[AD] Each year thousands of whales make their way along the Californian coast which on their annual migration from high in the arctic down to the warmer waters for calving season. All this activity makes The San Francisco Peninsula one of the best places to see whales in the world, and with a huge range of different cetaceans you can pretty much guarantee seeing something no matter what time of year. We headed out for an afternoon trip, and were blessed with some absolutely perfect whale watching conditions! Calm and still waters would mean it would be a lot easier to spot but as we passed the hour mark there was a few moments of doubt. I was wondering if maybe today wasn’t our day. But then just as our hope started to dwindle, the dark and majestic tail of a humpback whale appeared right in front of the boat. I luckily managed to get a few shots of this first sighting, before Captain Duane turned the boat in behind the whale and we waited for it to surface again. This is the part of whale watching I find most exciting. You’ve had one sighting, but the whale has now dived down (usually you see their dorsal fin a few times at the surface as they come up for air, but the classic view of the tail means the whale is diving down deeper). Usually it takes about 5 minutes for them to surface again (but it could be up to an hour) and the longer it take the more anticipation builds as you frantically spin around trying to predict where it will pop up next. Luckily this young humpback was incredible calm and friendly, and spent around 45 minutes swimming alongside the boat - barely 10 meters away. @visittheusa @thesfpeninsula #UnitedStories #TheSFPeninsula