We went whale watching today. It’s a funny activity for sure. You spend 3 hours chasing around the ocean in the hopes of seeing something. And the trip is considered a success if you spot the white underside of a minky whales flukes. There’s quite a bit of spout chasing and “Is that a whale no it’s a bird is that a whale no its a boat is that a whale no it’s a, yes YES it’s a whale!” or Oh did you see it, what? there look! shit I missed the one god damn whale are you kidding me-ing.

I found the warm overalls downstairs in the engine room and spent many happy hours on deck while watching others shiver. Sure I might have looked rediculous, like a rather badly bruised michelin man, but I was warm as toast and my wife got a good giggle at my getup.

Now I’m not one to complain so I’ll keep this short but I think it’s a little dear to charge 45 dollars for a 3 hour activity where there is the very great possibility you may not see anything at all. Granted the company offers a free “do-over” but do I really want to sit on the boat again for 3 hours with no guarantee? I think they could cut the price in half and have a lot more happy customers… just a thought.

Then again, would I pay 45 dollars for a 3 hour opera where all I get to hear is one person sing for 3 minutes and the rest be an empty stage with some kid kicking the back of my seat? I leave the answering up to you dear reader?

Upon our return to land we stopped in a seafood restaurant on the main road and found they were serving Mink Whale skewers. The meat was raw and you gave them the skewers to cook for you. We chose a scallop skewer to go along with our Lobster soup but I couldn’t help finding the experience rather nauseating. Whale meat is purple and apparently if cooked too long get’s a livery taste.. We met several folks who love the stuff and say it’s more tender than the finest steak you’d ever have.

I don’t know why I have such an aversion to the idea of eating whale. It probably has everything to do with the science project I did when I was 13, where I spent two weeks drawing every member of the cetacean family (whales & dolphins) by hand. I drew the outlines so perfectly in pen, coloring in and being careful not to go over the lines. I had such pride in that project and such respect for those animals that I know it affected me to my core. I regularly catch one of those high drama confrontations on the discovery channel between green peace and Japanese whalers and I always, unabashedly so, root for green peace. I’m pretty sure my love of these majestic underwater mammals led me to my obsession with holding my breath. Whales are known to hold their breath for thirty minutes at a time. Blue Whales even longer. This was staggering to my 13 year old brain and many long summer days were spent with me, floating at the bottom of our pool, holding my breath. (Funny enough, I have spent much of this honeymoon holding my breath.… at the bottom of pools…).

After our return to land, we both lazed around downtown Reykjavik, wandering past the storefronts and restaurants of the main shopping boulevard. Everything shuts here at 6pm so the downtown became quickly quiet despite the sunlight still pouring across the rooftops. We both realized we were very high in the hemisphere when the sun didn’t lip the horizon until 9 that night. Reykjavik was proving to be more than quaint.