Today I went on two whale watching vessels back to back, one aboard Newport Landing Whale Watching and the other aboard Newport Coastal Adventure. On the 8am trip, we encountered 4 separate gray whales along with a small pod of common dolphin, then aboard Newport Coastal Adventure, we encountered 4 different gray whales, two of them were solo and the other two were traveling together very close to the coast as they headed towards Mexico from Alaska. We got reports from another Newport Coastal Adventure vessel that they were both breaching for a while as well which is pretty cool especially since they were so close to shore that beach goers could see them as well. It's cool to see the Crystal Cove Cottages in the background as it is a part of history here in Orange County and you can actually rent them out through the state park system.

In between these storms we've been getting, it's been really great weather to be out on the ocean enjoying these marine mammals. The previous weekend we spotted five grays whales together and two humpbacks on our way back into port which was awesome!