When writing a blog or any other type of interactive media we have to familiarize ourselves with certain terms like free culture, which is basically “How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity” Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity (Lawrence Lessig, 2004). But how can such a serious, gigantic, and problematic subject as free culture tie in with hecka fun? It’s simple….it doesn’t! When you want hecka fun just avoid it. The way to avoid it is by getting away from technology. Run! Or walk to the outdoors. Go whale watching; that’s what I did and let’s just say someone had hecka fun.
If you love animals, or the ocean, or just being on a boat, or all 3 then you’ll love whale watching. My girlfriend and I went for our 4 year anniversary. We wanted to do something we’ve never done before and get away without having to really get away, so I booked a super cheap hotel, America Best Value INN, in Monterey, because I’m hecka broke. Actually, it wasn’t even in Monterey it was in Seaside, the poor man’s Monterey, which equals about a $100 cheaper, which then equals awesome! We got to our hotel Saturday during the day, so with time to kill we went down to canary row and saw an iMax documentary about a giant feeding frenzy in which dolphins, whales, and birds feed on a giant school of sardines off the coast of South Africa, called Wild Ocean 3D. It was really cool and in 3D! It got us in the mood to go see real whales, but first dinner. We ate at Jugem Japanese Restaurant, which was a tasty-reasonably-priced sushi place along with a few sake bombs. I picked it because of its good reviews on yelp.com. Which is also where I found the highly reviewed whale watching company, Monterey Bay Whale Watch; you can also read my stunning review there too. But before I get to the whales let me tell you about a great little part of Monterey, which I had never seen in the few times that I have been there, which is the Old Fisherman’s Warf. It’s no Pier 39, but it’s a cool little pier flowing with good restaurants and cheesy souvenir shops. Later that night we saw a family of raccoons; they were cute, BUT DEADLY! But mainly cute. That was our fabulous Saturday, but Sunday was the moneymaker.
We woke up early, sevenish, showered, put on layers of clothes, took motion sickness pills, hopped in the car and drove back to the Old Fisherman’s Warf where our whale watching boat awaited us, and of course we were running late, because that’s how we live our life. I chose the 9am trip because it’s a smoother and more you’re likely to spot sea creatures, and oh, we spotted sea creatures. Heading out from the dock we saw a ton of Seals, Sea Lions, and sea birds, but I’m from the Bay Area not Idaho! So that wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t till we got a couple miles out that we spotted 2 Hump Back Whales. Our boat got really close and we saw them breach the surface, blow air, and dive back down very slowly, which was very cool. Later we saw 2 Blue Sharks, which sounds awesome, but wasn’t really that awesome. The fist shark all you could see was the tip of the fin and the second I saw was underwater and it sort of looked like a shadow, but next we saw one of the coolest things ever. We saw a pod of Killer Whales hunt down and eat a Sea Lion. There was a mom Killer Whale, a young Killer Whale, and two baby Killer Whales, who were extremely cute way cuter than the raccoons, and WAY DEADLIER! Deadlier always equals cooler. After the kill the family of whales was so thrilled and excited that they flung themselves out of the water and splashed around just like at Marine World, except this was a bazillion times cooler. The marine biologist on board told us how sensitive, smart, and family oriented the Orca Whale is, which actually means demon, and that the splashing reaffirms social bonds and is a display of self expression (obviously Free Culture isn’t a problem for them), and in the wild Orca’s live up to 90 years, but in captivity the average life span is only 7. The marine biologist on board had tons of great information and I had tons of stupid questions like “What do seals and dolphins think of each other and would they ever play?” She told me that was a great question, but my girlfriend gave me the you’re-embarrassing-me look; that’s my job and I’ve been doing it for 4 years now.
This was a great trip, I highly recommend it, but go in the summer it’s supposed to be even better, and best of all it was technology free. Nature is technology free; the Orca Whale definitely didn’t have to worry about corporations using technology and the law to lock down and control its creativity. So like my dear Orca friends keep splashing out of the water in self expression, and then put it on YouTube.
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