Whale Watching: That Time I Threw Up for 8 Hours Straight

Two summers ago Derek got us a Groupon to go whale watching in San Francisco. I was so excited because I had never gone whale watching before and the boat would be taking us under the Golden Gate Bridge. The boat took us from Pier 39 to the gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (about 27 miles off shore). It was a beautiful and sunny day, but the water was a bit rough. Below is a picture of me before I knew what torture was about to ensue: 

Everything was fine and dandy until after we went under the bridge. Then the water started getting more choppy and I started feeling queasy. I remember the guide telling us to stay outside in the fresh air if we started feeling sick and to do our business (aka ralph) over the ledge of the boat if necessary. I tried sitting outside with my eyes closed and shuttered at the thought of throwing up in front of everyone. Before long I couldn't stand being outside anymore and went inside to sit down at one of the tables. Derek snapped a picture of me in my misery. Pretty cute, right?

I only lasted about 5 minutes indoors before I booked it to the bathroom. I wont go into detail because that's gross, but lets just say it was not pretty. And that was only the beginning. Did I mention this trip was 8 hours long and we were only 20 minutes in? I was in the bathroom for what seemed like hours contemplating how I could get off the boat without being eaten by sharks. When I finally felt somewhat better, I walked out to see at least 10 other people ralphing outside the boat. At least I wasn't the only one. The rest of the trip involved me wrapped in a blanket looking like I was going to punch someone in the face and running back and forth from the bathroom. I couldn't bring myself to puke in front of all those people so I continued to hog 1 of the 2 bathrooms on the boat; something I feel awful about now but didn't give a darn about at the time. Apparently it was a great day for whale watching though. I kept hearing Derek call out to me that he could see blue whales and gray whales but I couldn't even turn to look.

I finally started to feel better the last 20 minutes of the trip after we went under the bridge again. Look how happy I was to be so close to shore.

Overall, I had an absolutely terrible experience on this trip, but somehow I'm still glad we went. It's a memory we can look back on and laugh about. Would I ever go on an all-day boat ride again? Not without a Dramamine. But you live and you learn. And we got some pretty great pictures from it.