Memorial Day Whale-Watching tour, Part 2

This is a humpback mother and calf

Of the whales that we saw, only humpback whales do the tail flip and only when they dive.

It took an hour and a half before there were any whale sightings and I missed the first one.  It was a minke whale.  Minkes are the smallest of the whales that we saw.  They get to about 25 ft.  Then we saw some humpback whales, a harbor porpoise, a fin whale and the minke.  The fin whales can get up to 75 ft. and are 2nd only to blue whales in size.  Humpbacks get to 50-55 ft.  Frankly, we couldn't tell the difference.  The tour guide said that there are 4000 recognized humpbacks in the Gulf of Maine (which is where we were).  They are identified by the patterns on the fluke (the underside of their tail).  The patterns are black and white and are different for each whale.  We were thrilled to see them!

Thank goodness Emma likes to read chapter books now!  She was getting pretty wound
up and it was nice to have her sit and quietly read.

The trip back was somewhat long and we were all getting tired by then.  Thank goodness we all had something quiet to do, either a DS or book or sudoku.

If you are of a certain age and this statue seems familiar to you, there is a reason!  Find out here.

Across from the statue, there were lists of years and names of men who died at sea, starting in the early 1700's.
Some sad years had long lists.  In 1879, 249 men were lost.  You can read more about it here.

I love this picture!

I thought that the Fishermen's Wives Memorial was particularly poignant. Considering the number of men who lost their lives each year, these women literally did not know when or if they would ever see their husbands again. A quotation from the Gloucester Fishermen Wives Association reads, "Envisioned by the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of Gloucester fishermen, the memorial honors not only the faith, diligence, and fortitude of the wives of fishermen and mariners everywhere but also honors all women for their unselfish contribution to the well-being of their families and communities."
You can read more about both memorials here.
                                                                                                                        

Mention a seafood restaurant to the youngers and the typical response is, "No!!!! Not seafood!!!!!!!"  We assured them that there would be food that they liked too even though the restaurant was called "Lobsta Land".  I mean, how could we not have seafood after a whale-watching trip?

The scallops were good (although I still like the ones I have had at Waterfront Grill the best) but my favorite dish was the crab cakes, mmmmm!

So we started the day with food and ended it the same way.  Typical!