WHALES!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited for this post!  And you can tell by the title what it’s going to be about!

Our next stop along this amazing journey was in DIGBY, NOVA SCOTIA – “The Scallop Capital of the WORLD!” (the WORLD!) So of course after setting up the trailers at a beautiful little campground on the water, we headed out in search of some of those BEST scallops in the world!

A recommendation for delicious scallops and other yummy dishes was given to us by the gal who ran the campground – The Wheelhouse Seafood and Pasta – so off we went!

Arriving at the restaurant made us go “hmmmmm” and wonder if we were at the right place – just a little “hole in the wall” right on the water, at the end of a street with not much on it…as we pulled up though, we noticed how many cars were in the parking lot!  That encouraged us for sure!

What a fun experience we had!  Originally we were seated out on the deck overlooking the water, but right away we realized it was pretty chilly and would get chillier as the evening went on – so we ended up inside by the bar and it was cozy and warm – and crowded!  Each of the four of us ordered something different and each of the dinners was GREAT!  I DO have to say that I was the winner!   Scallops are not my favorite by far (I DO like catching them in the summer in Florida, but that’s about where it ends…) – so I ordered lobster mac and cheese!!!!  It’s hard to describe how yummy it was and how much lobster was in it – every bite had a couple of chunks of lobster!

The other dinners were the scallop trio…

Coconut shrimp…

And seafood chowder and scallops with risotto cooked in a white wine sauce (photo missing!)

What a meal!  It’s fun to stumble upon a little place tucked back in the middle of nowhere, that doesn’t look like much, but turns about to be a GEM!

The next day brought such an exciting adventure for us – WHALE WATCHING!!  Waking up to a beautiful day – bright sunshine and perfect temperatures – made us even more excited!  We have commented about how amazing the weather has been on every part of this trip!  In fact, we brought too many WARM clothes and could have used a few more short sleeved tops! God is so good and we have enjoyed the weather as we have seen HIS majesty and beauty and creation all along this trip!

Off we went to board our boat for the trip – we made reservations with a company called PETIT PASSAGE WHALE WATCHING, which we had heard was one of the best!

After boarding the boat, we got comfortable, looking SO forward to seeing whales!

At our campground, the couple next to us had done this trip the day before and came back SO excited – they had seen several whales – three of them SLEEPING!  The guide on the boat said that’s an unusual thing to see, so they felt extra special – haha!  Talking to them after their adventure got us even more excited!

There were about 45 people on the boat – the water was so calm and beautiful – the sun was shining – the air was cool – and everyone’s eyes were glued on the water, just waiting to see a splash!

The guide we had was a gal named Pascale, who had moved from England to Nova Scotia twenty years ago – she was GREAT – explained SO many things to us and was as excited as we all were!

She showed us a binder of ALL of the whales they see there in the waters of Nova Scotia – something we learned is that EVERY whale has a different design on their tail – like a human fingerprint – and no two are alike!  So throughout the years, the tails have been photographed and names are given to each whale – here are a couple of photos of some of the whale tails!

About an hour into our journey, we were alerted by the crew that there were whales in the area!!!  It was funny because everyone ran to the same side of the boat to see!  (Thank goodness the boat was plenty big!)

As the whale dove down into the water (what is happening when you see their tail come up and then go back in), Pascale told us that we had just seen BADGE – she showed us his tail in the binder, and then we compared it to the  photos we had just taken!

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Everyone was so excited, and some of us said that even if we didn’t see any more whales, it would have been a great and successful day!

As the day went on, it got even better!  Coming upon a group of three whales in the water, Pascale told us that – sure enough – two of them were SLEEPING!

When whales sleep, they “shut off” part of their brain, but the other part is awake so they can do two things:  remember to breathe and be alert to any danger.  Then they switch over those parts of the brain and sleep some more!  AMAZING!  In this group of three whales, two were sleeping and the other one was very active!  He was beating the water with one of his side fins, maybe trying to wake the others up and let them know something was in the area???  Or maybe he just knew we all wanted to see them give us a show – haha!

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Everyone on the boat watched and videoed and took photos and then fell silent in AWE!  It was so strange how quiet everyone was after the whales were done giving us a show – I think we were all in shock at what we had just seen!  I then said really loud “that was AMAZING” and everyone started talking and sharing how fun that was!!!

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We were out there for a while and kept moving to try to find more whales – and did we ever!  It was such a successful whale watching trip – couldn’t have gone better!  And we couldn’t wait to go back to the campground to share with our “neighbor” that we also saw whales sleeping!

On the way back, we saw seals sleeping on the rocks!  Another win!

On the drive back to our campground, we went on and on about how much fun we had and all that we saw!  We finished off the day with dinner outside of our trailers – what a great ending to a perfect day!

I hope you enjoyed the photos and videos of what WE saw up close!

WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT’S NEXT!!!!

Until next time….