Whale Watching Field Trip

My kids go to the best school ever!  The school hosts a number of field trips every  year. All of them are fabulous!

The field trip protocol is this:  You sign up, pay the fee (which is the school group price plus a few dollars more and the extra goes to a playground supply fund), you transport your children to and from the field trip, and you chaperon your children too. They also encourage you to bring friends, especially friends who might be good recruits. There are no buses, no asking parents to volunteer as chaperons, it's just set up so that if your child attends the field trip, so do you. Easy as that!

Since I'm a stay-at-home mom, this field trip thing totally works for me. And, I get in on the fun! Gotta love that!

Yesterday, we went on a Whale Watching Excursion with the school. We went in May also. It was fun then, and this trip was fun too!

I brought recruitable friends! My friend Kristin and her two little girls came with us, in fact, she drove. I guess that means I went with her.  It was great to have our good friends along with us because the downside of these field trips is that each child is with their family and the families tend to stick together and not mingle much. I don't know very many of the students and families well. It was great to share this day with our awesome friends! The four girls really enjoyed their outing together. I think being with friends adds a lot of value to the experience. Libby's favorite Kindergarten friend went too. She had her family and they brought friends too.  Of course, Gracie knew everyone on the boat by name. She probably knew the full price passengers too, she's overly social like that.

The boat ride was great! We left from the dock right on time and returned promptly too. Nobody puked! I consider that a great success!

We saw seals or sea lions, I'm not sure which even though the captain announced what we were viewing and what the differences are. I still forgot.

We saw a very large pod of common dolphins. That's actually the name of that kind of dolphin, "common dolphin".  There were hundreds of them!  The captain again made announcements and described life as a dolphin. There was a mother and baby pair that swam close to the boat. So cute!  All of the dolphins were swimming and leaping in and out of the water, they were really neat to see!  Especially such a large group of them.

No whales were sighted. I am glad.  Sure, I like these whale watching trips, but I am secretly afraid of whales. They are huge! The boat we're in isn't huge. I'm terrified that the whales will bump the boat from the bottom and put all of the passengers out to sea. I'm pretty sure that I am very yummy.

We came upon another pod of dolphins and the captain slowed down the boat, he was very excited. Instead of his scripted announcement, his voice was exuberant. We saw Pacific White Sided Dolphins. The captain said it was a rare treat to see them.

After we docked, the kids were hungry and antsy. I'm not sure which was worse, but my friend and I decided to let them play on the beach before we fed them. That way, we can lure them off of the beach to eat, otherwise they'll want to play all day and the whining will be nonstop. It's a good trick, they'll leave playtime if you offer them food and they are hungry.

Once they were on the beach, they completely forgot about being hungry. They played for two hours! The same children who were freezing cold on the boat, they all wore two jackets each, and three of them wore winter hats, were now in swimsuits and dashing in and out of the waves. They built sandcastles, chased seagulls, looked for seashells and had a grand time.

The clouds were weird and strange and interesting and beautiful! There was a curved break in the clouds that looked like a tornado in the photos.

Finally, at 3pm they were ready for lunch. We walked down the end of the pier to Ruby's and we ate well. It was delicious! The kids ate plenty (except one kid). The portions were generous. My friend picked up the tab and the tip. She's an awesome friend! I'm keeping her!

We stopped in the beach bathroom before hitting the road for home. Gracie came out of the stall and said "Mom! Someone forgot their phone!" She was very concerned. We asked around a bit but nobody claimed it and then I looked and it had two missed calls in the last few minutes.  I called that number back and said "We just found this phone" and the lady on the other end was very excited! She said to stay at the bathroom and she'd be right back. I told her we would be right next to the bathroom on the playground. We waited a while and just when we were starting to wonder how far away this lady had gotten, she showed up. She had already driven away. She was very happy to get her phone back, and she recognized Gracie from the excursion! Didn't I tell you Gracie knows everyone? She said her daughter goes to the same school. Then she handed Gracie a dollar bill and said she wanted to show her appreciation by giving her a reward and that's all that she had. We thanked her kindly, but Gracie was rewarded plenty just by seeing this lost phone returned and the lady was obviously happy to have it back in her hands. Gracie also didn't know anything about rewards for finding lost things. The lady hopped back in her vehicle and off she went.

Gracie looked at the folded dollar in her hand, unfolded it and found that there were two $20 bills. What!!! Whoa!

Gracie's little friend was jealous that Gracie got cash and she didn't, so Gracie gave her one. I thought that was just fine since it was an accidental finding and no matter which one of us had gone in the stall where the phone was, we would have still done our best to return it.  Both of the girls understood that it was something very important to someone and it needed to be returned. They both have big hearts. So, sharing the reward was a good idea and I'm glad they thought of that on their own.  I don't know if either one of them realizes that $20 is more than $1. Their mommies are credit card swipers.

We ended up leaving Newport Beach just at the right time to be part of the five o'clock traffic on the 91. It was slow going and my friend was driving, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the visit.

Could the day have been better? No. Not possible. It was so great! A day with my girls, friends, dolphins, beautiful weather, good food, a good deed, and I didn't have the stress of driving in heavy traffic! It was amazing!

Whale Watching - Best School Field Trip Ever

When I was a kid in a little town in Montana going to public school, we didn't go on any field trips. Or, if we did, I don't remember them. My sister's class all went on a field trip once, they walked across the street to our house to see a live turkey in our backyard. His name was Fuzzy and we ate him for Thanksgiving dinner. She should blog about that someday. Anyway, that's the only time I can recall anyone ever going on a school field trip.

My older two daughters went to elementary school in South Dakota. They went on one field trip. Every year the fourth graders went to an event called "Ag Day" and they went somewhere that the 4-H kids had set up convention style with booths. Booths of livestock and farm information.

Gracie's school has totally blown me away. They have a field trip every month and this month: Whale Watching Cruise. Oh yeah!  Montana and South Dakota have got nothing on California! This school rocks!!!

For a two hour whale watching cruise, the cost per person was $11. The museums cost more than that!

We got up early and left early because the cruise was out of Newport Beach which is a little over an hour away in perfect conditions. But on a weekday morning, we had to battle the commuter traffic on one of the busiest freeways in the state. This means we were traveling at top speeds of 20 and sitting parked on the freeway when it would come to an unexplainable halt. So boring!  We squeezed Gracie, Libby and Charlie in the back seat and with them squished together the ride seemed even longer. It took us two hours to get there, but we made it on time.

We checked in and waited for 45 minutes to board the boat. The kids have now been bored to death for 3 hours.

The people who paid regular price for their tickets were boarded first, and they were sent to the upper deck. The school group was loaded onto the main deck.  The boat looked smaller than it was. A long line of people boarded and there was still room for us. Everyone was choosing just the right spot to sit, little did we realize that everyone would shuffle around and trade places over and over again.

My first thought while on the lower deck was that if anyone on the upper deck were to lean over the railing in the midst of sea-sickness, the puke will land on the people below. That'd be me.

Newport Beach Harbor is beautiful! The weather was awesome too. Even the kids enjoyed the harbor and seeing the boats and homes along the shore with the Los Angeles skyline on the horizon. Very pretty!

So far the ride was nice and smooth, but the kids were hanging onto the railing for dear life. Libby already didn't like the motion of the boat on the water and we were going slow on the easy stretch. Might be a long cruise for the kid.

As soon as we were in the ocean water, we saw sea lions on a buoy. All of the kids on the boat were super excited!

And.... now the kids are bored. And cold. And feeling queasy.

We went into the cabin and sat in a booth. Now they wanted candy and crap from the snack counter. I brought snacks, but they want overpriced sugar from the boat guy. No. 

This is going to be a very long two hour cruise.

After a while we came upon a pod of dolphins. We saw several pods of dolphins, one group after another. It was great! The kids loved seeing the dolphins swim alongside the boat. They jumped and squealed and waved their flippers and tails. I'm sure they were very happy to see the boat full of school kids!

Everyone wanted to see a whale, but the dolphins were very fun to watch. We never did see any whales.

Actually, I was glad that we didn't see any whales. The thought of whales made me nervous. What if they bump the boat and tip us over? I know, these whale watching cruises run multiple times a day and they didn't mention that whales tend to tip over the boat and eat the passengers, but that thought was prominent on my mind.

The teacher asked me if I heard the safety announcements at the top of the cruise, and it occurred to me that I hadn't.  But I did a quick scan earlier to look for marked storage places where floatation devices were. Someone else said they heard the safety schpeel, so I must not have been paying attention when it was announced. Not that it mattered, the idea of whales still made me nervous.

More dolphins! Yay!

Libby didn't care about any of the dolphin watching. She was queasy and cold and miserable. She really didn't like the motion of the boat.

Charlie was feeling confined. The boat wasn't big and he wasn't allowed to run amuck. He's two! He must run around! Poor kid. Gracie wanted to run with her friends and swing on the railings and jump over people and squeeze through others. One hour to go.

More dolphins! Look kids! Dolphins!  They didn't care any more.

At this point, the whales could come and put us out of our misery. Yes, that's how much the kids were enjoying the cruise. 

At least Gracie was having fun with her school friends. I was so glad she was having a good time and hanging with her friends! She had been doing a lot of recent complaining about fitting in socially and idolizing some other kids in her class, all of that finding her place in the social construct of the playground sort of thing. This was great to see her interact with her peers and I found out first hand that she exaggerates her social woes. She's just fine and her friends treat her well and she has nothing to complain about. I was actually worrying about her. This cruise was good for that anyway.

Libby and Charlie fell asleep. Yes!!! They won't give me that "Can you make this super disappointing boat ride end already" look anymore.

When we were returning to the harbor, we saw a huge swarm of seagulls attacking the water. The Captain said they were eating anchovies. It was kind of creepy and weird.

Just like that, the whale watching cruise was done! Yay! It was great! Ok, I am just trying to convince myself that it was great. It was boring and the kids were too confined for their enjoyment. The school kids loved it, but they are old enough to get a bigger thrill out of it than the two littler kids. Gracie had a great time. I was so happy to get off of that boat with the kids!

We searched for a playground near the dock or anywhere near, actually. These kids were as well behaved as they could have been and they had 5 hours of pent up energy, and were recharged by short naps. A two hour drive home would not be easy if they don't play.

There are no playgrounds at Newport Beach.

None.

Luckily, it only took an hour and a half to get home and that included a stop for fast food lunch.

Now if you ask the kids, they will say how much fun they had when we went on a big boat in the ocean. They saw dolphins and birds and can't wait to go again!  I love that their memory of the day is so much happier than the actual cruise was. That makes it worth the hassle.

None of them puked. And nobody on the top deck puked on the people on the lower deck (specifically, me). Nobody fell overboard. Whales did not tip us over. 

With that, I declare the whale watching trip a total success! Let's do it again!