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Every year my husband asks me, "What do you want for your birthday?" My common response is, "I want to go whale watching." This was never a problem until a couple of years ago, when we moved to Kansas. Then I made a horrible discovery. There are no whales in Kansas!

We lived in the San Diego, CA area for eight years, and once I discovered that I could go out into the ocean and see a whale up close, I was hooked! Every year the Gray Whales make a round trip migration of 10,000 miles or more, from the birthing lagoons in Baja Mexico to their arctic feeding grounds. They usually travel close to the shoreline, which makes it easy to see them, even if you are standing on shore. You can also sign up for whale watching trips.

Whenever my husband and I would go whale watching, we always tried to stand in the bow. No, we were not trying to emulate Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic! We liked to stand there to get the best view of any whales that showed up. It is always fun to be the first one to see the "blow" and point it out to other passengers. This occurs when the whale blows warm, moist air out of its lungs that combines with the colder, ocean air. For a Gray Whale, the result is a 13-15-foot column of heart-shaped spray, which can last for up to 5 seconds. It is this spout that whale watchers are seeing when they yell out, "there she blows!"

We would also watch for a smooth, oval pattern on the water, called a "footprint." This occurs right after the whale submerges. Gray whales tend to dive deep for 3-6 minutes, come up for air, and then dive deep again, although they can stay submerged for much longer.

You can recognize a Gray Whale by its size, shape, and markings. A Gray Whale has dorsal humps or knuckles rather than a fin. They are mottled gray in color, which comes from both natural coloration, and white patches of scars left by parasites and barnacles that attach themselves to their skin. They are not particularly beautiful to behold, although I suppose their mothers think differently. The Gray is also smaller than many whales, averaging 45-50 feet long.

Occasionally we were lucky enough to see the whale "fluke," which is when they dive deeply and toss that massive tail up in the air. Sometimes, we ran across a Gray Whale that wanted to show off and would fluke several times. When that happened, we always offered our respectful thanks to this incredible creature for this great honor. In more rare cases, you might see a whale breach, at which

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