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!

            

Memorial Day Whale-Watching tour, Part 1

 When I told Dave that I wanted to do a whale-watching tour out of Gloucester (pronounced Gloster), he realized that there would be a Sonic nearby and got very excited about it.  We have missed Sonic since moving to Massachusetts, (there isn't one close to us) especially the cranberry limeade.
I think he was more excited about Sonic than the whale-watching.

Yummy!

Garrett and Alyssa are good buddies most of the time.

 The day was quite overcast and warm and humid.  It was nice to be able to sit outside to eat even though it was noisy because of the traffic and the guy who was hosing off the parking lot.   Massachusetts is very green in the summertime and quite beautiful.  I hadn't realized how rural much of the state would be.  Like most people, when I thought of Massachusetts I thought of Boston but much of it has winding narrow country roads lined with many varieties of trees.  It is gorgeous!

 Alyssa and Emma

Alyssa had a cup malfunction but she is quite resourceful.  She wasn't going to let a drop go to waste!

The town of Gloucester is an old fishing village that has been around for 400 years.  It is known as America's oldest seaport.  It is on Cape Ann and is about 45 minutes north of Boston.

 If you are interested in learning more about Gloucester, they have a website here.  It is an interesting place and was the site of the book and movie The Perfect Storm, which was based on a true story. I haven't seen the movie but I'd like to re-read the book after visiting Gloucester.  It is also the setting for Rudyard Kipling's Captain Courageous.

Garrett and Alyssa with a view of the harbor behind them

There was a big stack of lobster pots waiting to be used.  Diana was thrilled to see them.

Unfortunately Emma didn't cooperate in this picture but the boat we went on is in the background.

Still trying to get a good picture

We were told to bring winter gear because it gets quite chilly when the boat is on the water.  While we were waiting, it was very humid with no breeze and we were stifling and anxious to get going.

Ten Pound lighthouse
 On the way out of Gloucester Harbor we passed Ten Pound lighthouse.  There are several stories about how the lighthouse got its name, the most common being that the white settler's paid 10 pounds for the island to the natives.  You can read more about the lighthouse here.

Hammond castle
On the other side of the harbor from the lighthouse is Hammond castle.  The owner, John Hammond, was an inventor who was 2nd only to Edison in number of patents.  He was known as either the Father of Radio Control or Remote Control depending on which source you are reading.  The tour guide told us that his parents lived down the street in their own castle and that John built his after arguing with them but I was unable to find that story anywhere online.  The castle is open for tours (I want to go!) and their website is here.

Once we got out of the harbor and on the open ocean, we were going at a pretty fast clip.  It did get pretty windy and chilly, especially on the front of the boat.  We tried to re-create one of our favorite pictures from the Seattle ferry but it didn't quite work.  It was fun trying anyway!

The boat we were on was built for 300 passengers but they limit the number to 149.  I think it had less than that while we were on it.  The tour guide was a marine biologist and told us plenty of interesting things about whales while we were heading out to the Stellwagen Bank which is a prime spot for whale watching.  We are lucky to be living so close to it!  Learn more about it here.