Day 10, 11, 12 - Santa Barbara and the Whales

Good Morning!  We have had a restful stay in Santa Barbara, and are back on the road heading to Big Sur State Park.  Here's a recap of the last few days.....and of the WHALES!!!

After we left the Santa Monica Pier, we ended up in a nice little park overlooking the ocean.  It was a little pricey, but the view was worth it!

Here is the view from our front door.

Erin's hat is watching you!!!

We packed up and headed to Santa Barbara.  Jen's Great Aunt Jacqui and Jen's Mom had made reservations for us a few weeks earlier in Santa Barbara's only RV park.  We dropped off the RV, and headed up the mountain to Jacqui's beautiful home.  She is a wonderful host, and always makes sure we have a great time.  Erin even got to take a bubble bath!!!

The view from her home.

Erin's Bubble Bath

We got up Thursday morning and lounged around for a while.  Jacqui and her friend Carol entertained Erin.  We eventually got moving, and headed into town.  We ate lunch on the beach, scouted out some parking spots for the RV while we were on the boat, got some GREAT strawberrys at a farmer's market, and bought our tickets to go whale watching!!!

Some of the sailboats at the beach

Erin and Jen hunting for crabs on the rocks

Friday morning we packed up early and said our goodbyes to Jacqui and Carol.  We picked up the RV, and headed to the Marina.  Jen has been wanting to go whale watching for the 10 plus years she has been visiting Jacqui.  So, WE DID IT!

It was a great trip, lasting about 4.5 hours.  At first, the fog was not cooperating, and the captain was having trouble finding the whales.  But, after about 2 hours, the fog broke, and we found 8 humpback whales to watch, along with thousands of common dolphins and hundreds of sea lions.

Here is a video of two whales surface feeding.

edit - the quality of this video is not very good.  I will work on getting a better video posted when we get to big sur.

I will be posting more of the whale trip as I get the videos edited.  We have much more video than pictures.  Needless to say, it was a great trip!  Afterwards, we headed North up Highway 1, enjoying the scenery along the way.  Big Sur, here we come!!!