Sunday, March 22, 2009

High Seas Misadventure

Apparently my sea legs were amputated when I went whale watching this past weekend. While people aboard the boat were marveling at the sight of 3 gray whales close by I saw nothing but the inside of a barf bag.

I wasn't the only one. About a third of the passengers were also sick. One of them was my youngest daughter. My other daughter was terrified of the big waves thrashing the boat around like a scene from The Perfect Storm. Yes, I'm inserting my moment of high drama here. The worst was that I couldn't be any comfort to my kids as I was hacking up several vital organs from my body and I WAS SURE I WAS GOING TO DIE. The crew (who sort of did look like the cast from The Perfect Storm...coincidence?) comforted my kids so well that I vow to go out in the world, attain incredible wealth and come back one day and buy them houses and BIGGER boats. I love them and I don't care who knows it.

In calmer waters, I managed to get this photo of stellar sea lions lounging in the fog. Probably not the best animal to come across after enduring an intense bout of sea sickness. You can smell them a mile away, literally. It's been measured, for a good mile the stench of them travels. They are stinky.


One the bright side (and there always is one), I went back to the cottage we were staying in and felt the most intense joy over a warm shower, a couch that was immobile and the heat from the fireplace. I have never taken that much comfort in comfort before. It was almost worth the experience (actually no, not even close).

Aside from the whale (not) watching expedition, the trip was wonderful. Here's a few shots of the beach a short path away from our cottage.

Below is the bog walk we went on in Pacific Rim National Park. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old and would normally grow straight and tall, but the soil is so acidic they end up stunted and deformed.

I can't help including this humorous cartoon. It's about the twitter rage and hey, it's relevant (sort of), because there's a whale in it, one I didn't miss.

8 comments:

Melody said...

Just hearing you describe the whale watching expedition had me looking for my Gravol. I have terrible motion sickness and that would just about have done me in! The warm fireplace and stationary sofa would be more my cup of tea!

andrea said...

You make it all sound so idyllic! ... (The photos are pretty, though.)

p said...

god you make me laugh
i'm sorry you guys got sick but you have to know it was a very enjoyable post after the fact yes?
is that your dog? cool pictures...
glad your back. next time i will do my treasury when i know you are here so you can beaf them up by clicking (i didnt know that).
ps
i will never go whale watching EVER after reading this....

dinahmow said...

I've never been seas sick, but I don't fare so well as a car passenger.Best you let me drive!

Kim Hambric said...

Oh my, sorry to hear about the sickening whale experience. At least there was hot water for your shower.

Thanks for the twitter cartoon. I needed that. There's been a little bird chirping that I should twitter. Now the little bird is gone.

Ellen said...

Mel: I've talked to a few people who went in the same area and said the water was like glass the day they went. We just hit a bad day (and bad time of year). I really wish I was able to take a picture of how bad the waves were, but I was scared of my camera flying out of my hands!

Andrea: I thought of you in the last picture, some very interesting dead trees were all around that bog.

Paula: Yep, all the dogs and kids are mine. Go whale watching, just not on a rainy, really windy day in March on the Canadian Westcoast.

Dinah: I bet if I had driven the boat from a nice high, heated cabin like the captain, I would have been okay too. (I just noticed it's hard to write comments about this post without feeling sick again, I am a bit of a wimp)

Kim: Oh good, I'm glad someone watched the cartoon. It's bang on, isn't it? Made me laugh, the "watching tv with my cat!" tweet is hilarious. At least with blogging there's pictures.

Caroline said...

Argh - sounds icky - but looks wonderful - glad you didn't feel the need to post anything too graphic...

Hayden said...

acckkk! great scenery, don't know if it made up for the sea sickness, though. Maybe it won't happen next time?