There she blows...

*hehehe* oh the jokes I could say...

Moving on...

We recently went to Newport, and you can't go that south without going to Depot Bay and chancing to see the whales. We debated about going out, the weather wasn't terribly great on Thursday and wasn't expected to be much better the next day. We talked it over with Pria (as much as you can talk about something new with a 3 year old) and she was luke warm about going out on a boat. The next morning we called Dockside Charters and they said there were several whales right out in the bay and the weather couldn't be better for us. Pria was ecstatic about the boat and seeing whales. We ended up on the Samson, with about a dozen people. We let Pria get all comfy with the boat before we headed out.

She and Chris hung on on the inside for most of the time. I of course was crazy girl out on the very front of the boat. I was so glad I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. Up and down...up and down. Got a nice shot of the Depot Bay coastline while we headed out to the first buoy to snag a whale.

Trying to take pictures on a swaying boat is....awkward. I ended up wrapping on leg over a low rail and locking it behind my other one to avoid flipping over the side while I tried to focus. We spotted out first whale a couple of minutes after heading, it's grey whale season which I don't think I've seen before...at least not close.

This was the first guy, and the only good tail shot I got. Pria and Chris could see him from the cabin and she was uber happy about seeing one. She was sort of bummed that they weren't sharks (me too) but they were cool enough for her.

This fish wanted in our boat real bad! He just popped up right next to us...it was crazy! No, no...I'm teasing...While we were floating watching the first group of whales our deck hand was fishing and actually caught somthing, so we waited while he reeled it in. I was secretly hoping for a shark, but no luck. He pulled up what I guessed what a rock fish and threw him back. I snapped this shot as he was tossed back. It's not the clearest shot, but it's an awesome fish.

We spent the time chasing the whales back and forth in front of the bay. We went North to find them, they popped up South of us. So we'd slowly go back South, hoping to catch them on the way...and they'd pop up way North of us. Aggrivating little punks.

A bit before we headed back in we found one and then he found a friend. I wished I had a longer telephoto, since they are a bit hard to make out...but if you can see them you can tell there are 2 of them.

All in all, it was a fun time. Pria didn't throw up and I managed to stay awake (last time I was on a little ocean going boat I passed out almost the entire time...something about the rocking back and forth puts me to sleep), so it was a fun way to spend part of the day.