wordsmith
Outting Idea:
Whale Watching aboard the Children's Maritime Foundation's Tallship:
The "American Pride"
Ma'Laysia and I have made it a tradition to go whale watching each winter, and I always find a Groupon or Living Social deal to make the trip 33%-50% less expensive. This past winter I found a deal through the Children's Maritime Foundation, and their whale watching excursion was the absolute best for several reasons!
1) It was three hours long!
2) It took place aboard an old-fashioned "tallship," and the kids were invited to help raise the sails!
3) Lunch was included, and it was plentiful and good (burgers, salad, potato salad, chips).
4) There was an aquarium on board with sea stars and urchins and sea cucumbers and things that the young volunteers invited the kids to touch as facts about the animals were explaned.
5) The ship wasn't too crowded, making it so that everyone could sit somewhere between "sightings."
We did see more than one California grey whale, and one gave us a beautiful view of its tale re-entering the water! I snapped my camera .0001 seconds too late to capture it, but it was still very exciting! And we saw lot of dolphins as always! :)
Here are some photos from last year's trip out of Marina del Rey when I did capture one of the whales we saw:
Whale watching is a great "repeat" outting that you can put on the calendar year after year without much thought. It does only take up a few hours, though, and the challenge for us "Bigs" is to fill upwards of four hours of fun together. So, some other "filler" activities have to be thought up.
Here's the low-down on my recommended whale watching day:
~Watch the deal sites (Groupon etc.) for the Children's Maritime voucher to pop up. If it doesn't, here's their web site, and you can call them directly for tickets: http://www.americanpride.org/whale-watching.htm (Scroll down to "Saturday Barbeque Whale Watching" - that's what you're going to want to do.)
~Arrive at the Long Beach Aquarium-adjacent parking garage 40 minutes early, because they fill up sometimes on Saturdays! In the event that the parking lot is full, you don't want to stress out (like I did!) over finding alternative parking and getting to the boat on time. The foundation will validate your parking so that it's $8 (I believe) rather than $15.
Parking address (same as the aquarium):
100 Aquarium Way
Long Beach, CA 90802
~Walk to the ship, and do not forget to bring:
-Layers! it can be cold out on the water!
-Sunscreen! (hats even?!) (and definitely sunglasses)
-A backpack or bag that you don't mind getting wet and dirty (there is nowhere "nice" to put your stuff on deck) to put your layers in if you take them off
-Water, because they only provide those teeny tiny wasteful water bottles on board. :/
-Your camera with a fully charged battery!
~After the trip, here are some ideas to spend a couple more hours with each other:
-Walk to "Wheel Fun Rentals" at 419 Shoreline Village Drive and rent bikes to ride along the bike path.
-Walk to the the frozen yogurt shop right next to Wheel Fun Rentals and eat it on a walk to and around Rainbow Lagoon Park
-Spread your picnic blanket out on any of the nearby green spaces and watch "Free Willy" or some other whale-y movie on your laptop.
Here's a map of the area you can click to expand:
Please click here --> <--- and add this page to your Pinterest,
to spread the word about this great outting to other Bigs and parents around L.A.!
Have fun!!
