$1500 Cape Cod Challenge Day 3: Whale Watching

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Day three of our Cape Cod vacation was devoted to whale watching. I had researched the big 3 companies on the Cape; Portuguese Princess (www.princesswhalewatch.com) and Dolphin Fleet (www.whalewatch.com) out of Provincetown and Hyannis Whale Watcher out of Barnstable (www.whales.net). We decided to go with Portuguese Princess for several reasons. First, they didn't charge admission for my 4 year old. Secondly, they offered a family discount rate of $90 for two adults and two children. That made sailing with them about $50 cheaper than sailing with the Hyannis group.

Finally, I thought driving out to Provincetown would be interesting (I had heard it was an eclectic, artsy little village with great people watching) and I really wanted to see the rest of the Cape. We packed up our cooler and headed out to P-Town. The ride out there was a little over an hour (no traffic on a Monday). We got there early and ate our lunch on the pier while waiting to board the boat.

If you are the parent of young children, you'll need to know these whale watching trips are three hours long. The whales are the main attraction here and there's not much else for
a child to do. Although it may sound sacrilegious, I'm going to suggest you bring a backpack with something to keep the kids occupied. If your children are like mine, there might come a point about halfway through the adventure when the novelty will start to wear off. Despite the fact there is a beautiful, huge, humpback whale doing the back stroke next to your boat, leaping out of the water and waving it's fin, your children might look at you, roll their eyes and say, "Yeah Mom, we saw that already!" That's when I sent my kids inside to the snack bar with their Gameboys...was I ever glad I remembered to pack those!

The next thing to remember about these trips is Murphy's Law will apply. No matter what fantastical leap or trick the whales do, unless you are a professional photographer, you probably won't catch it on camera. Believe me, I tried. The best you can hope for is a bit of fin sticking out of the water.

Finally, be prepared to get wet. I got soaked standing near the bow of the boat aiming my camera at the whales. Luckily for me, it was a warm day and once I got off the boat I dried up pretty quickly.

We were exhausted after the trip and the kids fell asleep on the ride home. It was another great day!

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Photos

Provincetown
A sea food shack on the pier. This was the best picture I took all day.

Comments

[Mom]

Loving this....
I can't wait for the next installments....