Day 11, 11 June 2015

133 visitors

We got to sleep in a bit today since opening time was 11 am due to the tides. An extra hour was so nice. Both of us have picked up a slight head cold probably from one of the visitors. We both had scratchy throats at the end of the day yesterday and thought it was due to all the talking we do but we both got stuffy in the night with headaches. I felt like death warmed over this morning but had a full busy day to contend with and resupplied some things in the gift store before popping some aspirin and Nasanex and cheerily greeted the first visitors. Chewing gum and having water on hand helped a lot also. The day was sunny and breezy and warm enough for shorts and T-shirt. I took the tower, Fred the 2^nd floor, Leon the first floor and Terrie the gift shop.  Again there was a steady stream of visitors from 11 to 4 but the groups were pretty well timed and everything ran smoothly. Fred had cleaned the tower windows inside and out and I proceeded to wipe down the lens completely before the crowds showed up. With my little fingers I could really get into the prism corners and get her shiny clean. She sparkled! While up in the tower during a tour, I was describing the sea life that is seen from the island and a visitor asked about how to spot a whale and I told him to look for the spray blown from their blowhole. Right after I said that I spied the spray and then saw the back of a good-sized grey whale!   Below, Fred used two pictures taken from the Web as I did not have my camera at the time.

California Grey Whale (Taken from Web)

We Saw the Whales do this with the Side Flipper (Taken from the Web)

I told everyone and pointed the whale out. They were all excited and the cameras started clicking pictures off. We spotted another one right next to the first one and they were very close – only 100-150 yards away from the island. They seemed to circle about near various rock outcroppings. You could clearly see their spray and blowholes, their massive grey backs and even a huge flipper as they rolled over. What a delight to watch them for about ½ hour. The group of visitors were all excited and thrilled. They went down and another group got to see them also. I could see people outside of the house all standing on the northwest side of the house snapping pictures. Of course I didn’t have my camera but just enjoyed watching them and pointing them out to the visitors. For some of them it was the first time they had ever seen a whale and be in a lighthouse. About halfway through our duty time I switched with Fred so he could be in the tower (our favorite place) and I went to the 2^nd floor to finish off giving tours. It was tiring for us in our sick state but since everything went pretty smooth we got through it. I was able to check my newly planted flowers in the morning before visitors showed up and they looked really good after a cool damp night. During the day the wind picked up severely again and I watched my poor little plants get whipped in the wind. Fred had to bring the flag in early again.

Tide coming in, It can get up to Six Feet Deep!

We were really hungry by 4:30 pm when we finally got to eat an early dinner. There were still people milling about and Fred went out to warn them about leaving in time so they would not get wet. Some said they thought the tide was going out – NOT!  Everyone finally was off the island and we sighed relief to have our peaceful solitude return. After a nice little dinner of soup, bacon cheese on English muffins and fruit. We had a few leftover cookies from all the ones I baked for the kid tours. I called the park service and left a message about the grey whale sighting. Around 6 pm, we were extremely tired and relaxed on the little couch and kept falling asleep. Fred went upstairs to watch the basketball game and I curled up for a well deserved nap. I slept soundly till Fred washed the dishes in the kitchen and could hear every move. I fell back asleep and awoke at 9 pm!  The sun had set and we went out for our walk.

Late in the Day View West

Fred put out the cat food and our lame raccoon showed up and Fred snapped a few pictures of him. Not sure if the lame gull got any – will have to make sure he gets a good breakfast.  I made a salad for dinner and we had some ice cream for dessert, which felt great on our scratchy throats. After writing this blog and a bit of knitting it was off to sleep and dreamland, perhaps dreaming of giant, grey beasties rolling about the waves with the simple joy of catching fishes within their vast ocean home with a sturdy little lighthouse watching over their cetacean delight.

Our Resident Raccoon, Fred got about two Feet from him/her