How to Make a 41st Anniversary Special!

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 8, 2022

41 years ago two college kids vowed that "whither thou goest I will go." We had no idea that would include driving around the country in a motor home. Because we get to do some special things every day, it's hard to come up with a really special thing on a day like a 41st anniversary.

But we found it! We're headed out on the Atlantic Ocean on a Cape Ann whale watch! After seeing so many whales from the sea shore in Cape Cod, we are ready to see those whales up close from a boat. To make the deal even sweeter, Mark found us a great deal on a Groupon for two tickets, and our Boondockers Welcome host offered to let us stay an extra night. We are blessed!

Before we got out of the harbor, we got to see a boat load of people moving around the water like we usually do--with rowing power. But today is special, so we are in a motorized boat. We also saw our first lighthouse peeking over the dunes.

This whale watch could also be called a lighthouse tour because we got to see all the lights in the harbor and beyond.

This is a special day, because Denisa is getting to take lots of lighthouse pictures!

These are the Thacher Island Twin Lighthouses. Built in 1771, they are some of America's oldest lighthouses.

Once we were out in the open water, we caught sight of our first whale of the day about ten miles from the harbor.

While seeing them from the shore is fun, it is so much better to see a whale break the surface of the water right next to your boat. The naturalist on board can identify most of the whales that hang out in this feeding ground. For example, the first whale we saw was Spoon. Spoon is about 45 years old, and she has brought at least 16 different whale calves back to these feeding grounds. She is the biggest whale in this area.

We've been on whale watch boats in Alaska, Newfoundland, Hawaii, and the west coast. We're experienced enough to know when you see a whale tale in the air, that's the sign that they are diving deep and we won't be seeing her for a while.

With rain forecast for tomorrow, we heard that several people moved their whale watch reservation to today. We had a full boat this morning. But we never had any problems finding a place at the rail to see the latest whale show.

We could usually see another whale shortly after one left us. For a while, we even had two whales swimming side-by-side.

 

Another whale-watching boat was in the same area, and it was good to have that boat in the frame just to show how big these two whales were.

We saw a dozen different whales, and each whale has unique markings on the under-side of their tails. We could compare the markings on this tail . . .

to this one . . .

and this one . . .

and this one.

The naturalist on our boat had tail pictures of most of the whales that spend their summers here.

In the middle of all these whale sightings, we got the news that an ocean sunfish was in the water beside the boat. This is the largest bony fish in the world, and they usually grow to be 6-8 feet in length.

The sunfish gets its name from its unusual habit of swimming on its side and coming to the surface of the ocean to soak up the warmth of the sun. After a day of seeing a dozen or so whales, this was a more unusual sighting.

After three hours, it was time for the boat to get back to the harbor to meet another group, So this was our final whale tail dive of the trip. We didn't see any fancy breaches or sky-hopping today, but the whales certainly kept us entertained with all the sightings. It was a special thing to do on a special day!

On the way back to the harbor, we saw some tourists that spent this special day on a tall ship sailing.

We were speeding through the water, and Denisa was pretty impressed that Mark was able to walk around the boat. Most people were sitting down because it was a bit breezy and bumpy on the return trip. 

We had a nice conversation with another couple sitting near us on the boat. She started the conversation by saying that she knew that we weren't from around here. We assumed that was because of our accents. No, she explained that she noticed several times that Mark had invited people to stand in front of him so they could see better. She said that people from around here wouldn't do that. Then she offered to take another anniversary picture of us. By this time, Denisa's hair looks like it has been in the blowing wind for three hours!

We were up early this morning, as our boat left at 8:30 and we had to be there at least 30 minutes before that. Taking the early boat has some advantages, including the fact that we were finished before noon. That means that we had the rest of the day to find more special things to do on this 41st anniversary. We drove by several "private road" signs to take this picture of the Eastern Point Lighthouse here on Cape Ann. We are learning that those private signs are placed there by residents that don't want the traffic, but all the roads are public. 

We also made a return trip to Rockport and Bearskin Neck. The lighting is so much better for today's picture of Motif No.1--that old red fishing shack that Denisa is standing by.

It's also had better lighting for a picture of the bright kayaks here in the harbor. We can contrast it to the evening picture we took two days ago at high tide when all those kayaks were floating instead of sitting in the sand.

We don't usually go inside places like this, but we went to the Fudgery because this is a special day. We even bought a special dessert. Mark is holding an elephant ear--a pie crust pastry slathered in butter and cinnamon sugar before it is baked to a golden brown. Denisa's special food splurge required a trip to the grocery store. Bing cherries have been ridiculously expensive this summer in the northeast. She has refused to buy them, even though they are her favorite summer fruit. But on this special day, she marched right into that grocery store and bought bing cherries!

You have to eat out on your anniversary, and we followed the local advice to eat at the best place in Cape Ann. Our new little home town of Essex claims to have invented the seafood delicacy of fried clams. We went to J.T. Farnham's and ordered the friend haddock and fried clams meal. The rate of inflation is quite evident here in New England. In the on-line reviews we saw a menu with this meal priced at $30. On the restaurant's web site, it was priced at $35. Today they charged us the new price of $38. 

We couldn't have an anniversary without a walk on the beach. Mark found us a new one with a little-known back street entry. It's called Pebble Beach, probably because of all the pebbles we walked over to get to the sand.

We collected red pebbles to make the appropriate beach art of the day. Denisa fashioned a red heart with "41" inside.

We got one more 41st anniversary picture on the beach. Yes, it's hard to find something special to do on a special day because we get to do some pretty neat things every day. But today was even more special because we got to wander God's special wonders together.