“California,” he said, “is like a beautiful wild kid on heroin, high as a kite and thinking she’s on top of the world, not knowing she’s dying, not believing it even if you show her the marks.”
Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton p. 78
Whale Watching in California
I wanted to see the spring migration of whales off the coast of California. We are fortunate to have friends who own a place in Port Hueneme. They let us stay there for a few days while we explored the surrounding environs and went whale watching.
Galápagos Islands in California
Whale-watching tours are available from Oxnard Harbor. The boat took us around Anacapa Island, pictured above, and back to the mainland.
Everyone on board shuffled around to find a good spot from which to view the whales. I sat on top of a – well I don’t really know. It was just a flat surface large enough to hold me and I perched myself up there, where I stayed. It was my happy place for watching whales. More people started to migrate up to the front where I was.
One gentleman, in particular, stood within talking distance of me. We started to talk about the trip and if we would actually see a whale. He was pretty sure that we would. He had taken this trip many times and knew a lot about the flora and fauna of the Channel Islands. These islands are also known as California’s Galápagos. There are 150 species found nowhere else on Earth but here. And that includes the Santa Cruz Island Pygmy Fox.
(Please note: This is just a plain old fox. I wanted to give you an idea of what a fox looks like.)
“I Collect Skeletons”
While talking about animals, he suddenly said, “I collect skeletons”. “Excuse me?” I asked. And why is he examining my frame like that? Is he talking about animal or… “Animal, of course” he added quickly. Of course.
He has three horse skulls because that is what he’s teaching right now. He’s a veterinarian. His specialty is apes. They have exactly the same body as we do. (Some more than others if you know what I mean.) I asked him something that I have always thought about, “If they are so close to us then do they also suffer from mental illness?” He said, “That is a very good question and something we know the least about. We’ve seen Downs Syndrome, depression, and anxiety.” “What about schizophrenia?” He explained that schizophrenia is not something they can test for using blood or X-rays. Yeah, that’s true.
Sooner or Later…
“They are ferocious though, aren’t they? I mean you can’t keep one for a pet.” I’ve heard gruesome stories of chimps and apes turning on people. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Sooner or later they will kill you. It’s natural for them.”
My Pathetic Fluke Shot
That’s what they call them. When the whale tail emerges from the water. This isn’t National Geographic level but it’s all I’ve got until my next whale-watching event. There were two Humpbacked whales waiting for our boat to arrive that day. They got to show off. Maureen was disappointed with the trip. She did not see much of the whales jumping and flopping around because people were crowded in front of her and she is not one to impose.
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