Valentine's Day Whale Watching, Newport Beach

We found a whale watching deal for $20/person and knew it would be the perfect, low-key outing after two busy days at Disney. Our weather in California was so beautiful all week and it couldn't have been a better day to be on the boat. High of 71, not too hot and not too chilly but we were glad we had jackets. We booked in Newport Beach through Davey's Locker with Captain Mike as our guide and he gave us lots of great info about the whales and sea life all along the way, it reminded us of our whale watching days in Alaska! 

This gray whale above (you can just see the fin going down into the water) got so close to the shore it was in 10-15 ft of water at one point! Can you imagine surfing right next to a huge whale?? He said they stay a little closer to shore on their migration rather than being out in the deep sea because the killer whales wait up north to attack the babies traveling with their moms :(

Devin's Instagram post made it look like we got a sitter and went on a Valentine's Day date but it honestly kind of felt like it! We checked in for the cruise at a fishing/tackle/souvenir shop and Ava found this bucket of mermaid toys that she HAD to have. Since we got Owen a Spiderman toy earlier in the trip we let her get this and it was worth every penny. The kids ditched us and went to the cabin of the boat to play, where they set up these little mermaid/sea life scenes and played for so long! Lucy even fell asleep on Devin's shoulder so we laid her down on the seat by the kids and Devin and I really did get to enjoy a lot of the tour by ourselves! The other magical thing was that Devin didn't get too sea sick - this was such a blessing after a not so great day for him at California Adventure.

We had to pull the kids away from their toys to see the dolphins. They were so fun to watch and often came close enough to the boat for the kids to see, unlike the whales which weren't as exciting for the kids. The dolphins swam in threes and twos so it always looked like they were playing. We also saw a cool Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) that he said is rare to see this time of year, and its fin made us think it was a shark!

We were lucky to have some other boats around, some of them were friends of our guide who gave us the tip that there were some humpback whales a couple miles out. Captain Mike was super torn about whether or not we should go see them because it was almost time to head back to the marina but he asked if we were willing to be late and everyone cheered to go see the whales :) Humpback whales are also really rare to see in these parts at this time of year, so he was really excited to go see them too.

Ava and I missed both(yes, TWO!) whales jumping out of the water while she was in the bathroom but I'm glad Owen saw them because he was having a hard time spotting things earlier in the day. Our guide kept saying what a blockbuster trip we had and he couldn't believe all the things we were able to see. We feel super lucky because we originally scheduled our tour for 9:30 am but that morning we realized there was no way we'd be getting there on time so we called to change it to 11am for a little extra fee - so worth it!!

 Newport has become our favorite California beach town. It feels super laid back but upscale enough to feel safe and clean, also not too busy. The Balboa Pier has a fun feel with the rides and food stands. We rode the ferris wheel which gave us some of the best views of the city. It was a really long ride too, totally worth the money!

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Day off!

We feel really lucky and thankful to have gotten every Sunday off since we've been here.  The only downside to this is that we haven't gotten to take advantage of doing complimentary tourist excursions that are available for our days off.  This week was a little slow, however, so we actually got Friday off in addition to today!  OH how we needed that day off.
Devin has been battling a cold so the extra sleep was just what he needed.  Anyway, we used our time to it's fullest!
After eating a wonderful breakfast, we took off to a shoreline for Devin to do some fishing while I sat and soaked up some rays :) hooray, another beautiful day!

 Devin got this sweet fishing pole for about $30 from a guy on Craigslist - who ended up throwing up a whole bag of lures for free. 

No luck with a catch but it was still really relaxing.  He even has these sweet slip on shoe protectors so he could stand way out close to the water.

 

The plan for the day followed with WHALE WATCHING!  We were pretty hungry with a half hour to spare, so we grabbed some fish and chips at "The Flight Deck".  We weren't too impressed for how talked up it is and for how expensive it is...Provo spoiled us, but it was still pretty good.

This was part of the upper-deck of the whale watching boat.  Cloudy/rainy days are supposed to be great days for catching some whale action but we saw enough for it to be worth going on a day as beautiful as this. 

 I loved seeing them spout and spray - this is their exhale before they go deep to feed.  One time there were about three whales right in the same spot and they all sprayed one after the other.

These humpback whales loved showing of their tails, and look how close to the boat they came!  It was so unreal to see how big they actually are.  

 We also saw some sea lions.  This little guy above is seen below trying to find himself a spot on the buoy, which the others didn't like.  These sea lions have more of a growl than a friendly bark - they were so funny to watch.  Everyone cheered when he finally got himself up there!

 

It was so funny to be up on the deck while the whales were out because of all the people who just stood there, cameras ready, quiet as can be - as if they can hear us and get scared away. Either way, it was so fun to be tourists for the day :)

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