| Like I said, Mike and I took kayaks out to the island for the first time. The other camper just so happened to be a photographer named Doug Mangum (website). While Doug was hiking around he took a few shots of us on the water. That's Mike on the left and me on the right. |
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We paddled out of the cove and around the northern part of the island. (me on left, Mike on right) |
| Doug said that shortly after we left, this guy came by the cove. In case you couldn't guess, he's a gray whale, about 40 feet in length. |  |
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When we returned, he was still hanging out, probably feeding. Sometime during our hour and a half or so of paddling around with our new friend, Doug took this photo (me left, Mike right). When he told me he got a shot I was hoping it was when we were really close, because in a few instances we were REALLY close, about 8 feet away, which is awefully close when you consider that he out-lengths us by 5 times (kayak included) and out-weighs us by nearly 1,000 times (I had to look it up to see how much they weigh on average). It was an awesome high getting to hang out with him. He knew we were there and didn't seem to mind at all. He almost seemed to like it. It definitely was scary too, but more than anything, it was exhilarating. |
| I put this photo here to give honor to the wonderful and dedicated photographer that Doug is. While Mike and I slept in our warm sleeping bags, Doug got up and made his way to the shore to catch this beaufiful sunrise over Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands. |  |