Mammals large and small

After rocking out all night with Neil Diamond at Madison Square Garden, my parents met Dave & I back at our apartment and we headed to CT for the weekend. We drove up to Plymouth, MA on Saturday morning to go on a whale watch with Captain John. The weather was beautiful -- perfect for a boat ride! We left Plymouth around 2pm and motored out to Stellwagen Bank, just off the tip of Cape Cod and Provincetown. On the way out we saw fin whales, which are the 2nd largest whale and can grow to be 60 tons! We only saw these from a distance. When the boat went a little further, we saw plenty of humpback whales, some coming up right next to us. It was so amazing to see these beautiful animals up close, and the pictures don't properly represent the beauty of the humpbacks -- I was more interested in looking at the them and hearing them breathe than in taking their pictures. Plus, they come up so fast that you don't have time to pull out the camera and focus before they're heading back down with their trademark tail flip. The last time we went on a whale watch, we saw the amazing site of two humpbacks breaching -- jumping completely out of the water and falling back in. We learned that the humpbacks consume 1 million calories a day -- that's a lot of chocolate ice cream! On our way back into shore we saw one more type of whale called a minke whale.

Sunday in CT required ablissful visit to my brother and sis-in-law, who are the proud parents of my niece Samantha. She's just so cute I babble about her for lack of the right words. Yay, babies!

Speaking of babies, my friend Andrea is due in about 1 week. Good luck my high school giggling friend, because everything is about to change...