Check in before whale watching

In February, my wife and I took a two-day trip to Ventura to go whale watching with Island Packers, eat at Joe’s Crab Shack and stay at the Marriott. We also visited the Channel Islands Visitor Center. Except for Chuck E. Cheese’s, our itinerary was exactly the same as author Debora Vrana’s in “Family Saves the Whales for Ventura Revisit” [Weekend Escape, March 7].

In reading the article, we hardly recognized the two identical trips. We would like to offer some suggestions to anyone going whale watching. Call Island Packers a day or two before going to see if the trip is on. Call the Marriott too. You can cancel your hotel reservation up to 24 hours in advance of arrival with no penalty. If you paid for your whale-watching tickets, you should have received them. They can be used at a later time.

Our trip was so good that we returned on March 16 and 17. Unfortunately, we saw no whales because of the fog, so we munched on sandwiches and had a wonderful ride to Anacapa.

Glen Wilson

Woodland Hills

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