A Whale of a Time!

We got up early this morning and took a boat out onto the ocean to go whale watching. Needless to say I learned a lot of interesting facts that just amazed Jake and I. I thought I would share them.

I'll start to say that the humpback whales live up in Alaska to eat. That is their eating grounds. In the winter they swim down to Hawaii to birth and breed. It's at least a month's swim. Anyway here comes the facts. A female whale weighs about 90,000 - 100,000 pounds. When the whales come down to Hawaii they don't or hardly eat for four months. There is nothing for them in their 'food chain'. Their tongue is 2000 pounds. They have 3000 pound babies. After the baby whale is born and it nurses off the mother, it gets 40 pounds of milk that is the consistancy of cottage cheese (everytime). A baby gains 5 - 7 pounds per hour. By the time that the female makes it back to Alaska roughly 4 - 5 months later, she will have lost 30,000 pounds! They say that the bond between mother and calf is one of the strongest in nature.

Anyway we saw one whale. It wasn't a good day, although he did give us a free pass and told us when a good time to come back. We will go back later this week. This morning we were the only ones on the boat (really early). Infact I better tell the story before Jake beats me to it. This morning when I left I put on my sandals and headed out. We drove 40 minutes and started walking to the port. We had walked about 1 1/2 blocks when Jake turned around and asked what is taking you so long? Then he noticed I had two different shoes on. Not anything close alike. One was a high heeled white flowered sandal and the other a brown flat sandal. I was tired and had 4 hours of sleep and gotton up at 5am. I didn't even notice. McKay looked at me and said, "Mom, aren't you smart enough to wear the same shoes?" Aaaah! I went into a small store and bought a pair of sandals immediately! I felt like an idiot, and I can't even say I am a blonde! (just kidding).