a whale of a good time

in doing my regular updating of 'the list', last month i learned that the dana point (about 30 miles south of huntington) whale festival would be taking place. i thought it would be a great opportunity to do something i'd never done before and started researching whale watching tours. as luck would have it, i somehow found an $8 ticket for a two hour tour -- the exact same tour that anyone else would have paid nearly $40 to depart only an hour later.

i immediately bought four tickets, knowing there was a high risk of sellout, and invited mihaela and matt, both of whom are recent transplants to california. as a refresher, i know matt from virginia and mihaela from new york (i met her through deb many years ago). that just left one ticket up for grabs, and a few days prior, mihaela asked if she could invite a friend of hers who had recently moved from new york. our transplant group was complete, and as it turned out, mihaela's invitee was someone i've been hearing about for over a year, as he has been a regular tennis partner of deb's!

me and mihaela waiting for the boys

in 'typical' fashion mihaela and i both arrived a half hour prior to our meeting time, and matt and ted both arrived 20 minutes late. fortunately the meeting time was 30 minutes prior to the boat's departure, so everyone made it on board. i had been concerned that with an 8am tour, we were risking a marine layer, but even by the time i arrived at the wharf (early), the sun was shining, and though slightly chilly, it was a gorgeous day.

me and matt enjoying the day

the boat was in fact sold out, however it did not feel overly crowded. the group dynamic was absolutely perfect. ted and i clicked immediately and later when i made a comment to him that he and i were going to be friends, his response was 'we already are'. i don't know what's wrong with me, but the majority of people i really connect with here are all not FROM here.

our merry little band..mihaela, me, matt, ted

at any rate, for an hour and 50 minutes (give or take) we just enjoyed each other's company and being out on the water. mihalea unexpectedly experienced a bout of seasickness, but barring that, the company and the excursion alone was worth my $8. as luck would have it though, in the last few minutes, we did have one whale sighting. it wasn't overly dramatic, but based on the rest of the 'tour' we were pretty excited!

ahoy, whale!

after getting off the boat, we hopped on a shuttle bus that dropped us off at the top of the cliff along the parade route. what's a festival without a parade, right? parades out here are nothing if not entertaining--lots of interaction. at this parade, we saw and held whale bones, interacted with unicyclists, had conversations with woody drivers,

ted is fascinated by the woody

got photos with whale mascots,

just because

and generally just enjoyed ourselves.


at the conclusion of the parade, we wandered towards 'town' where we stopped at a completely divey mexican place and enjoyed a yummy meal - the highlight of which was something called elote. i had never heard of it before, but you can bet i'll be looking for it now. basically it's an ear of corn, grilled, covered with mayo and sprinkled with a grated cheese and chili mix. i might have been skeptical if it hadn't smelled so delicious. and it tasted that way too!

enjoying our elote

after lunch we wandered a little further until we came upon the street fair. we meandered through booths, matt and mihaela took advantage of the 'free' massage chairs,

matt takes a break

and i enjoyed some funnel cake. all in all it was a perfect day, and i never appreciate california so much as when i get out and EXPERIENCE california! holy cow, i LIVE here!

for more pics, click here.