The first time you see a species in the wild that you’ve never seen before, your heart races.

Years ago, I was hiking in northern Minnesota with a photographer friend of mine. We heard a noise like sticks crunching, and she readied her camera, thinking it was a deer. It was not. We saw our first black bear, and we froze. Lizzie wanted a photo badly, but I had food and a bottle of wine in my backpack, so I remember slowly touching her sleeve and saying, “I think we need to back away.” The moment felt like a scene in a fairy tale or a painting. Through all the autumn reds and yellows, her fur was ink black and gorgeous. She looked at us, must have determined we were not a threat, and finally turned and galloped away. Lizzie and I exhaled. Later, we drank that bottle and toasted our bear.

On this trip to Cape Cod, Benjamin and I had some really cool first encounters.

We were sitting on the beach just before sunset when a small herd of harbor seals surfaced to swim along the wave line. They were so cute! They’d swim forward, and then stop to look at the shore for a second, then continue swimming, and looking, over and over again. Later, on an informative beach kiosk, we read that this ‘swim, stop, and look’ was a habit of theirs. The sign also said that they resembled puppies, cocker spaniels to be specific. Yup. So cute!

Our second sighting was another gift…whales! Not just one…a pod of them, maybe 25 total! First, we saw their spouts, then they raised their heads and bodies out of the water, completely majestic, until finally their tails, those beautiful, curved V’s like wings splashed the waves! All the humans on the shore were mesmerized. Most likely, we were watching humpbacks migrating toward the warmer waters of the Caribbean. These are common whales for the Cape, but nothing felt ordinary about this experience for us.

Of course, at the risk of anthropomorphizing our sightings, I had to look up the symbolism of these first encounters of ours. To see a seal means to pay attention to your creativity and imagination and to follow through with your dreams. Nice! And no problem. Whales teach us to listen to our inner voices, understand the impact of our emotions on our daily lives, and follow our own truths. Again, nice! And absolutely. I know it’s maybe a bit New Age-y to do this, but when I’m feeling like I need a cosmic boost, I do look to nature, and she always calms me.

Benjamin and I had planned on going to the beach for lovely sunsets. To get to see the colors, along with seals and whales, was an extra shot of beauty, an extra reason to consider the Cape in October for many vacations to come.