(Sea) Lions and Dolphins and Whales, oh my!

The highlight of Matthias and Clara's visit was whale watching off of Newport Beach. Well, Balboa Island, if you want to get technical.

I accidentally left my sunglasses in the car, which was not going to bode well for me on a two-hour jaunt in the pure sunshine. So my dear husband ran and got them while I checked the four of us onto the boat. I paparazzi stalked him upon his return and think he looks rather cute.

Luckily, Matt and the sunglasses both made it back in time for departure and we were all off to sea.

Before long, our boat found a gray humpback whale to follow. It was really neat watching the whale surface, dive down, come back up, spray through its blow hole, and repeat the process all over again every couple minutes.

That is, it was really neat for about the first twenty minutes of following the whale. After that we got a little disenchanted with fighting the girl scouts for a view of the exact same thing time and time again, so we just sat down and enjoyed the ride for a bit.

Apparently, the boat's captain became tired of the whale, too, because he changed directions and headed out toward a sea lion hot spot (all the cool sea lions hang out here). Now that was fun because we got to watch the sea lions snuggle up and roll around in the water. I find playing mammals much more entertaining to watch than the ones that just breathe. Agreed?

Then it was onto the main event (well, in my mind, anyway) --dolphins! I don't know why they call it "whale watching" instead of "dolphin watching." While I get the whole alliteration aspect, I've yet to meet a person more interested in gray humpback whales than playful dolphins.

It was so much fun watching the herd of dolphins frolic around the boat. They are so stinking cute!

Needless to say, our whale watching adventure ended on a high note.

Balboa Island looked lovely as we pulled into the dock. We'd forgotten to pack snacks on the boat so the waterfront restaurants were calling our names!

After dinner, we went for a little walk on the pier.

Matthias tried to convince us to go for a swim, but I know better than to get anything more than my toes near that freezing water until the summer time.

Since our feet were wet and sandy, we walked to the car with our shoes in hand to let our feet dry off. Matt somehow managed to step in tar and boy, was that ever hard to get off! From now on I think our shoes will be going on before we get to the parking lot.