When Patrick and I wandered into Monterey Bay Whale Watch on Fisherman's Wharf, we had no idea what we were about to experience. We had seen a brochure that advertised summer whale watching, with blue whales and humpbacks commonly seen, and we wanted to check it out. On the white board in the tackle shop it said they had seen about 20 blue whales, several humpbacks, a minke whale, and hundreds of dolphin the day before.

Yeah, right, I thought. Probably only the captain and the marine biologist who goes on every trip spotted all those whales, and the tourists had no idea that they were even in the presence of all these cetaceans.

But at $39 a person, it was worth a try. So we booked the date, and showed up at 8:30 at the pier to board the boat.

We headed southwest, toward the deep submarine canyon in Monterey Bay. The whales were reportedly feeding on krill that in turn feeds on plankton in the deep water. After about an hour, all we had seen were hundreds of sea lions on the breakwater on the way out of the bay, and a constant parade of large jelly fish, including moon jellies and egg yolk jellies.

Patrick was not feeling so well, so he rested while we made our way out to the deeper water. After about an hour or so, when we were several miles out at sea, the captain spotted blue whales blowing.

We were actually able to get close enough to the whales to realize how huge they were. Their backs went on forever as they moved through the water, blowing and occasionally diving down. The blue whales apparently don't pay any attention to boats. They just feed, and dive as deep as they need to go for the krill. Luckily on this day, the krill were close to the surface, so we got to watch the whales for quite a while before they dived down and swam away.

I had my camera out and was taking digital videos of the blue whales spouting when I ran out of disk space. Patrick handed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and went into the cabin to get another sandwich out of our bag. I was standing on the side of the boat, looking out toward the whales, with my camera in one hand and a peanut butter sandwich in the other, when a blue whale suddenly surfaced right in front of me and lunged forward out of the water, feeding on the krill. (This is called lunge feeding.)

All I could do was scream for Patrick and wave my sandwich and camera around. I didn't have time to put another disk in the camera, or get a picture. Really, I couldn't even think clearly because I was so excited. This massive creature jumped out of the water right in front of me, and opened its mouth wide to scoop up krill. What an amazing moment.

After watching the blue whales for a while, we headed to another part of the bay to find the humpback whales. I was still skeptical. I don't know why. Seeing the blues had made my day, and I just didn't expect it to get any better.

But we were only underway a short time (long enough for Patrick to go lie down again) when we came on the humpback whales. They were also feeding, but not lunge feeding, at the surface. As I took videos of a pair of whales, they turned and headed straight toward the boat. It was precisely at that moment that I ran out of disk space yet again. I thought, "They are going to come right over to the boat now because I am not ready for them and Patrick's inside again." And that's exactly what they did.

This pair swam straight to the boat, and then surfaced right next to us. They spent 20 to 30 minutes lolling around, literally touching the boat, swimming from one side to the other and surfacing and blowing on us. The children on the boat ran from one side to the other, screaming every time the whales came up. I had plenty of time to get more disks and take videos of the whales surfacing right next to the boat, blowing snot on us all, and then diving down and showing off their flukes.

We could see the humpbacks clearly through the water...the entire lengths of their magnificent bodies, with their long white pectoral fins and classic whale tails. They must have been enjoying the encounter, too, because they stayed for a while. This is, appropriately, called "friendly whale" behavior.

Eventually we had to leave and head back toward Monterey. As soon as we got underway, we saw another humpback whale "tail slapping" — slapping his tail against the surface of the water over and over again. Unfortunately, I was completely out of disks. I also missed out on filming another small group of blue whales, who were much closer than the first group. But it was thrilling to see their huge backs, and the size of their spouts.

All in all, it was an amazing day —a gift from Monterey Bay that we won't soon forget.