Man, its been a while since my last entry. Just was super busy with work really all last week (this week promises more of the same), and then when I did get some free time this weekend I really just wanted to relax and wasn't too focused on going online much or writing anything. My Dad got back from his trip to Alaska and Canada alright, and in talking to him the other day it sounds like he had a rather close call up in Alaska. When he and I went up there two summers ago to go fishing, we saw a lot of humpback whales swimming around all over the place, but they kept their distance from the boats because of the engines (presumably), and never got closer than a hundred yards or so. Typically up there we would go out, stop at a spot to fish for our bait, then cruise out to the ocean to use the bait to fish. The guide we had would keep the motor running during all this, because it usually didn't take long to get the bait, and then we were on our way. Well, my Dad said this time up on one of the days the guide they had turned the motor off while they were fishing for bait. Evidently without the motor running it didn't discourage the whales from getting close to the boat, so my Dad said they came right up next to the boat and it was pretty impressive... That is until one of the whales bumped the boat. My Dad said that he knew this was not normal and that they might have been in trouble when it became clear the whale was going to hit the boat and the guide yelled out "Holy shit!" In any event, I guess the whale just knocked the boat, and there wasn't any damage, but I can imagine it would be pretty scary to have something that weighs 70 tons bump into a 20 foot boat when the water you're in is cold enough to kill you in a matter of minutes if you fell in. Luckily no one was hurt, and they got out of there OK, but its something to keep in mind if you're ever in a boat around whales.