MERMAIDS AND WHALES: You might ponder the longtime friendship of mermaids and our cetacean, blowhole-rocking friends, but you won't need to look too deeply at the matter: They likely get along really, really well. Well, mermaids are said to be mythical, but if you're a mermaid maven, and you own your own sparkly scaled tail and mermaid-themed clothing and books and art, then you know that, whatever the tails, er, tales might say, mermaids are major. As for whales? We see them frequently, even daily, in the wintertime, just off the bluffs and shorelines, as they migrate by, pausing to show a fluke now and then as they dive for food. Sometimes, though, a mermaid party and a whale bash will pop up around the generally same region around the generally same time, and that feels like an especially nice thing to happen, or at least an occurrence with a lot of cool aquatic cred. Yep, you mermaid fans know that it is Mermaid Month at Ventura Harbor, all March long, but happening at...
CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR... in Oxnard on Sunday, March 18? It's A Celebration of Whales, an on-the-land lark that includes "two whale-themed events." There's a Whale Fun Day at the Channel Islands' Farmers' Market — singing and dancing are on the schedule — and there's a lot happening at the Channel Islands Maritime Museum, including displays that go deeper into the wonders of whaledom. True story, the gray migration is wrapping up in April, as it does, and blue whales are seen closer to summer, along with a whole handsome complement of other whales, but regardless of the date on the calendar, it is always time to celebrate our baleen-rocking, spyhopping-splendid whale buds. And such a date is coming up, in Oxnard, on March 18. Can you do both a Mermaid Month swing-by at Ventura Harbor and some fluke-tastic fun stuff in Oxnard? Plan your swim, er, drive between the two water-close locations accordingly.
