We went whale watching this morning!
We saw a humpback whale! We saw it spout, and saw it dive down under the water, showing off it's "hump." Amazing!
We also saw two pods of dolphins, and lots of puffins, and I swear I saw a minke whale when no one was looking. I didn't get pictures of the whales, but I got some good dolphin pictures and a few puffin shots.
They told us that humpback whales spend all summer eating in the polar waters, then migrate to warm temperatures for the winter but don't eat at all there. The dolphins we saw are not typical bottle-nose Flipper dolphins, and you can see some white marking on them in my pictures.
The puffins are such funny birds! They're fat and have small wings, so they don't fly well. It's really funny to see them flying practically in the water because they don't get much liftoff.
There are three different whale watching outfitters here in Reykjavik, and I'm so glad we were on the one we were. There were only three families on our boat; on one of the others, I saw an entire busload of Japanese tourists get on.
Levi J and I got outfitted in some awesomely warm "overalls." There weren't any small enough for Quintana, and big Levi was too cool for them (actually, I think he likes being cold). Levi J was swimming in his, haha, but they sure kept him warm.
There was an indoor area, too, thankfully, because Quintana cried for about the first hour. Then she was pretty calm the second hour but wanted to sit inside, then happy by the last hour and a half. I think what really set her off was the life jacket! Once we ignored safety (and the captain's instructions) and stopped trying to make her wear it, she was okay. She even got to steer the boat!
It's very sad, but they actually do kill and eat whales here in Iceland.
It's so crazy to think that Levi saw a humpback whale this morning, then came home and went to work! Such an awesome way to spend a morning.
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