The afternoon (after an In-N-Out burger for lunch) was spent on a 2 1/2 hour whale watching excursion out of Santa Barbara Harbor. Soon after leaving we encountered a school of feeding dolphins.
Farther out into the Santa Barbara Channel, we encountered a sea lion. Finally we spotted the gray whale's "blow or spout" which is when the warm moist air exhaled from the animals' lungs meets the cool air at the ocean surface. We also spotted the knuckled back of the whales after the blow. After the whale submerges, a elongated smooth oval of calm water appears, known as the "footprint." Before making a long deep dive (3-6 minutes) a whale often displays its 12 foot wide fan-shaped flukes, or tail. The 
weight of the tail above the whale's body helps it dive deep.
weight of the tail above the whale's body helps it dive deep.What a thrill it was to see the pair of whales breach, or hurl themselves out of the water and plunge back in with a tremendous splash! We were told this was a rare amazing sight and I was lucky enough to just catch it on video. You can also see the "footprints, flukes and blows."
whale breach video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXo8IHa0ehA (breaching occurs at 1:26 in the video)
