Whale Watching in a High Surf Advisory

I guess we should have known this was a bad idea.... I ran over to San Diego after Christmas for a few days and we decided to go whale watching. All was well at the dock, where Mara learned to use the binoculars. We were all looking forward to seeing some humpback whales, on their way south for the winter. Even the harbor was nice and smooth, but as soon as we hit the huge waves in the open ocean, there were a lot of green faces on the boat. I thought it was lots of fun, but I don't think anyone else agreed with me. We didn't see any whales, so we all got a coupon for another trip. I don't know if too many of the passengers will take them up on it, however....


In addition to the retired USS Midway, we got to see two active aircraft carriers in the harbor. On the left is the USS Nimitz, commissioned in 1975, the first of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. In the center is the USS Ronald Reagan , the 9th and latest of the same class, commissioned in 2003. Both are about the same size, with flight decks of 4.5 acres each. If you look closely, or click on the picture, you can see the elevator doors are open on the USS Ronald Reagan.