Hi! I went whale watching in Dana Point, CA with my family yesterday. A friend gave me the idea to take everyone whale watching as a Christmas gift to them. Love it. This was a great idea and I immediately looked up a few places and found a great deal on Groupon. I bought the tickets (good for any day) and told everyone on Christmas day when we were opening presents. (I wanted to find a toy whale to wrap up OR give everyone a card with a letter spelling W-H-A-L-E W-A-T-C-H-I-N-G and have them figure it out but I forgot that I am not crafty or organized so it ended up just being me shouting at everyone when we were done opening gifts and I forgot I had to tell them about this.)
Then – this is key – I had everyone agree on a date to go right then and there. We chose the date and put it on our calendars on Christmas so there was no ‘hey, can you go this date…’ or ‘I think I’m supposed to do …’ or other frustrating string of text messages where 8 people try to make plans.
We chose February 12 and I made reservations at Dana Point Surf and Sport. I sent out an invite via gmail with the address and time. And a few days before I sent a text with a reminder that included the weather / what to bring / address / time.
We didn’t really need to bring anything because it was a perfect day but I did suggest: sunblock / windbreaker / binoculars / goldfish crackers to attract the whales to us.
We saw a ton of dolphins but only 1 whale. It was a grey whale who peeked out a few times, but it was hard to get a good look at him/her. So the captain gave us a ‘whale check’ to be able to come back!! They guarantee you will see a marine mammal and if you don’t you get a rain check to return for FREE. Technically we did see a whale, but they were super nice and said we could all return to try again.
There are whale watching tour companies in Long Beach, Newport Beach and Dana Point. I chose Dana What Sportfishing & Whale Watching because I love Dana Point and found a good deal. It was well organized and I’m super happy with the experience.
Here are a bunch of pictures from the 2 hour whale watching excursion…. It was the most gorgeous day!
After the trip everyone headed to my place for pizza, salad and CAKE. It’s my mom’s birthday on Tuesday and we celebrated together last night.
I made a coconut dos leches cake for my mom’s birthday. She loves coconut. I love experimenting with recipes even though the 2nd rule of hosting is ‘never try a new recipe at a party’. Luckily this came out great!
My favorite tiny person hung out while I snapped pictures of my cake creation. She didn’t want any, she was just waiting patiently for me to start playing with her again. She is such a particular eater. I think the only thing I saw her eat were a few grapes and the candies on those brownies (pictured above).
I was taking too long so she ended up going to grab Elsa so they could wait for me together. In her defense I really was taking a long time – it was hard to get a good angle on the cake. I love her.
adrianna says
i love the ocean but don’t live anywhere close to one, so no whale watching…but would love to someday!
cake is ok, i prefer chocolate if any, but the real deal is frosting. could literally eat an entire cake’s frosting in one sitting. honestly. and someone else can have that cake 🙂
your niece…OMG SHE’S GORGEOUS!
Tracey L Coleman says
I live in Massachusetts and there is great whale watching out of Provincetown on Cape Cod. I haven’t been in years though. Favorite cake, hands down is pineapple upside down cake. Only problem is I want the entire cake for myself.
Krista @ Gringita says
looks beautiful! also, that is SO nice that they have you come back!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
I’ve never been whale watching, but I’d definitely want to try one day! It sounds fun!
My favourite kind of cake is of course anything chocolatey, or anything with coffee!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Sally @ sweat out the small stuff says
My friend had a 40 th birthday bash on Friday and the cake was so good. It was a cake size version of a rainbow cookie and had layers of Canoli cream.
Nathaly @NathyCure says
I love Cake so much that it is so hard for me to decide which one is my number one favorite. Right now I can think of Venezuelan Tres Leches Cakes. That one rocks my world.