The whale currently frolicking about the Santa Babara bay is causing quite the stir,people are amazed it is so close to the shoreline.The story brought to mind my Aunt Aileen.

She is quite the lady,native of the Ozarks,fisher woman,huntress,winner of Senior Olympic Gold medals for archery~Compound bows!~.At the age of 76 she set a new record. She tells a tale in her autobiography about the trip out west to investigate buying property. It was 1920,great- great -grandfather seriously considering buying a tract of land called Newport Beach for a sum of $3,600. Only two things stopped him from doing so.One night a siren blast woke everyone from their beds~earthquake! As unsettling as that was, the second event drove the whole family back home to stay.Yet the visit to California led to my grandfather years later to choose this state as his new home.

  Fishing from the pier several days later,Aileen and her cousins heard the siren scream again.Not a earthquake but a herd of whales approaching the pier,everyone had to get off the wooden structure as 100 whales went under, through the pylons,spouting water  high into the air.Splashing their tails,cavorting past tiny Newport, they did not disturb the pier at all. That settled it~ California was too unstable,what with the quakes and the whales.Some other fool bought Newport...

  Apparently the migration came close to the shore then, and in startling numbers.Amazed at one whale today,I am sure of one thing.Human activity clearly had nothing to do with the whales decision to swim farther off shore.Well maybe one segment did~I hear it was the paparazzi!