Henry was so excited on Monday night he couldn't contain himself. Here's a direct quote that we just had to write down: "I'm so excited that I'm excited as 20,000 sideways skyscrapers and then another and then another stacked on top...until it's as tall as a skyscraper! That's how excited I am!" I love that the skyscraper is one of Henry's main units of measurement.

Leaving from the New England Aquarium, we had to go about 38 miles out of Boston Harbor to get to the whales, so while we rode Henry worked on one of his dinosaur activity books:

Then, all of a sudden, the boat slowed down and right off the bow we could see some spouts blowing in the air! It really was incredible seeing these huge creatures out in the ocean. We had a very lucky trip, coming across 3 humpback whales and 3 minke whales that were all feeding in the same area. Here's a sampling of what we saw:

One whale beginning a dive, while another rises for air (see the spout on the right?)

This is why they're called "humpback" whales--they arch their backs when they begin a dive.

Humpbacks have several eating methods, and we saw most of them. In this picture, the whale is "kick feeding"--slapping the water with its tail in order to stun the fish, and then it will turn around and eat them. We also saw them blow a "bubble net" to trap the fish, as well as perform simple "open mouth" feeding, where they just open their mouths wide right on the surface and swallow as much water (and fish) as possible.

No, this isn't my picture, but we did see one breach like this! I wasn't anywhere close to being fast enough with the camera to catch it, but it was astounding to see that giant beast come clear out of the water! No one's really sure why they breach, but I was glad we got to see it!

Here are the happy sailors back on solid ground! We had a great time and I would totally go again (although I'd take some motion sickness medication beforehand--I got a little queasy for part of the trip!). I love going on these kinds of trips with Henry because he's just as interested as I am in learning all of the details, and I know about as much as he does about whales. We have a great time seeing, doing, and learning all of this stuff together. We're just two peas in a pod in some ways!

And, I'm super proud of Henry for saving up his money for so long in order to go on this trip! What a great skill to have. He's already started scheming up his next adventure: the Circus!