Whale Watching in Newport Beach

       I have only been on a whale watching tour one other time in my life- I was 12 and on vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine with my family.  It was a decidedly stormy trip, so needless to say, there were many people  on that boat suffering the ill-effects of the choppy North Atlantic waters.  The captain of the boat even had to cut the trip short.  Anyway, that has been my everlasting impression of whale watching, so when Anna suggested it as an activity while they were visiting, I didn't buy it.  However, knowing Anna and her undying fascination with undersea mammals and water depth, it broke my heart to think that my fear of potential motion sickness would be the only thing keeping her from true, unadulterated happiness.  So, I made her buy my ticket.

Anna and her pink glitter Toms, a staple of ocean explorers everywhere.

        We were going whale watching in Newport Beach.  I haven't spent much time there, just a visit or two, so it was nice to be there for more than an hour.  Our whale watching adventure was through Davy's Locker, a whale watching and deep sea fishing tour company near the pier.  We were on the  boat with a couple school groups of really little kids, all of whom appeared to be running around A BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN COMPLETELY UNATTENDED.  Anyway, we left at 10 in the morning and it was still extremely foggy, so there was question as to whether we would see anything at all that morning.

Ships in the harbor.

But!  As soon as we headed out into open water, there were the dolphins.  These guys were bottlenose Dolphins, and they were all about following the boat and showing off.  I would squeal (just like the large group of 6 year olds surrounding me) everytime one jumped out of the water.  But, nothing beats sightings of baby dolphins, because, well, baby dolphins are the cutest things ever in the world.

Our new little bottlenose dolphin friend.

         As we traveled out into the water, we saw a lot of common dolphins.  These were a little smaller than the bottlenose dolphins, and they had stripes on their sides and bellies.  They were equally as playful as the bottlenose guys, so I squealed again as I saw them shoot past us right below the surface of the water.

So many dolphins!

 Kristyn and Anna 

               I know that they're stinky and maybe a bit mean, but the sea lions were awesome.  We saw a few swimming around the areas where birds were feeding in the water, but we made a special stop to visit theses guys at home on their buoy.  Most of them were sleeping, some looked a little grumpy, and there was one tiny baby one just sleeping on his mom.  There were easily 10 sea lions squished on the buoy so they could get a little sunshine.  

 Just a pile of California sea lions on a buoy.

         After spending some time with the sea lions, we ended up speeding away because a grey whale was sighted a few yards from us.  Unfortunately, the only photograph I have of this huge creature is a big blob in the distance, but man, was it awesome!  I have since accepted the fact that I don't have a photo of this moment, but I am glad that I at least witnessed it.  It turns out that there was actually a mother and baby grey whale traveling together.  What is cuter than a baby dolphin and a baby sea lion combined?  A baby whale.  But, the mother whale knew our boat was there, so they traveled very quickly away from us. 

 Pelican attack!  Pelicans feeding near where we saw the mother and baby grey whales.

Dinosaur.

           Whale watching was actually pretty eventful.  None of us got sick, which was a plus.  We trusted our stomachs in the hands of Less Drowsy Dramamine, which we took before getting on the boat.  The thing about Less Drowsy Dramamine was that is basically makes you narcoleptic, so I'm afraid of what the regular Dramamine would do to me.  Glad I paid the extra dollar.  Also, while walking around Newport Beach, I couldn't help but think about the time spent watching Arrested Development. I would have jumped at the opportunity to buy a frozen banana from George Michael, and I could have sworn I saw a yellow bow tie on one of those sea lions.