The last week of my winter break, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit one of my friends at her school, The University of California, Santa Cruz. I’m from the suburbs around Chicago and it’s been in the negatives lately so I was super pumped to be able to get away from the ice and snow and be near the ocean and enjoy some much-needed warmth. We didn’t really have a concrete plan for my time there since she started classes the day after we flew there, but I knew, deep down in my whale loving soul, that I would never forgive myself if I didn’t see some whales when I was already so close to them.

After a lot of planning and researching about where we would go (mainly because all the Santa Cruz whale watching places were booked already) we decided we would drive to Monterey, about an hour away, and see some whales through the Princess Monterey Whale Watching Tours.

I have truly never been more excited for something in my life to be completely honest; I woke up at 5:45 A.M., when we didn’t even have to leave until like 7:00 A.M., that’s how pumped I was. Once we got to Monterey, we parked and walked down the wharf to the boat we’d be taking out. After checking in and all the safety information, we were finally ready to board the boat. It was all finally starting to hit me and I just couldn’t wait to be out on the open water, searching the horizon for a glimpse of a whale.

This was the first time I’d ever been whale watching and I was so excited to actually see them in the wild. I’ve seen the belugas at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago a million times but I knew that seeing wild whales, chilling in their natural habitat, would be even more special. As we pulled out of the bay and heading away from the coast, the tour guide was telling us we might see some gray and humpback whales that day. We also saw a lot of jellyfish, sea lions, sea otters, and various kinds of seabirds throughout the trip. Once the tour guide spotted some gray whales ahead of us and we moved the boat closer to get a better look.

The moment I saw the whales’ spout, I honestly teared up a little bit because I was so happy and excited. Throughout the trip, we watched several small groups of three or four whales come up for air and then do some shallow dives and deeper dives. When the whales dived deeper, their tails would come out of the water and then go under, giving them that extra push to dive deeper. At one point during the trip they did what is called a spy hop, meaning they stick their faces out of the water to check out their surroundings. After watching them for a while and following them around the bay, we started to head back to the wharf.

Going whale watching was truly one of the best things I’ve ever been able to do and I will definitely be making some specific trips to Canada and Seattle at some point in the future to go see some orcas and other whales. Watching the gray whales while they were migrating towards Mexico was absolutely amazing and I think everyone should be able to check out these cool cetaceans in their natural habitat!