February 14, 2014. The Queen Elizabeth. Whales.

Whales are interesting creatures but we almost never see them. In Mexico, from our balcony, we can see spouts out a sea and we can see the big creatures rolling over at the top of the water. We see more whales when Robbie is in his own place because he watches for the whales with his binocular, then calls us to take a look. We have seen whales from our deck in Nova Scotia, sometimes right in front of us at the end of the Gull Bay. But mostly we see them further out at sea, when we see their spouts. Our ship spent a day anchored off the coast of Maui, just outside Lahaina. All day, the whales surrounded the ship. We spotted them from our balcony and we spotted them from the restaurants. When we walked on Deck 3 we could spot them all along the way. Sometimes they were as close as thirty feet. We saw more whales on that one day than we have in our whole life. It was great fun. The Tenders took people into town from the anchored ship, but Ken was fearful of slipping so we decided to stay on the ship. Passengers paid to take whale watching expeditions but we saw more whales from the ship than those folks did from their boats. We were pleased we had stayed on board the ship to get to see all the whales. It was a real treat.