I hate this uniform. It's ugly. It makes me look like a beached whale. And on top of everything, I can't find any earrings to go with it.

Humpback whales!



The other evening, D, myself and my mother went on the New England Aquarium's sunset Whale Watch. It started at 6 and we got back around 10. It's been a long time since I've been on the open water, but it was really nice. The boat ride was fun, if a bit CHILLY and windy the further out we got.

Since it was sunset, it was hard to get some shots the proper exposure, but seeing the Boston skyline at sunset is really pretty.



There is some really great Art Deco architecture in Boston, the details of which you probably can't see well in these...



The long white building with all the flags in the background is the Boston World Trade Center...



I have no idea what building this is, but I like it.



And we go right under the path for planes landing at Logan International. Some trips end up with worse (better?) timing than others!



The rock to the right is covered in birds! To the left is one of the three lighthouses you see leaving Boston.



Whee!



And then just when it was getting TOO chilly and windy--a little over an hour out--the naturalists start spotting them. It's a big feeding ground and while I didn't catch any on film, you see the sprouting spray of water from their blowhole as they emerge. Our first guy was Coral:



They know him from his tail:





And they say they're 90% sure it's a guy because they watch the whale from when it's a baby. It grows up and if they never see it with a calf after so many years, they have to assume it's a guy. Coral is now 21, so they're pretty sure.

Also, I didn't know about whale footprints!



People used to improperly think it was an oil slick the whale left behind, but it's just the force of his tail creating a vortex and making the water smoother on top. (They just told us what a whale footprint was NOT, I had to look it up myself!)

Anyhoo, we saw several other whales, including a pair swimming together. I think our side of the boat really lucked out with the best views, but they were all around the place.





It got to be sunset pretty quickly, though.



When it was nearly dark we had to head back. Everyone went inside, needless to say, where it was warmer!

Here we are speeding back into Boston!



It's pretty hard to get a shot without motion blur in these conditions, but I had two people ask me what camera I had, so I guess it was doing a better job than theirs!



And hooray, home again, home again.



And Happy 800th post to me!