A Fin-tastic Whale Watch!

I hadn't been on a whale watch in several years, and David had never been on one, so in early August when we were at the Cape, we went on a whale watch! We used Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises out of Barnstable because it's nearby, I've used them in the past, and they do a great job.

The day did not disappoint. We saw many whales, or at least parts of them. I think it was something like 12 different whales were sighted!

First, we sailed past Sandy Neck before going into Cape Cod Bay and the open water above it.

I wore my whale-print blouse for the occasion.

Many of our sightings at first were of whales flipping their fins on the water's surface from below. I liked the satisfying Slap! sound it made on the water.

I like how this picture captured the water flowing off the fin in mid-air.

Here you could see the fin and part of the tail sticking up. The whale must have been swimming on its side. (I know, I'm a genius.)

This one was diving down.

Look at the water trails dripping off that beautiful fin!

And here was one breaching in the distance! 😍

Spouting off. I do that sometimes too. 😄

There were two of them next to each other. They looked like they were playing, or waving at us (or both!).

Fin + tail again

The side of the boat was lined with people watching and taking pictures on both decks.

I love whale tails. You could almost picture them belonging to mermaids! Very large mermaids. 😄

Two whales again. I don't know if they were two different ones or the same ones as before.

There was a cute seal in the water! 

I love these breaching pictures.

It literally looks like it's laying on top of the water in this shot!

Splash!

David got some really good closer-up shots of the whale breaching.

And a final beautiful whale tail!

David has his own sailboat in Montana and is a skilled sailor. Needless to say, he's good on boats!

There was a powerful wake in our midst as we sped back to shore at the end of our whale-watching adventure.

I love whales—they are the gentle giants of the sea, powerful and majestic. And I really enjoy whale watches. This was a good fin-tastic one!

Book Review: Anatomy of an Alibi

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was okay. It had an interesting premise, but too many coincidences and characters felt contrived just to fill in plot points, so it wasn't very believable or captivating, especially as the story went on.

View all my reviews

My 46th Birthday

 Well, I have to say that 46, and the mid-40s in general, aren't what I'd always envisioned. For the most part, I still feel and look young, but 46 does seem kind of old. It's weird how relative a thing age is as one gets older!

So far, at three months in, 46 has been good. The biggest thing to happen during age 46 for me probably already happened: John returned home after serving an honorable mission. I know that's not a "me" thing as much as a John thing, but as his mother, this, for me, is something special that I'm a part of. I don't expect too much else to happen during 46—knock on wood. I plan to keep going in the right direction and stay on track. Life is good. (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

My birthday was spent on Cape Cod, as it almost always is. It was a bright, sunny day. David made waffles for breakfast, and we ate outside.

What better thing to do on a sunny summer day on the Cape than go to the movies? 😆 The new Spider-Man movie came out that day, and we went to see it. It was good!

I relaxed in the afternoon on the hammock, reading and resting.

It was just David, Sam, and I, and we went out for a nice dinner at Yarmouth House, where David and I split one of my favorite dishes (Chicken Atlantis). Then for dessert, we went to Katie's in Hyannis for ice cream, where I got one of my favorite flavors that only they do: lavender honeycomb.

It has real bits of honeycomb in it!

Where were the cake and presents, you might ask? They got saved until the next day, when my mom and Jennifer were there. The celebration was spread over two days!

For the second day in a row, on a bright sunny summer day on the Cape, we went to the movies. 😆 This time we saw The Odyssey, which Sam had seen and loved (he's a fan of the director, Christopher Nolan), so we all went and saw it. It was very good!

We ate a barbecue dinner al fresco.

After dinner, we walked down to the beach.

My cake was a cool (no pun intended) and delicious "Mint Ship" ice cream cake from Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry. 

It was a fun birthday weekend! 46 was off to a good start.